Some highlights from today

I intend to post more later, but for now, enjoy!

On our tour, Juan found a tarantula's nest and coaxed her out so we could take pictures. He says he used to catch them as pets when he was a kid because he didn't have a Playstation...

 After lots of walking, we climbed to the top of Temple 4 - the tallest building in Tikal.

 Looking outward - see the other temples in the distance?

And the sunset - our last night in Guatemala!

Today so far

This morning, my cohorts got up at 4am to go on a sunrise tour. I’m sure it’s spectacular, but I don’t get up at 4am if I don’t have to. Besides, I’m scheduled for the sunset tour tonight, and I’m sure it will blow my mind. So I “slept in” until about 6am, when it was fully light out, and the birds and critters seemed to be having a loudness contest. I could wake up to worse things than a jungle full of wildlife saying good morning!

Post-breakfast, we spent a morning of bird calls mostly around the pool, where a group of South African backpackers have chosen to disregard the sign about the pool being for guests only. Not that we are complaining. One of them told a fascinating story about his uncle the arms dealer. Not positive that it was all truthful, but fascinating nonetheless. We’re set to go to the artifact museum in a few minutes, and then there will be a sunset tour tonight, with Juan, the guy who led this morning’s sunrise tour. He’s been a tour guide for 25 years, and speaks 5 languages. We started talking earlier, in German, and he asked about my background with Spanish (I know a lot of obscure stuff, but not much that’s useful in a regular conversation. He said he’s best at speaking French, and I asked why he wasn’t best at speaking Spanish, if that’s his first language. We had a good laugh. Definitely looking forward to talking to him some more!

Back to the Jungle

Here in Tikal, the bird and critter noises don’t stop, and I can only identify (or imitate) the turkeys and howler monkeys. I’m not so sure my “howler” was any good though, since he shut up after I howled back. We’ve seen a bunch of cool critters – there are coatamundi (they look like red weasel/raccoons) and agouti (really big squirrels without tails) and the most adorable little grey foxes (we saw one last night hanging out in the ruins at dusk). We’re keeping our eyes open for any capybara (biggest rodent in the world) or any signs of jaguar (not likely –they’re cats after all). The chances are better of seeing some crocodiles, if we hang out by their pond, or by the swimming pool after dark. The birds are amazing – even the turkeys here are pretty! There are lots of smaller birds, besides the parrots, quetzals, toucans, and other big, bright birdies flying around.

The jungle itself is pretty much Tarzan land, with smaller trees. I ran around and climbed some tree and swung on some vines...

I started out yesterday a little after 9am. My cohorts were heading off on what I thought was going to be a tour of a different site and some archaeology stuff, and I wanted to be in the jungle. It turns out later that they changed their minds at the last minute and went on a guided tour of the same jungle areas I was in, but I didn’t see them there. Hey, it’s a big jungle!

First I wandered through the brush by the hotel complex for a while, and then I went back and found the road that leads to the Tikal National Park entrance. There is a daily fee to enter the park, so I forked over my 150 Quetzales (about $20) and got my little ticket hole-punched and went on in. Then I randomly ran around on trails (okay, I walked most of the time – some of the hills are steep!) until I walked into Temple 38. I posted a photo last night. The sun was just coming over the top of the temple, and WOW! So I touched a 3,000 year old building, and walked up the steps, and went inside the little cubby spaces that are built in – I really don’t know what to call them, but the outside of the buildings have some places with ¾ walls around a little, maybe 3’x5’ space, and there are several of these all around the building. I hung out around that temple for a while, just soaking it in. Three thousand years old, and there I was, just being there. Very zen.

So when I left that temple, I walked up and around a hill and BAM! There was a whole plaza with a courtyard, and buildings, and an acropolis (I think that’s the right word). I took pictures. I touched the walls. I walked up all the steps to the top of the tower and laid on top to soak in some sun. The stone top was very warm, and the sun threatened to burn me to a crisp, so I didn’t lie up there very long. I walked all the way around and looked in every opening. I scared some birds that had built their nest inside one of the rooms, and they fluttered around frantically until I left. Sorry, birdies!

