Lago de Izabal
There are lots to see around the lake. As I'd take a boat tour the next day, I planned to go farther to Quirigua. Finally, it turned out to be an adventure. I went to the market place to catch a van and they pointed me to a van heading to Morales.
View of Rio Dulce on the bridge
A lovely boy on the van - he smiled sweetly to me and tried playing with me. Mothers here beast-feed their child anytime, anywhere whenever their child needs.
The terminal at Moralas is at a big market place. Many housewives went there to buy food. I got to a stall and asked for something to drink (Hochata). They are all sold in plastic bags and drunk with a straw. From there I took another van to Quirigua. They dropped me at the junction, from there I walked up to the site.
A stone cross on the way
Banana plantation at both sides of the road
Quirigua
The Carretera al Atlantico follows the Motagua River through much of the department, following the ancient trade route from the highlands to the Caribbean. The early Classic ruins of Quirigua, set in a beautiful clearing just off the highway, are well worth investigating for their remarkable stone carvings of fine-grained sandstone stelae and giant flat boulders.
Quirigua had always been a minor site, possibly first settled in the early Classic period by an elite group from the northern Maya lowlands. It was subsequently dominated by nearby Copan, but in AD 737, the leader Cauac Sky (or Two-legged Sky) captured and sacrificed Copan's ruler 18 Rabbit, turning centuries of Maya power politics upside down. To celebrate this success, Cauac Sky started rebuilding Quirigua, commissioning the carving of the largest stelae anywhere in the Maya world, which were grouped around an enormous monumental plaza, enclosed on three sides by an acropolis.
Near the entrance of Quirigua, there is a jade museum. Jade was found in the sites nearby
Display of jade masks
The site's largest stela is Stela E, 8 meters tall, which depicts Cauac Sky crowned with an elaborate headdress. There are 10 other stelae in the plaza, a small acropolis to the south, and a ball court.
Ball Court
Just below the acropolis, there are 6 fantastic carved boulders which are decorated with images of frogs, turtles, jaguars, and snakes, and a serene, Buddha-like figure on Zoomorph P.
It's too hot that I bought an ice-cream cone, served at a big jar on a cart
沒有留言:
張貼留言