The Ruins....

We started the day with a healthy and best breakfast to date. The misty rain cooled off the early morning. The inn has these wonderful friendly kittens that we fed and played with a little. At breakfast, we met and chatted up Susan from Chelsea NYC. She was reading a week old NY Times. Bill and I went off to meet our guide. However, we had a miscommunication with the Inn's main person Angela. Angela is wonderful, helpful, patient and in possession of all those qualities that makes a traveler feel good when he lands in a new town. I thought the guide was picking us up at the hotel. She arranged for the guide to meet us at th entrance to the Copan ruins. It was not a big thing as she called a cab and we met our guide Mike at the entrance to the site.
Mike gave us an overview of museum which was additional, the gift shop and of course the bathrooms. I will post a number of photos and additional blog sections to handle the site's importance along with a link. What I like to add is how this site is different to the others and our guide.
Mike was a wealth of information and brought to life the spiritual and philosophical foundations of the Mayan people and its importance in their daily life. He focused on various Kings. The most important king was the eighteen Rabbit. The entire tour took three hours as we walked and climbed through 1000 years of history. The main monument is considered the largest, extended Hieroglyphic Stairway/temple writing to this date.
Information from website:

The many different areas of Copan offer visitors a feast of Mayan artifacts to discover. The detail and sheer volume of carvings and stelae are impressive; 4,509 structures have been detected with 3,450 of the structures found only 24 sq km surrounding the Principal Group. The Principal Group consists of five basic areas of interest:

The Acropolis - Divided in two big plazas: the west court and east court. The west court houses temple 11 and temple 16 with altar Q set at its base. Temple 11 was built as a portal to the other world. Temple 16 sits in between the east and west court; it was built on top of a previous temple without damaging it. Altar Q depicts the 16 members of the Copan Dynasty.
The Tunnels - Archeologists have dug 4km of tunnels under the acropolis to view earlier stages of Copan civilization. Two of the tunnels are open to the public for an additional fee.
The Ball Court - The ball court is the second largest to be found in Central America.
The Hieroglyphic Stairway - The most famous of Copan's monuments, 63 steps and several thousand glyphs tell the history of the royal house of Copan and is the longest known text of ancient mayan civilization. Unfortunately, the steps have fallen out of place leaving the exact meaning undeciferable.
The Great Plaza - The immense plaza is famous for its stelae and altars that are found scattered around a well groomed lawn. In addition to the park, two museums contain more artifacts and information about the mayan civilization. One museum is housed at the archaeological site, the other in the town of Copan.