I was just in western Honduras for a story I can’t talk about yet, so of course I had to visit the archaeological site of Copán. It was a Maya city-state with a long history that extends well beyond the Classic period and had some interesting connections to Teotihuacan. From a tourist perspective, Copán reminded me of a less crowded Palenque, with its vaulted ceilings, hidden forest nooks, and astonishingly detailed art. Unlike many Maya sites, you can be completely alone in parts of the ruins, which is always enchanting.

But the highlight for me was Copán’s ballcourt. It’s fairly small, as such things go, but impressively well preserved. Most ballcourts I’ve seen have rings at the top of their sloped sides for dividing the court and scoring points. The ballcourt at Copán has the heads of scarlet macaws instead.

I won’t claim to understand their exact purpose in the ballgame, but that doesn’t matter for how much I loved them. Even better was this scarlet macaw sculpture on a building overlooking the court.

Look at those feet! Look at that tongue! I can practically hear it screaming!

Oh wait, those are the screams of the actual scarlet macaws who are all over Copán thanks to a successful reintroduction program. Scarlet macaws: Beautiful! Huge! So, so loud!

I’m taking a guess here, but I think these are monkeys!

And my other favorite after the macaws, a blissed-out frog:

Further reading

For more on scarlet macaws, check out my friend Martha Harbison’s Audubon Magazine story about the heroic rangers protecting macaw chicks from poachers in Belize.

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March book club: Civilizations

Have you started Civilizations yet? Our book club with Andrew Dana Hudson kicks off on March 8! Join us for a discussion of Laurent Binet’s alternate history novel in which an Inca emperor conquers Europe. We’ll be covering the book’s first two sections (about 50 pages) in our first entry, and splitting up the rest of the book into at least two more letters, so there’s still plenty of time to read along. And don’t forget to preorder Andrew’s new novel, ABSENCE, out May 5!

APOCALYPSE talks next week!

How to Thrive in the Apocalypse

with Lizzie Wade

Climate change, global plagues, state collapse—let’s just say it. We're living through the end of the world. But if we can face the hard truths of the apocalypse, we can use them to cultivate meaningful, consequential lives and build the kinds of societies we need and want. In this talk, Lizzie Wade shares five lessons from her book APOCALYPSE: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures that show us how to leave behind the world that has failed us and create a better one instead.

March 2 at Wake Forest University

6 p.m, ZSR Library Auditorium, room 404

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

March 5 at Winthrop University

7 p.m., Dina’s Place

Rock Hill, South Carolina

If you’re interested in having me give a talk at your university, museum, bookstore, or book club, get in touch!

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