Up and up
A lot of stairs climbed today. And a surprise in my room last night.
Part of the climb to the top of one of the Temples at Tikal.
Last night I had dinner with the family that runs the hotel.
Safira, Raimunda, Silas, and Mima
The home cooked food was great and the kids are wonderful. I couldn’t ask for better hosts or dinner companions. It’s been fun staying here.
Mima Safira
Raimunda Silas
After dinner I went to my room and found something waiting for me. A scorpion. I’m not a scorpion expert, but this one looked as big as a house. And it looked dead. I nudged it with a well shod toe and it didn’t move. I got a ziplock bag to pick it up and dispose it.
Not dead. It started to move. I killed that sucker with a shoe.
Squashed it flat. No buddhist monk am I when it comes to large poisonous insects.
A very early wake up, get into a van full of strangers, head down a bumpy road in the dark, and off to the ruins at Tikal. An amazing place. The ruins are only one small part of a huge bio preserve, second in size only to the Amazon.
I was hoping to be there as close to sunrise as possible, for the light. It was cloudy, so no pure “golden hour” light. But, misty, with an occasional break in the clouds.
I didn’t keep track of where I was, or what the name of any of the structures were. I’ll save that for when I get home and can do in depth reading about the place and Maya culture.
This is the view from the highest structure at Tikal. This shot faces east and is the vantage point for many sunrise shots. While I was up there the guard told me the best time for pictures is sunset, from about three in the afternoon on. Now they tell me.
The van came for us at 2 in the afternoon. I was ready to leave. I climbed too many stairs like these.
This is John and Monique. He is English, she is French. They live in southern France. John is an avid and life long bird watcher. He was thrilled with the visit. He saw Toucans in flight, and a variety of wood pecker closely related to an extinct species. I had a nice conversation with Monique at the end of the day. Charming people that I may remember more than the ruins.
Tomorrow I am off to Antigua, Guatemala. I’ll be there for four days and then it’s back to the beach in Mexico.