Creepy Crawlers

Just a few more before I move on to something else:

Spider waiting to capture its prey in the jungle

This fellow (and I am sure some of his friends) freely moved in and out of our room through gaps in the structure.



The Agouti ,  a big tailess rat-like creature all over the jungle, including running around outside our room.

The Coatis, a raccoon-like animal with an exceptionally long tail!

Wild turkeys with their warty heads abounded here.  Pretty coloring, though!

What we never saw, though heard clearly, were the howler monkeys.  Both at dusk (well, okay, so it was pitch black) while we were fumbling our way out of the jungle ruins, and the next dawn as we crept back in, the howlers were letting all know they were there with their ferocious roars!  I kid you not, they sound just like the mighty lion, the King of the Jungle!  It was truly incredible!  We also never saw any puma or jaguars that reside in the jungle, and forunately didn't run into any boa constictors, coral or rattle snakes while there.  Both the white tail and the red deer also call the jungle their home.

One BIG Nest!

Think you have termite issues?!?!  Everything is big in the jungle!

Butterflies

Though not able to capture on camera all of the beautiful butterflies that danced across our path, here are a few. 

I wonder what this colorful caterpillar will metamorph into?

Leafcutter Ants

Throughout the El Petén Jungle we came across many leafcutter ants.  They chew a section of a leaf off and proceed to march back to their nest hefting the cargo between two pinchers on their heads.  What a balancing act!

This is only a small part of the loooong line of ants busy at work.  The tree that they cut their leaves from is about 30 feet tall.  Once they have procured the leaf they haul it down the tall tree trunk and as far away as their nest exists.  This particular solid line of worker ants extended down the tree, through the dense jungle maybe 100 feet, out into a small open area for about 10 more feet and into their underground mound home.  Amazing to see so many thousands moving along the ground with the leaves held high above their bodies!  What do they use them for, might be a good question.  Our guide may have addressed this, but he sometimes fell into speaking Spanish since both Bethany and Karen are fluent (I don't think any of them were even aware they were no longer in the English language!), and when he did I could usually pick up the gist of the conversation, but little if any detail.  So next best thing, I googled it just now. Turns out they make a fungus out of it underground, which feeds the ant larvae.  Meantime, the adult ants feed off of the sap on the leaves.  All I can say is that they must have one heck of a birth rate down under!  The amount of leaves going in is phenomenal!

A Ghostly Throne

I cannot remember which temple this King's throne was in, but if you look closely..........

.........one can see a restless ghost sitting in the upper right corner, and lightening flashing throughout the spiritual world!!!!!!!!  Yikes!!!!!

Temple V

Early in the next morning, the three of us headed out with our Mayan Guide to visit and climb Temple V.  It towers above the jungle at 190 feet high, and was built around 750 AD.

A shot looking up the ladder seemingly is a Jacob's Ladder leading into heaven!

We enthusiastically begin the ascent!

Once at the top, Bethany and I carefully sat as close and still to the wall as possible, while Karen stood tall, and later walked around the front.

A view in one direction, straight forward, looking towards structures, some of which are part of the Lost World buildings. 

As Karen clamored down, Bethany and I gingerly and oh-so-slowly picked our way down step by step.  See the foot up on top of the ladder, peeking over?  That was all we saw of poor Bethany for a long time.  She was flat on her belly trying to make that first most difficult step.  Her foot poked out, then disappeared.  Poked out again.  Finally, our faithful guide climbed back up to talk her down a step at a time most of the way! 

It was s loooooooooooooooong way down!

This is what the temple looked like when the first began the excavation process.

It was so white and clean when they finished with it.  It does not take long for the jungle flora to start taking over.  And we think our yard is difficult to keep the brush battled back !

Tikal - Mr. Chocolate's Temple

While visiting my daughter in the country of Guatemala recently, we had the opportunity to visit the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal in the thick jungle of El Petén.  This is the oldest and most impressive ruins in Guatemala, having been inhabited from about 800 BC to 900 AD.  Each King built his own personal temple, so there are many structures (supposedly more than 4000), not all of which have been uncovered.  Unearthing this civilization from the dense jungle that has grown over it is a huge work in process.

This is the Temple of the Great Jaguar, or Temple I (so named because it was the first one uncovered, but not the first one built).  Rising over the canopy of the jungle, it stands over 150 feet tall, and was built about 700 AD for Ah Cacao, whose tomb was discovered inside.  Ah Cacao has been nicknamed Lord Chocolate, I am guessing because of the similarity of his name with cocoa, but I could be wrong.

Karen (a friend from work who joined us for a week), myself & Bethany

We are standing on top of the Temple of the Masks, or Temple II, also constructed about 700 AD by Lord Chocolate for his wife, which is directly across the the Great Plaza from his own temple.

Temple of the Masks (for Mrs Chocolate), standing about 120 feet high

This is the Great Plaza, with the lower part of Lord Chocolate's Temple to the right, and his wife's to the left, out of the picture frame.  We are standing on structures on the south end of the plaza looking to the north side.  Everywhere one finds the structures that appear to be tombs, but in reality are biographical head stones of different important people, with a round sacrificial platform in front of it. Mayan pictographs tell the story of each one. Under those thatched roofs of the middle tier, archaeologists are at work restoring the faces of  two important gods of the Mayans:

Cha ak, the rain god

Kinich ah Hau, the sun god

Directly below us is the sports court.  This is where they play a ball game, trying to bounce it through hoops placed on both sides of the wall.  The winners had the privilege of being killed in sacrifice to the gods!  Not sure I would put much effort into that game!