When I got around to the far side of the complex, again BAM! There was the “Grand Plaza” – a huge grassy area literally surrounded by pyramids and buildings – and so tall! I have more pictures to post – the scale of the buildings is astonishing. Of course, there aren’t handrails going up the huge, steep, stone staircases, and I have to admit the vertigo is a little unnerving. But that didn’t stop me from exploring and climbing a bunch of buildings! I found the “pathway back to the jungle” from behind one of the main buildings at the Plaza. I took some pictures of a weaver bird nest and some Old Man’s Beard with pyramids in the background. The sun was beating down, and I found myself thinking about a scene from Mel Gibson’s ‘Apocalypto’.  The whole place was just exciting and fascinating, and I wore myself out climbing and seeing, and being part of it all. So eventually I headed back down the hill, and back down the path, and back down the road (stopping to purchase some mango along the way) and back down to the hotel. I spent about an hour trying to upload photos, but the internet died and I lost them. So then I explored around the complex some more and looked for critters and took pictures of flowers. I saw what I expected to be a chicken coop, but when I got closer I found out it was a garbage coop – apparently they lock up the trash here, probably to keep wildlife from getting into it. Eventually, the morning caught up with me and I tried to relax lying on a bench out in the hotel grounds. But then I met a stinging ant, and they aren’t kidding when they say stinging, so I went inside before I met any of his buddies, and took a power nap in my bed. It would have been a longer nap, but the howler monkeys were really talking it up outside.

By the time Stacy and Sandy got back from their tour, we were all ready for a late lunch. Have I mentioned that the food here is pretty darn good? Even just my veggies and rice were excellent, but darned if they didn’t give me a plate with a hole in the bottom, cuz it all disappeared mighty quickly!

After lunch I tried to finish my nap, but when that didn’t work, we decided to go back out and play in the jungle. So off we went. The guys at the entry booth let the other two in just fine, but they tried to make me buy another ticket, even though mine said right on it that it was good for the whole day. So I told them,” no, absolutely not; that is ridiculous! I bought this today” That seemed to solve the problem, and they said, “oh, ok” and let me in. We compared our tickets later, and they look exactly the same, so I’m not sure why mine caused a problem, but oh well.

We started by going up to an old amphitheater and testing out the acoustics – when Sandy stood in the center, we could hear her talking from the top of the stadium-seating type thing we were on. The sun was starting to go down behind the treetops, and it all felt very Lion King, but I couldn’t remember all the words in Swahili (it’s been a while) so I didn’t do a random Disney concert in the Guatemalan jungle. I guess that turns out to be good, because I probably would have scared off the coati and agouti that were hanging out together by the trail away from the amphitheater.

Next, we walked up a new trail and found some ruins none of us had seen yet (called Grupo H) and climbed around on those. Then a little spider monkey threw some fruit at me, but he missed. So I threw fruit back at him, but I missed too. I guess that makes us even.  I saw a bunch of fruits I didn’t recognize, which is always fun, but I like being able to recognize them so I know if they’re free food or not…

After Grupo H, we found a trail and followed it for a long time. We ended up at Temple 4 – the one farthest away from our hotel (probably about a mile back). We were supposed to be out of the park by 6pm, and by this time it was about 6:10, so we found the trail back and started following it fairly quickly. It was already starting to turn a little bit dusky in the jungle, and when we got back to the Grand Plaza, the light was just amazing – very mystical and shadowy, and amazing to see, but not so good for pictures. That’s when we saw the little fox slinking around.

We kept walking, and eventually it got dark enough that Stacy put on her headlamp and Sandy turned on her flashlight. I hadn’t brought either, but I walked fast and sang to the fireflies that kept blinking around me, and just watched my step as it got darker. We made it back to the hotel before it was pitch black out. Then I started loading the photos from yesterday, enjoyed my long, warmish shower, and got ready for dinner. After dinner, I pretty much stayed with the computer, trying to post stuff, until lights out. 

