Tikal

Hi everybody!

The day after we went to the Copan Ruins we caught a seven hour van ride back to Antigua where we spent the night. The next day we caught another van to Lake Atitlan. We stayed in a town along the lake called Santa Cruz. We didn't do much there. We hiked on a path above the water to a Mayan village. All the villagers there stared at us like we were in a zoo. Dad, Colin, and I went swimming in the lake. It was cold but fun and there was a giant seaweed forest. (There weren't any fish though.)

While we were staying there we caught a van to Chichicastenango. It is a town that is normally quite unremarkable except for on market day when the whole center area is filled with stalls and TONS of people. People from all the surrounding cities and villages come to sell and buy the things they need. It was a bit overwhelming but cool. One of the other cool things about Chichicastenango is its religion. The churches mix Mayan and Christian practices. We had just gone in to explore a church when a procession of people in traditional Mayan clothes marched up the church steps. In the lead were two people. One was playing an old fashioned drum while the other was playing a wooden instrument that seemed like a cross between a recorder and an oboe. Some of the men were carrying a platform holding the statue of a Christian saint. In the back a guy was holding a small statue of a horse and dancing. The group stopped at the entrance of the church where they burned incense on a platform and then proceeded to kneel several times, each time facing a different direction. After they went into the church the dancing guy stayed. Someone handed him a wooden sphere covered with firecrackers. As he danced the firecrackers on the sphere he was holding started to explode. It was so awesome! The ceremony then ended and everybody filtered into the church.

After we had stayed near Lake Atitlan for three days we caught a van to Antigua. The next day we caught another van two hours to Guatemala City where we caught a bus to Flores. It was around ten hours in all. Flores is a little town by a lake. It's nice but the real reason we came is that it's only an hour away from Tikal. Yesterday we went to see it. Tikal was amazing. The temples were Huge. You don't realize how big they are until you climb them. Another thing you don't realize is how far apart the temples are. Between them is vast amounts of jungle. Our tour was four hours long, but we only covered the amount you would normally in a two hour tour because we spent most of it hiking through the jungle. We saw lots of wild howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and toucans. There were also giant, hairy, tarantulas (shiver).

Today we hope to let Colin finally zipline but we are not sure where we are heading next. I will try to post soon. Please comment!

Bye!

P.S. For all those people who are in the middle of that huge snowstorm, we are so jealous (except for Mom and Dad who are enjoying being cooked)