Baby Spiders! Mayan Ruins! Monkey Poop!

It's so hot in Flores, especially in our dorm, that everything we wear is soaked with sweat. The most peaceful time of the day is just before sunrise, when the humidity has cooled into a pre-dawn mist.

The peace was somewhat broken yesterday morning when we opened our cosmetics bag and hundreds of teeny baby spiders scurried out. We managed to clean things up and get ready, funbling quietly in the dark in preparation for our morning visit to the nearby Mayan ruins of Tikal.

We took a shuttle to Tikal at 5 a.m., watching colors flood the sky as we approached. It feels a bit like Jurassic Park, with its wide-arched entrance, signs warning of the presence of jaguars, and tall, flat-leafed trees. The park was empty when we entered. Sara and I walked the 25 mins to the Grand Plaza, skipping the group tour. It was still cool, and the tops of the temples were blanketed in a light fog. I visited Tikal in 2006, climbing Temple IV to watch the sun come up, but this morning was quiet and eery. Only the call of birds broke the haze.

We ate a breakfast of bananas and granola bars at a picnic table next to a man who worked at the park. In Spanish, we explained that Sara wasn't feeling well, and he walked us over to a nearby tree, stripped of bark and smelling strongly of an unidentifiable but familiar spice. Picking up a fat green seed, he said, "They're pimientas," and the monkeys (and locals) eat them for upset stomach. Sara tried one, and it made her tongue go numb, but it did settle her stomach. This was quite possibly my favorite encounter of the day.

We spent the rest of the morning touring The Lost World and the rest of the ruins. Temple IV, as always, has a spectacular view of the jungle. Sara climbed the five steep ladders to Temple V and freaked out once she was halfway up. (In all fairness, the US would never permit tourists to explore these sites. There would be guardrails everywhere). In fact, one of the temples that I had ascended in 2006 is now only accessible by a new set of stairs, because two travellers were recently killed after falling off of the original steps.


Jose, a guard at the Grand Plaza, suggested we meet him at Complex Q at 3:30 so we could arrange to camp overnight in the park (wink, wink). At the right price, I'm sure you could camp on the temples. He told us not to tell anyone (nadie!). We watched as he approached every other group he saw.

The entire time we explored the site, a native Guatemalan, dressed in Indian (think Native American stereotype) regalia, trailed us while playing a flute toward the sky (Lauren H-- think Tikal's version of Sandy). Some travellers engaged him in conversation, he explained that the white man was going to be punished for all of his sins, and that this had already begun, as widespread homosexuality had conquered parts of Europe. His flute playing was meant to call all the non-white people of the world together. The Mayan calendar suggests the world will end in December 2012, but the flautist claims that punishment will begin as early as next summer.

A second favorite moment was spotting spider monkeys. We caught quite a few in the branches, and everytime they saw us staring at them, they adjusted their positions so that they were right above us: then they pooped. Luckily, they had bad aim:)

We got back at about 2:00, showered, and relaxed at the hostel with some fresh smoothies. Sara and I took a walk to the lake as the sun was setting and had a long conversation about what we want to get out of this trip and decided that it's important to us to connect to a place, in addition to seeing all of the amazing things this part of the world has to offer. We're hoping to do some more volunteer work and language classes in Mexico.

The power for the entire island went out just as dusk approached, so we headed back to our hostel, which was lit up with candles. We spent the evening talking to Dan from Canada, who had just been accepted into Engineers Without Borders, reading by candlelight & flashlight, and preparing for our next stop: the Caribbean.