The History of Youssouf

It's time to give my audience a bit of insight in my background. So here it goes.

My name is Youssouf. I was born in Jordan, in the Middle East. Well, born.. Do cuddly animals get born? The reproduction of cuddly animals - sheep in particular - is yet somehow a bit of a mystery to the world of science.
I'm.. Well, how many years old? Some people count in human years, some count in dog years or sheep years. And counting in cuddly sheep years is a whole different story. Cuddly sheep don't have fingers on their paws, so we evolved with a totally different counting system, including some function for the horns - if present - as well in our counting. By now I must have gotten you confused. So I can't really tell you how old I am, since I'm confused now as well.

Anyways.
There I was in Jordan. Hopping around a bit with a small flock of fellow cuddly sheep. One day I went out to a nice little market. That was back in 2000. Yep. A few years ago. At that market place a saw a friendly openminded woman. I tried to talk to her, but unfortunately she did not speak any Baahrabic. She spoke Dutch, which I did not understand at the time as well. We both happened to speak English, so we continued in English. Her name was DocD. We sat down and talked for quite a while. She told me about The Netherlands, where she lived. I told her about my plans to go and study abroad. To cut things short: it turned out that in Utrecht in the Netherlands they have the Utrecht University. At the Faculty of Arts you could study Language and Culture Studies with a major in Bleatology. As a cuddly sheep, I'm very much interested in Bleatology.
So, I decided to go to The Netherlands (aka. Holland) to go and study Bleatology. DocD arranged that I could accompany her from Jordan back to The Netherlands. And there I went. Leaving the dust and plush of Jordan behind.

The studies were really great. I was able to do a lot of fieldwork to - e.g. research for the human-plush interaction throughout several cultures. This research allowed me to travel abroad frequently. That's how it happened that since the fall of 2000 I've been travelling the world. I've finished my Master last year. No student anymore. Currently I'm doing research in the field of Bleatology, with some 'side dishes' in human-plush interaction and cultural manifestations of material-sheep.

Some people picked up my idea of material-animals, the not traditionally-living-animals (outdated concept...) travelling throughout the world, like those penguins or the Gnome from the movie Amélie. That's fine with me.

I like to write about my sheepish encounters, Bleatological sheep insights and of course about my travels. You've read about it here.

And now more recently I've started to post all of my photo's Flickr. I've got 100s of them in stock and I'll have to upload, tag and geotag them all. Quite an effort!

To give you an idea of where I traveled: Paris, London, Madrid, Antwerp, dozens of places in The Netherlands, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Trans-Siberia Express, China, Borneo, Cyprus, Malta, Belgium, Austria, France, Guatemala, Belize, Ohio (USA), Honduras, Italy, Isla Margarita, Egypt, diving in the Red Sea, Turkey, World Expo of 2000 in Hannover (Germany), Namibia, Houston (USA) and I'm forgetting some.

Thank you for your attention.

The Copán Museum, Honduras - 11 April 2007 Maya site Copán, Honduras - 11 April 2007

Next to the archeological site of Copán is the Copán Museum. It contains all the delicate stellae and sculptures. As well as some reconstructed walls, buildings and even a complete temple replica in full colour! Those Maya's knew how to carve stone. It's beautiful.
To see where these photo's were taken exactly, have a look at the interactive map and zoom in and out for a better overview.

Completing the 3 carved stone skulls

Three carved stone skulss were at display. One was obviously missing, so I though I'd complete the set.

With a replica of an ancient Maya temple

Excellent replica of an ancient Maya temple. The original is still out there, covered by a newer Maya temple. Awesome to see!

At the Copán Maya site, Honduras 2 - 11 April 2007

So the trip to the Maya ruins at Copán continued. Too much to see. An very interesting culture. And in Copán it ended precisely after 18 kings. The 18th king made a sculpture depicting all 18 kings on the sides of a square stone. The last king meets the first king in the middle. This also meant that the 18th king new his empire would end there. He left to another Maya kingdom. The short version: they collapsed under their own success. Copán was surrounded by fertile ground, ideal for agriculture. As the city expanded, more agricultural land was claimed for the city. This resulted in the end that the population was not able to sustain themselves. They could not produce enough food. That's where the decay and diseases began...
Anyways. It's a great place to visit!

To see where these photo's were taken exactly, have a look at the interactive map and zoom in and out for a better overview.

With the Two headed flying snake sculpture

A cuddly sheep travelling is one thing.. A two headed flying snake with feathery wings is another. The Maya's at Copán had those. And made a sculpture out of it. In fact, it 's one of their most important gods.

The hieroglypic stairway

We write books on paper (or just on the pc). The Maya's at Copán have written one in stone. The complete stairway is covered in hieroglyphs and tell the history of the Maya's. Unbelievable!

View at a court

On top of one of the bigger temples you have an excellent view of the several courts, their temples, buildings, statues and the magnificent trees.

Another court

I picked a higher point of view and sat on someones cap. The shade is nice, since it's very hot out there.

At the Copán Maya site, Honduras - 11 April 2007

April 10th I took the chickenbus from Rio Dulce to Copán. A long journey of over 7 hours... See the map below for the route. The goal: Copán. Confusingly the town near the ancient Maya site of Copán is called Copán Ruínas and the site itself only Copán.

April the 11th I visited the ruins of Copán. Really excellent. And hot. So many temples, stellae, statues, carved hieroglyphs. The Maya's did know how to build. No sheep depicted in the stones somehow.

To see where these photo's were taken exactly, have a look at the interactive map and zoom in and out for a better overview.

The map of the travel from Rio Dulce (Guatemala) to Copán (Honduras)

Legend:
Red = travel by bus
Green = travel by boat
Pink = travel by plane
Yellow = Daytrip / excursion (by bus or car)
Yellow with green dotting = Daytrip / excursion by boat

With a macaw at the entrance

At the entrance of the ruins, there were some beautiful macaws sitting at the fence. They were a bit scared to be near me. I guess they've never seen a cuddly sheep before...
The Dutch call a macaw 'ara'.

With some stone monkeys

Too much to see out there at this archeological site. Hieroglyphs, sculptures, temples. These stone monkey faces were put on a temple.

At a court and temple

Copán consists of several courts, with lots of temples. This is one of those temples.

Visiting the town of Rio Dulce - Guatemala - 9 April 2007

9 April I went - in between the relaxing - from the hotel by boat to the small town of Rio Dulce. Not very much to see out there. Nevertheless, they have a big and high bridge which gives you an excellent overview of the Rio Dulce river itself and the landscape!

I must admit, it's a bit scary standing on the edge of the bridge for a photo.
To see where these photo's were taken exactly, have a look at the interactive map and zoom in and out for a better overview.

Local transport: travel by pocket

Sometimes it's comfortable and cheap to travel by pocket, as you can see. It's fun and comfortable.

River view from the bridge

From the top of the bridge you can oversee the town Rio Dulce and the river Rio Dulce very good. Excellent view there!

View from the bridge at Backpackers Hotel