Jade

One of the fun things we did that I didn’t blog about (because I didn’t have a photo to remind me) was that we went to a jade museum in Antigua. Back in the day, the Spanish conquistadors wasted time, money, and lives looking for gold in Guatemala, along with every other country in Central America. According to our tour guide (there are tour guides for everything here) there was never any gold found in Guatemala. The conquistadors missed the fact that there are all kinds of other precious stones here though, including imperial jade, which is actually worth more than gold. The guide showed us a bunch of different kinds of jade – it comes in a variety of green colors, as well as orange, black, white, lavender, and baby blue.  Black jade is the hardest, and people believe the Mayans used it to carve the other kinds of jade. Nowadays, jade is cut with diamond blades, but we’re pretty sure the Mayans didn’t have those. The guide warned us that street vendors will try to sell us “jade” jewelry, and that we should try to scratch the “jade” with a knife before we buy it. If it scratches, then it’s not really jade, just one of the other green stones that looks the same. I really don’t understand jewels – they kind of strike me the same way placebo drugs do. If the drug works (or the jewel looks nice) why do you care if it’s “the real thing” or just psychological? Sorry, I digress.

At the end of our jade museum tour, the guide showed us a Mayan calendar sculpture and explained how it works – in CYCLES! So no, the calendar doesn’t say that the world is going to end. It just says that it’s basically a new millennium, and that the cycle starts over. So now we’re about to start Mayan year 1 again. While we were talking about that, the guide explained about Mayan Nahual (sort of like zodiac) as they play a major role in how the calendar works. Then we looked up our Nahual, and mine is I’x – the Jaguar.  
Link to Jaguar Info...
So that's kind of cool.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

But I did some quick math and figured that, with this internet and the speed (or lack thereof) with which it loads photos, it’s more efficient to type since I can probably get in more than a thousand words in less time than it takes to load a picture (yes, I type fast). So I decided to spend part of this morning typing like a madwoman.

I know that I talked about Antigua’s streets being basically just the street, between walled-in compounds. The main streets in Panajachel, and other villages around the lake were lined with shops and vendors. There were armed guards everywhere, but the lake city seemed much more welcoming. The street vendors, and even hosts from restaurants, stand just outside of their place and call to passers-by to try to coax us in. A few key English phrases get tossed around. A favorite in Pana is “good price for you!”, although I’m not quite sure most of the people saying it know what it means. We learned to say “No, gracias” very quickly. The vendors are all open to haggling prices, and even some of the restaurants will dicker a little bit (some of our crew even managed to negotiate a “group rate” on tequila shots on the last night in Antigua). Most of the prices range from reasonable to low, even without haggling, but it’s kind of fun. Big Daddy was so much fun to watch – he met a local kid (probably 11 or 12) who was left in charge of his family’s shop, and they went back and forth for quite a while, adding and taking away items, changing offers, and grinning the whole time. Eventually, after winning an excellent bargain, Daddy threw in a couple of extra dollars, and the kid stuffed an extra item into the bag. In computer lingo, that was definitely a moment to LOL, which I did.

We visited a shop (Dina’s chocolates) where we met Dina, who mixes and sells her own chocolates. Most of the families all work in their family shops, and most of them make the items themselves. I didn’t catch a photo of him, but there was one guy who walked the streets with his 3 goats, selling milk. Whenever he found a buyer, he would milk a goat for them right in the street. Now that’s fresh! There was one family that all performed street music together – a couple on xylophones, one kid with a drum, and the smallest kid danced with maracas, all in Mayan garb. All the instruments looked handmade, and I’d bet money the family members had made them. I found a handmade harp for sale at one of the shops for just about $100 (but where would I keep a harp, and how would I get it home anyway?). Lots of the textile vendors had their sewing machines in the back of their little shops, and worked on clothes in between customers. When Dr. Steele bought her traditional Mayan outfit, the top didn’t quite fit properly, and the ladies in the shop adjusted it then and there, in about 5 minutes.

It was interesting to see how many people in the villages around Lake Atitlan actually wore traditional clothing. Most of the women I saw really wore the colorful woven tops and skirts, although many of the men had gone the way of jeans. I ended up purchasing some of the traditional man-pants because they just look so comfy and fun – they’re just as brightly colored as the women’s skirts! The woman at the vendor stall where I bought the pants seemed so shocked I was buying them for myself, that I haven’t worn them yet on the trip, so that I don’t risk offending anybody or breaking some kind of taboo.

