I capture the Ruins

Yesterday we went to the Mayan ruins of Copan.

I managed to not be a human sacrifice! Success! If I were a human sacrifice, my head would rest on this stone. See where the blood would drip to the ground? (Eeeeewww).

Turns out that the Mayans played a team sport kind of like soccer (only using their shoulders, knees and hips instead of heads and feet) in this field shown here. The goal was to hit the ball so that it touched the big statues on the top of the angled part. So, really, its Mayan skeeball. The captain of the winning team was then sacrificed. This was an honor because the person went to live in heaven with the gods and their family was taken care of back on Earth.

I love going to places that used to be homes to ancient civilization. Isn't it crazy to think that they could not imagine my presence there 1500 years later? That I arrived here by jet, then by car? That I was wearing plastic sunglasses from a place called Target? That Justin was one his cell phone talking with his friends at home about his fantasy football team?

Then I start to think about who will be tromping around my back yard in 1500 years and what their life will be like. Will there be aliens? Will we live in apartments in the sky? Will there still be polar bears? Will we still love cheeseburgers?

My favorite part was seeing the Macaws, the big colorful rainbow birds. They remind me of giraffes, in their impossibility. Giraffes are impossibly shaped, Macaws are impossibly colorful.

All over the ruins there are trees that have grown on top of the temples, and intertwined their roots among the centuries old stones, a physical representation of the movement of one era to another. 

What a day! I am happy for the time to ponder things abstract and far away,

 and time to nap and drink free cocktails.

 But tomorrow, back to work.