Here's the book I'm reading now: Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas & Yucatan, Vol 1 by John Lloyd Stephens. Originally published in 1841.
Found this book at a thrift store. I didn't realize until later that there's a Volume 2. Here's a little bit about the book at Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1812997.Incidents_of_Travel_in_Central_America_Chiapas_Yucatan_Vol_1
I do want to read the 2nd volume as well, eventually, so I just now placed an order for it. These works by Stephens have been digitalized; I found both volumes online, in a few different formats. I've also downloaded the pdf. But I like "real books" that I can hold in my hands -- that's just me -- and I know from past experience that I won't read a book like that in digital form.Anyway, fascinating stuff. I've finished the first 5 chapters of the 1st volume, taking me to the part where Stephens first saw the ruins at a place called Copán.
Fast-forward to the present day, the "Copán" article at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop%C3%A1n
From that article:
The first post-Spanish conquest mention of Copán was in an early colonial period letter dated 8 March 1576. The letter was written by Diego García de Palacio, a member of the Royal Audience of Guatemala, to king Philip II of Spain. French explorer Jean-Frédéric Waldeck visited the site in the early 19th century and spent a month there drawing the ruins. Colonel Juan Galindo led an expedition to the ruins in 1834 on behalf of the government of Guatemala and wrote articles about the site for English, French and North American publications. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood visited Copán and included a description, map and detailed drawings in Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán, published in 1841.