And I realize I haven’t talked about bathrooms in Guatemala yet! Everywhere in Central and South America, the plumbing is not designed to handle anything except actual bodily function stuff. Meaning: toilet paper can’t be flushed. So every toilet has a little trash can next to it to put used TP in. I’m learning that in the US we are ridiculously spoiled with regard to our restroom facilities. The concept here seems to be, well, it’s a bathroom, why waste the effort on making it a pleasant place? Most of the facilities (even in the city municipal offices) are bare concrete walls/floor, with old faucets, no hot water, a bar of soap if we’re lucky, something to dry our hands with. The “really nice” bathrooms have scent diffusers above the TP trash cans, and some of them even have scented toilet paper. Only bathrooms in areas that cater to tourists have tiles or paper towels. And it’s just the way of life here. Nobody expects bathrooms to be anything besides an outhouse moved indoors, and they are just that.

Also, it is made very clear that it is not safe to drink tap water. The water is not treated before being pumped into people’s homes, and one of our tour guides told us that locals who can’t afford bottled water generally boil their own tap water at home before drinking it. That always makes me wonder about things like washing dishes, and I’ve been trying to use bottled water to brush my teeth, but I keep forgetting, and I’m not dead yet…”They” also warn us to be careful of eating fresh produce, since we can’t know what it was washed with, if it was washed at all. Right, like I’m going to not eat fresh mango given the chance! That plus the street food was so yummy! And again, I’m not dead yet. 

First Ruins

 So, as I was running through the jungle, I ran into my first Mayan ruin: Temple 38:

Then I went a little further on and came around a small hill, and BOOM!

Then I climbed to the top of that tower in the middle of the picture and this is what it looked like:

 The Mayans used windows too!

The red stuff is real 3,000 year-old paint!

There was this amazing pathway back to the jungle: 

There were tons more ruins, and I took a bunch more photos, and I'll try to post them tomorrow, but the internet is about to be shut off for the night. So I'll leave you with a shot of my snack on the way back to the hotel:

 Cross your fingers that the internet is faster tomorrow!

Morning in Tikal

The internet in the jungle is spotty and it takes forever to load photos, so there are going to be some short posts for a day or two. Sorry - I'll do what I can!

I woke up and opened the hotel room door, and this guy was out on the lawn, waiting to say hello:

 This is our hotel, the Tikal Inn. The water is much more acceptable today. Still not hot, but at least warm. The staff have been friendly, and other than the water incident, it's all been great.

 Here's Sandy with her pancake breakfast. I had eggs. The food at our hotel is really good, which is great since we had prepaid for our breakfasts and dinners!

 After breakfast, I noticed what I thought was a mango tree outside. I was really happy about that until I learned they weren't really mangoes. Just a relative:

If you can find the lizard in this photo, you win a prize:

 And this sign is awesome, because hotel staff had to warn us not to swim at night because they keep having crocodiles sneak into the pool.

 After all that morning fun, Stacy and Sandy set off on a guided archaeological tour, and I went off into the jungle to explore. Since I'm blogging, you know I survived the adventure. So I'm going to try to upload some of the photos from that excursion now. Wish me luck!

Water Stuff

I wanted to title this post: "hot water or the lack thereof and/or pitching a hissy fit pays off again" but that was a little bit long for the title box. So in case that didn't give away the topic, onward we go!
Our flight to Flores was remarkably uneventful. The plane took off, flew, and landed at the correct airport. We were met by some staff from our hotel, loaded into a car, and off we went! The air was lovely and warm, even though it was after dark, and I left my window rolled down for the whole hour-long ride to Tikal, where we checked in to our hotel at about 9pm. We had pre-paid for dinners and breakfasts at our hotel, so we rushed to drop off bags in our room and chomp on some din-dins (I had spaghetti, which was very nice, and Sandy raves about her sea bass). Then a rush for the shower, as we'd been told we would have hot water until 10pm. The power shuts off at 10 also, except for one battery-operated emergency light in each room. So I scarfed my spaghetti and rushed back to the room. Hmmmm. There was cold water, and there was not-quite-as-cold water. And it was 9:45. I ran back to the lobby and told the desk attendant that our hot water wasn't working. Then began several minutes of nice employees coming to our room, putting their hand under the not-quite-as-cold water and saying "es ok. Aqua caliente". Then I would put my hand under the same not-quite-as-cold water and say "no, no es caliente". Then the nice employee would get a confused look and go find somebody else. This went on until Sandy said heck with it and just took a cold shower. Then the employees asked if everything was ok and I pantomimed shivering to point out that she was not enjoying the shower. I asked if we could use the shower in a different room so that we could get cleaned up before the power went out. (I may not have mentioned yet that none of us had had any showers in the last day and a half what with leaving out hotel in Antigua before most decent people even think of being awake. Then we had travelled, wandered a city, spent time in an airport, and gone for a drive in the jungle, all in warm weather - we were filthy and needed to wash.) So I pitched a minor hissy fit and told the desk clerk that if we were unable to have the hot water we had been promised that we would require some money back. Somehow that solved the problem and suddenly they were able to fix the hot water and even left the generator running for a few extra minutes so that we could all have our rushed showers. So not an ahhhhhh, shower, but at least I didn't go to bed all grimy.

