In the dark jungle night, the music of ancient flutes and drums swirled around me, along with pungent odors of fire mixed with forest dampness. Flaming against the black sky, burning eight pound rubber balls rolled down the sloping ball court wall. Muscular ball players wearing brilliant turquoise, green, red and blue quetzal feathered headdresses batted the burning disks with the Maya equivalent of hockey sticks, just as they had over 2000 years ago. I sat among the hundreds privileged to be experiencing a precise reenactment of important rituals of the greatest empire of the ancient Meso-American world: the Corn Dance, Pok Ta Pok Ballgame, and Fire Dance.

When we were recently invited to attend the third—in the past 100 years—International Maya Conference at Copan, my husband, photographer John Montgomery, and I grabbed notebooks, cameras, and sunscreen, and headed for the cloud forests of Honduras.

Thirty years earlier, I had visited many of the great Maya sites of Central America and Mexico. At that time, Copan was in the early stages of excavation. To get there, I stuck out my thumb and hitched a ride with a Honduran military jeep deep into the rain forest on a rutted dirt road leading to Copan Ruinas. Many hours later, after pushing the jeep across numerous river fords, we arrived at Copan, what some now call “The Paris of Maya Culture,” or “The Athens of the New World.” …………..

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I was a bit apprehensive as the well-built young man lifted me up and hooked my harness to the cable. He smiled, warning me not to crash. Then he let me go and all at once I was whizzing through the jungle tree tops at Gumba Limba Park on Roatan, Honduras, alone with bird songs, and the cable’s whine. Even though, following my canopy tour, a discourteous monkey stole my water bottle out of my pack, I enjoyed this new adventure.

My ideal travel is to learn something new, especially about ancient or unknown worlds, lose myself in nature and exercise, and be pampered in total relaxation—not necessarily all at the same time. Honduras offers all of this and more. According to Moon Handbooks, Honduras is “one of the most naturally beautiful and least explored areas of Central America.” The Mesoamerican Reef, just off its Caribbean coast, is the second largest coral reef in the world, offering some of the best diving and good values in the Caribbean.

Thirty years earlier, it was on Roatan that I learned to dive. On a rainy Christmas eve, I made the short hop from la Ceiba on the mainland, landing on the island’s dirt runway, sharing a tiny plane filled with missionaries, the door held shut with a wire hanger. Today we arrived at the RoatanInternational Airport and entered the air-conditioned terminal. (Contact Diane for rest of article)

Interview about author. 2008 DVD release.

Bronze Award for “Dancing on the Wine Dark Sea” in Greece: A Love Story.

Monday, March 17, 2008. 7-8 p.m. at the Odd Monday Series, Noe Valley Ministry. Diane is the guest speaker with readings and photos.

1021 Sanchez (nr. 24th Street), San Francisco. Admission is free.