Rodolfo was our excellent guide at the ruins of Copán, synthesizing the beliefs and practices of peoples over the world to hypothesize that the Mayans would use the ball game as a celebratory ritual to honor the underworld gods rather than a violent ritual. The site has detailed and extensive carvings and glyphs, preserved under layers of volcanic ash, as well as scarlet macaws that have been placed in the surrounding forest for protection and breeding.

The next day we saw a couple of recently excavated ruins; both are part of the Copán site: El Rastrojón, open to the public for less than a year, was excavated in collaboration with Harvard; and Las Sepulturas, where stones were carved, was the home of the scribes. Las Sepulturas is located along the bank above the river, and we saw many birds in the early morning at the site.