So I got my IHOP After All...

As it turns out, there are 2 airports in Guatemala City. We didn’t know this. Our bus driver did, but he neglected to confirm which airport we needed to get to by 5:30 this morning. So after he showed up 20 minutes late for the 4am appointment to pick us up, he looked at our ticket confirmation (which had our flight info on it) and then proceeded to take us to the wrong airport, unload our bags, and drive off. When we got inside, we waited in line to check in, and then were told that we needed to be at the other airport. By this time, it was about 5:45, for our 6:30 flight. So the nice attendant offered to call us a taxi. We went outside and waited. Within a few minutes, a taxi pulled up, but the driver said he had been booked for someone else, so he wouldn’t take us. Meanwhile, Jason and Erica (who were at the correct airport for their flight) helped us sort out that we could maybe switch flights to their plane, but then we got in touch with the bus driver’s company and told them they’d compensate us if we missed our flight. So then, after 15 minutes of waiting, the taxi driver, who had been sitting there the whole time, called back the person who had reserved the taxi to ask why she wasn’t outside yet. Yep, you guessed it: it was the nice airline person who had called the taxi for us. So we were standing there waiting next to our taxi that was waiting…

So we rushed into the taxi, said a quick goodbye to Jason and Erica, and asked the driver to take us to our proper airport “muy speedy”. He did, and we rushed in and raced up to the ticket counter. And, of course, by 6:20, when we arrived, they wouldn’t let us on our flight. So we had to book the next available flight, for 6:30 tonight. We decided we didn’t want to spend all day in the airport, so we hired a shuttle driver to take us on a city tour for the day.

First things first, though: here are some catch-up photos from yesterday:

Remember how I said I got to grind my own coffee?

 This is our cathedral guide, Sergio, up on a pulpit:

 They let us explore some catacombs under the cathedral - watch your head!

 And on the way back, I just had to have a photo with this dude. He was putting on his sweater and it got stuck halfway over his head, while he was waving the shotgun around... He straightened everything out for the picture though:

 Ok, so back to this morning. Here we are "sorting things out" at the airport, ridiculously early in the morning:

 City tour time! First we went to an underground market, and then walked around downtown for a while. There were some pretty cool relief designs on walls:

 Ooo la la!

We walked to "the White House" of Guatemala and tried to go in for a tour, but they don't open until 10. By this time it was about 8am. We kept walking:

 And then, because that was awesome, we walked some more and saw lots of really neat architechture, like the building ahead of us. Also, we saw about 4 billion shoe stores. Apparently, this is THE place to buy shoes. Our guide, Michael, tells us that there are about 7 million people in Guatemala City, and that it is the largest city in Central America. Michael makes a great inner-city guide because he grew up in the downtown area.

We saw some really cool metal sculptures downtown - here Sandy is "grabbing the bull by the horn"...

There was a Princess store, and Dr. Steele had to get a picture for La Princesa, Oreja, who is staying with Auntie Fran:

 Oh, and then we walked some more and saw another 4 billion shoe stores.

Eventually, we walked back to the "White House" and found a bunch of people doing TaiChi in the square in front of it. It still wasn't 10am yet, so we kept on walking:

Next, we went to a park where there were several marching bands practicing for a competition. The winner will get to march in our Rose Bowl. These kids are good!

We went around the corner and chowed on some fresh mango from a street vendor. Then we came back, and they were still really good!

