Macaw Mountain Reserve

April 13, 2016

My first day in Copan I had been planning to head straight out to the ruins. However I slept through several alarms that morning, which really isn't too surprising considering

1. I had gotten a half hour of sleep the night before 10 hours of bus journey, and
2. this is me we're talking about.

However it put a kink in my plans to bust down the doors right when they opened, so I visited the Macaw Mountain Reserve instead, a bird sanctuary 2km out of town.

It was amazing. There were around 250 birds total, in large aviaries along a path in the woods by a river. All the birds are rescued, donated by owners who can't keep them, or seized from trafficking operations. They rehabilitate and release the birds they can, and care for the rest that can't survive in the wild.

They have around 60 scarlet macaws currently, and have a breeding program that releases birds to join the wild flocks at the nearby ruins.

Such beautiful colors

Great Green Macaw

There was a sign saying 4 of their Great Green Macaws were just temporary. They had been seized in a bird trafficking ring, and the birds had their tail feathers cut off. They are being cared for until their feathers grow back and they can fly again, and then they'll be released back to the wild. They looked pretty pathetic, all short tailed in the meantime.

Poor tail-less birdie

White Crowned Parrot

Red Lored Amazon

This guy was literally bat-hanging from the ceiling pulling down all the fallen leaves off the top of the cage.  He cracked me up.

Red Throated Parakeet

Orange Fronted Conure

Keel Billed Toucan

You could walk through the toucan enclosure. This guy was either overly curious or a bit territorial, as he followed me through. When he looked like he was eyeing my shoulder, I got out of there. I didn't like the idea of his beak near my face.

Black Mandibled Toucan

So photogenic!

Highland Guan

Collared Aracari

Emerald Toucanet

Yellow Crowned Amazon

These guys were super curious, and had a blast tearing apart a stick I gave them through the bars.

There was a swimming hole, and I took a dip in the pleasantly cool waters. Unfortunately once you got out and dried off it got hot again.

Blue and Gold Macaw

And I got to hold them!

Selfie with the zoom on

Macaw selfie!

Then he stole my glasses...

Better macaw selfie, this is Piña

Great Horned Owl

Great Black Hawk (said the sign, but there were a couple different species in the cage)

This guy followed me from perch to perch as I circled the cage, looking like he wanted to eat my ancestors.

Give them to me

I had a fantastic day watching all the beautiful birds, I made two loops through the cages. So many beautiful colors. I don't ever want one as a pet though, they're LOUD!

Mayan macaw carving

Cihuatán Ruins and Suchitoto

My last stop in El Salvador was Suchitoto, on the banks of Lago Suchitlán, and included a trip to the nearby Cihuatán ruins.

April 10, 2016

The Cihuatan Ruins were bigger than Tazumal and had more structures. There was a museum with signs talking about Mayan history and the excavation of the ruins. These ones were 900-1500AD, after the main Mayan Collapse, making them younger than Tazumal.

I picked up a brochure from the snack bar and took myself on a walking tour. I had the grounds entirely to myself.

First was a temple, which looked kinda like a pile of rocks.

Then the part of the wall that has been excavated and restored. It had a corner.

There were some pretty destroyed workshops, one of them claimed to be a obsidian workshop. I don't know how they figured that one out, but maybe thats why I'm not an archaeologist.

The wall had a drainage tunnel and it was clear where the restoration efforts had halted.

A couple more temples.

But you couldn't climb on them. Shocker.

Next up was the ball court. It was kinda cool to walk down the middle of, knowing it was thousands of years old.

There was a sauna attached to the court, and there's only four others like it known. They think the sauna was used by the players to nurse wounds and bruises after beating themselves up playing the game. Sounds plausible to me.

Next stop: pyramid!

After that came one of those completely unexpected things in life.

There was a bunch of goats walking through the woods that I needed to get to the big pyramid. Most of them ignored me, but I got stared down and stamped at by one nanny, who kept turning back to stare at me even after I backed away, not wanting to deal with a charging goat.

I deviated from the marked path to get to the pyramid staircase ( shhh, don't tell) and enjoyed the nice, but unremarkable view for a couple minutes. I decided the pyramid was more impressive from the ground.

Then getting down. The goats were still sprinkled in my way, and there was another viewpoint to get to through the woods. I decided to go for it, keeping an eye on the ornery one, and because of that, saw when she dropped a kid. Maybe that's why she was so pissy.

Since how often do you stumble upon a baby goats birth, I stuck around for a while. I knew it wouldn't be long before it was walking and wanted to see the kids first steps.

Sure enough, after a half hour of sitting and getting cleaned by mom, there was some struggling, toppling over, and very splayed out standing before the first wobbly steps.

Welcome to the world little one, you'll get the hang of this walking thing soon.

His splayed out legs reminded me of Bambi on ice

There was another little guy running around who must have been born within a couple hours since he was kinda scraggly and wobbly looking too, but had the whole balance thing down a little better.

A couple kids were clearly at least a couple days into life as they were running around nimble as can be.

So that gets recorded as one of the more unexpected things Central America has thrown at me, watching a goat take its first steps right behind a Mayan pyramid.

After that, there was just one more temple, circular this time which is uncommon, and probably a wind temple.

Then a 4km hot walk along the flat highway to get back to town and my bus. I grabbed some lunch and a large canteloupe juice, and had an easy ride home for a shower and relaxing in the hammock with my book.

Suchitoto
April 9-11, 2016

The town wasn't too remarkable, but had a nice quiet vibe. My first afternoon I strolled around the cobblestone town and found a lake viewpoint at the park.

I also found the central park and church. It wasn't too hard since town is about 5 blocks square.

Nice wood interior

Lovely flower decoration at the top

There was graffiti everywhere in town that had this message against violence towards women.

Last of all, this sign at the ruins amused me.

Good thing I didn't bring my kite or my slingshot with me.