Today we went to Tikal. Tikal is a Mayan city that is now in ruins. No one knows why the Mayans abandoned Tikal; one hypothesis is that they left because the soil was not good for farming any more. The temples are very big and pretty. They carried all the rocks on their backs because they did not have pack animals.
Some of the temples are burial sites for the Mayan kings. One of the biggest temples was El Gran Jaguar. We saw a big Mayan face carved in a rock that we thought was a shrine.
There are still people in Guatemala speaking types of mayan.
We saw a coral snake early in the morning on the path. Then he slithered off the path. Coral snakes are very venomous but very chill.
Next we saw spider monkeys. Spider monkeys have longer arms and legs than most other monkeys.
We also saw coatis. Coatis are like racoons with pointy noses. We saw them in the Pantanal in Brazil as well.
3 Responses
Syd, you mentioned coatis. Thanks for the picture of them. You have seen so much this trip. I hope that you are able to recall most of your experience for us. What a great trip you’ve had!
Cool critters! Once you get home you’ll have to go to the zoo to see them.
Hey, are you and your sister learning any Spanish on this trip? There are big advantages to being bilingual these days!
Keep the reports coming – they’re a hoot to read!
I like the pictures you choose to go along with your comments. The coatis are cool and I like the mix of adults and babies in your picture. It has been amazing to see so many different animals close up that aren’t behind bars! The structures are so huge and it is still incomprehensible to me how they could accomplish the building of them without modern equipment!!