One of the local beers in Guatemala is called Gallo. We tried to go inside this Gallo brewery for a tour, but they are closed today:

We headed to a Mayan museum next, and looked a bunch of artifacts that were dug from right under the museum. Then we climbed the hill that sits on top of one of the dig sites. It's kind of weird, but kind of cool that they left the pyramid covered in grass:

Here's another angle - that's the parking garage for a shopping mall behind us. After seeing the poverty in the rest of Guatemala, it was quite a change to see how well-off people were in the capitol. One of the gated communities we walked by had, not just high walls and razor wire, but electrified barbed wire running through the razor wire. Crazy!

That's the Mayan museum behind us. Can you see the "golden arches" off to the right?

This is an old aqueduct that runs through the city. It's not in use anymore, but nobody has taken it down:

Another place we visited was a giant topographical map of Guatemala in a park. The different cities are all labeled, and there are towers to climb up so that we could look out over the whole thing. Pretty neat concept:

View from the tower:

Then we stopped at, as Michael says, "the church that EVERYONE wants to get married in". I can see why - it's beautiful, and the grounds are lovely! You can't see any of the fountains in this picture:

Woofie and I had to stop and play at the Kids' Club House...

And, because we missed the IHOP on the way to the airport when we first started on our trip, and because I kind of guilt tripped people about that... here we are!

And the CinnaStack French toast is as good as ever!

Then Michael had to take us back to the airport, as there were people waiting for a shuttle ride to Antigua.

When we got back inside the airport, we found it full of National Guardsmen – yep, a bunch of American boys who had just been out building a medical clinic and repairing some schools are flying home today. We talked to them for a while, and then tried to get connected to the internet. Note that I said “tried”. I had a connection for a few minutes, but then as soon as I tried to pull up the blog page – Poof! So we talked to the guys some more:

And I kind of took a nap on the floor:

Okay, forget "kind of". 

And then I finally got the internet to work just in time to blog all this and it's almost time to board our flight. Stay classy, blog world!

Hello blog world! Today was travel/tourist day. At the suggestion of a friend of a friend, we visited the Crossroads Cafe, owned and operated by an ex-pat named Michael. It turns out that Michael's daughter volunteered at our clinics. Whoa - small world! Crossroads has some great, fresh, Guatemalan coffee, and Michael roasts the beans himself at the cafe:

 I was really tired this morning, since a migraine woke me up, but thanks to Dr. Tom at the Lighthouse Clinic (how's that for a plug, Tom?) I was able to make it go away with meds. I was still tired though, so here's a random "me crashing against Randy at the cafe" shot. Note that we have both purchased the Guatemalan version of "ridiculous hats".

 All lined up for beverages: me, Becky, Sandy, and the elusive Amanda:

 Same people from the other side, plus Michael, the owner:

 He let us in to the secret back room (we had to move a bookcase to get in) where he stores and roasts the coffee beans:

 Then Sandy and I snuck back in so that I could climb on piles of beans:

 And I pretended to roast some of the coffee. The cafe was so busy that Michael had me grind my own beans after roasting, so that they could be bagged quicker.

 And the finished product - coffee!

 I wasn't the only person falling asleep today. This is on the bus back to Antigua: a 3 hour ride after an early morning. Yeah, several of us were snoozing:

 Fresh fruit snacks!! Mango=AWESOME! Watermelon = pretty darn good. Papaya = enjoyable.

 In Antigua, several of us took a tour of some ruins - of a cathedral originally built in the 1600s. It's been rebuilt a few times, what with earthquake damage and all. The front part is still used as a church, but the back is all pillars and rubble. Our guide, Sergei, was very knowledgeable, and showed us how the Mayan laborers snuck some of their own culture into the building. Heeheehee...

 After the ruins tour, our whole group went out for one last dinner together - tomorrow morning we'll split up, with most of the group heading back stateside, and a few of us going on to Tikal to see some Mayan ruins and run around in the jungle. Of course, since it was our last night out, we had to take a bunch of pictures. Here's me with Papa Tom:

 And me with Jason and Erica. These two are going to Tikal for just one day, and might run into us, since they're on the same airplane...

 Just for fun, here's a view of the front part of the cathedral (still used as a church) all lit up for the evening:

And that's it for now - the laptop battery is going fast, and I don't have a plug-in here. We'll see how good internet reception is in Tikal tomorrow!