Survivor Guatemala - Tikal Edition
Trip Start
Jul 19, 2005
1
32
45
Trip End
Ongoing
Tikal, Guatemala
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
We went Guatemala the next day to see Tikal, one of the largest Mayan ruin sites that has been excavated in Central America. The temples there are the highest in Guatemala and you are allowed to climb up most of them. We spent the day humming the Indiana Jones theme song (again) and snapping photos. Behind one temple/plaza, we came across a tree filled with colorful toucans (oh how we needed a laminated Guatemalan bird chart) and watched them eat seeds off the tree just a few feet away from us. Cute little buggers they are.
There is also a jungle trail that takes you out away from the ruins and into the forest to see more wildlife. Eric and I had been talking up the howler monkeys, that roar/growl like lions so that you think your about to be attacked by a wild jaguar until you look up and see cute little fuzz balls swinging from the trees. Their howls sound so vicious, and Eric and I tried imitating them all day, trying to get them to come out, but without any success. We did see lots of Spider Monkeys on the trail. They would climb down to the lower branches and sit and stare at us as we stood there and stared back at them. Watching Eric imitate the monkey's facial expressions and actions really made me question really how far we've evolved.
The paths were a bit confusing in the jungle and we didn't really know where we were. But Anne led the way swinging her "spirit stick," which also helped in wiping out the spider webs from the path, and led us back to civilization. We deem her the million dollar winner of Survivor Tikal - her check should be coming any day in the mail.
Also while in Guatemala, we went back to the ecological park where we'd volunteered to show Jim, Chris and Anne and introduce them to the family we'd stayed with. So much had changed at the park in just one month - including the wildflowers that had finally sprouted in the butterfly garden, but that also overtook the stone paths that we had spent a month working on. You just can't stop that jungle growth or attempt to organize it in any way. Although you couldn't see much of the path, the garden finally looked pretty and there were FINALLY butterflies in the butterfly garden.
We said goodbye to Jim that afternoon and he flew back to Guatemalan City to catch his plane to Peru the next day. It was sad to see him go. (We'll see you soon though!)
The rest of us got back on a bus and headed back to paradise to prepare for the New Years fun.
