Parque de Aves

For those that read my blog two years ago, you will perhaps remember my trip to Macaw Mountain Bird Park, a must see for anyone visiting Copan. I went back this past Monday with Dunia and the kids and Rudy was able to join us for most of the trip between classes. Before the park, we visited Rudy at his school, the Mayatan Bilingual School which is a private, tuition paid, school. There are about 350 student from first grade through high school. About half the students are on becas (grants) provided by private donors. The other half come from families who are fortunate enough to be able to afford the tuition. I was given a tour of the school by one of the staff. The teachers comprise about half American/Canadian and the other half are Hondurenian. The students that recieve becas are extremely fortunate as they come from communties whose families could never dream of affording their children this type of education. Some of you may recall my trip last week to La Pintada on horse back. There are six students who are on becas from the village. They are walked down the mountain to Copan every day by a family member(most are in the the early grade so are 6 and 7 years old). They are then picked up at 6:00am and driven to the school which is just on the north end of Copan. This is a commitment not just from the children but from the family as well. I was also told that the hardest yet most important time to keep them in school is after Grade 6. This is when the families really sacrifce as the children are at an age to be out working in the fields and earning the family an income. Instead the family must decide if they are to allow them to remain in school. After grade 6 they learn advanced English, math skills and go on to learn a profession (tourism, teaching, nursing etc). On the way to the school I took a few snap shots as we went;

After the school we hit the bird park.

This tree has the nickname "tourist tree" because it sheds it's bark, just like the gringos shed their skin after too much sun, so joke the locals!

Visitors can get up close and personal with the birds.....

At the end of the tour, we sat in the outdoor cafe, and ever the teacher, Dunia produced a game of scrabble from her bag. Needless to say I lost horribly!

Macaw Bird Park rescues and rehabilitates birds that owners can no longer care for or have been seized by the government having been owned illegally or were in the process of being smuggled out of the country. They have an amazing breeding and release program, trying to increase the number of the Macaws within the Copan Valley where once they used to fly in abundance. As we were leaving, we got to see one as it should be, in the wild