Dec. 21 & 22-The last days of our Trip

The final two days of our trip were spent at a little farm, near the town of Poptun, named Finca Ixobel (click here for website). It was a campground hippie resort and it was very relaxing (after the first night...we arrived in the dark and it wasn't much to be excited about then). Our treehouse cabin was cozy and had all the luxuries we could need (including mosquito screens for all the beds and a bathroom one short trip down the stairs). With a hammock out the front door...it was just wonderful!

The main lodge area was two buildings snuggled together. One housed the main reception desk and the other the kitchen. It was surrounded by porches with big wooden tables where you could play games or sit down with some glass bottle sodas and just enjoy time. The whole place ran on the honor system and you just took what you needed and wrote it down in a book and paid for them when you left. It was very laid back and was just the thing we needed after our very busy previous days!
On the morning of the 21st we headed out on a self guided hike around the finca. True to Guatemala principles...the trail was simply marked by red paint splashed on a tree or rock every once in a while. We'll let the pictures do the talking for this trip, (Greg had gone on a 6 hour cave swimming hike so he was not with us on this excursion) but it was wonderful.
We got back in time for lunch and had the best burgers we ever had in our lives as well as fresh cut fries. The whole place was rustic but beautiful...but the food was the best we've ever eaten...it was incredible, homemade breads, home-cooked buffet type suppers, desserts and shakes to die for! We ate very well, sorry we didn't get any pictures...just too busy eating.

After lunch we toured the grounds and found the swimming hole. It had some giant stands of bamboo that Caden & Lily found fascinating. It was a clear spring fed pond, quite cool but refreshing surrounded by little thatched huts hung full of hammocks. Suffer we did! It was great...chilling there.

It was a great ending to a great vacation and we hope you enjoyed the pictures and adventure with us. God bless as he takes time to refresh you during this Christmas season as well.

Dec. 20-Morning in Tikal & beyond

During the night we woke up to this incredible noise! It seemed monstrous. It was something between a gigantic whirring sound, like a mighty engine trying to start, and a great wind trying to get through a space that is too small. An Englander we met the next morning (Hi Becky) said it reminded her of the sounds the dinosaurs made on the movie Jurassic Park (the scary ones at night). I think it sounded like the space machine going full force on the movie Contact (maybe we watch too many movies!) but this amazing sound woke us up from a dead sleep at about 3:30 in the morning. It was really the sound of Howler Monkeys (which I'm glad the tour book warned us about or I would have been scared out of my wits) stirring in the trees around our resort. I can't imagine the explorers here who would have heard that from their canvas tents or less...how brave they must have been.

At 5:30am we were supposed to get a wake up call so we could meet our guide at 6am for our morning sunrise tour. At 5:50 Aaron rolled over and checked his watch...and then we were off in a run, trying to wake tired 3 year olds and get cranky bodies dressed was accomplished but Mom & Dad were both a little frazzled as we got to our meeting point at 6:15 (only 15 mins late but late none the less). So instead of hiking the 30 mins across the park to our vantage point we hopped in the back of a pick-up and had a brisk bumpy ride to help wake us up!
We climbed 199 wooden steps (very sturdy with handrails...rare in Guatemala) and sat atop Temple IV in Tikal to watch the sunrise.
This is what we saw.
Even though our view was only fog, listening to the jungle awaken was great. After about an hour just sitting and soaking it all in (except for a call to Mom & Dad VB from the top of the temple...our guide, Samuel, had his phone) Samuel took us around the park showing us the sights for the morning. We saw...
Massena Trogon (Slaty Tailed Trogon)
Collared Aracaris
Unique Trees (called a hugging tree...see why?)
This tree had bark with medicinal properties like witch hazel.
This one is for all you tree huggers out there! (Like a palm tree with spikes & they were very sharp!)
Ruins trying to fight their way out through the encroaching jungle.
We climbed some pyramids & it was pretty cool.
The final temple we ended up at was Temple V. It is the 2nd highest and has steps that would even make my parents steps at their house seem wide (this is about a 70 degree angle you are climbing up...crazy how steep this was.) We didn't climb it but Greg went back in the afternoon and did it. We said "Adios" to Samuel (who had became Lily's big buddy) and headed back to our lodgings for a late breakfast and packing up our rooms around 10ish and then headed back into the jungle to see what we could see before we had to leave for our next destination.
This is a tree stump that started out as a seed lodged in one of the ancient stones and then grew until it cracked the giant circular stone in half.
We climbed to the top of Temple IV where we had been seated that morning and the sight was amazing.
This view is actually seen at the end of Star Wars (the first movie).
It was incredible sitting up there above the jungle...how it must have looked back when the Mayan civilization flourish...because they think there was no vegetation...what a sight that must have been.
This is a look back at Temple IV from the trail we headed out on.
This is where we were seated to see the view from the top of Temple IV.
As we left some spider monkeys played in the tops of the trees. Just a one of the many we saw during our days in Tikal. They were just really hard to photograph.
As we headed out to our final destination, Finca Ixobel in Poptun, Guatemala we were in great spirits because of the fantastic sights the Lord provided us with. More on that in the next blog!
If you would like more information about Tikal I found this cool interactive website about it...http://www.destination360.com/tikal.htm. Enjoy!

Dec. 19-Our Trip to Tikal

(Note: If you would like to see any of the pictures larger just click or double click on them and they will come up on another screen. Enjoy!)
The morning of the 19th we awoke to a light drizzle that changed into a beautiful morning by the time Gail & Aaron walked up to the restaurant for coffee. Then we started to check out the area that we really didn't get a chance to see the day before. In the tree right above our cabin we found this...(and my zoom is not exaggerating the size!)It was like a 4 foot iguana...Caden spotted it! Amazing considering how high it was and how it blended into the trees. Saw some great warblers and butterflies too. It was incredible.
We found our first Christmas Tree of the trip...in the restaurant at the Hacienda.
Here Lily & Caden are demonstrating the way to stand in the middle of the hanging bridge and not fall the 3 feet into the swamp below. It really was a great trail but just made for nervous parents gripping their children tightly.We then packed up and left about 10am and headed to the destination we were all anxious to get to...Tikal National Park. The 4 hour drive was divided into two sections with us stopping half way for lunch in Poptun. We were looking to buy a loaf of bread when Aaron spotted at Bimbo truck (the bread company down here). He went in to ask at the store but they didn't have any so the delivery guy sold Aaron a loaf right off the truck...Looked like Aaron was mugging the guy. But it worked and the bread was great.We enjoyed a little park along the road which was made by the community out of old carparts. It was the first sign of recycling in Guatemala that I have seen and was pretty cool. We enjoyed our sandwiches and chips.

Then it was off to our destination and within two hours we were there...or at least we hoped we were getting close.
The sign was a welcomed sight. Even the visitor center did not prepare us for what lay ahead.
The wildlife was impressive.

There were Occelated TurkeysSocial Flycatchers

Gray-necked Wood Rail
Tarantula (a guard showed us this one on the underside of a log right by the entrance to the park...we didn't see any more during our time there.
Caden caught a gecko that was trying to horn in on our sleeping quarters.
These birds are called Collared Aracaris and they were everywhere eating the berries of these trees. Certainly one of the most memorable birds of the trip.

This is a giant cedar...the picture does it no justice as to how big it was.
The light was fading quickly but the ruins were amazing as suddenly you are upon them.
This is our first view (the back side of Temple I).
We climbed on some of the ruins and the view and the sense of time there were immense.
As the sunset, the jungle began to come alive. It was a sound to behold even as the sights were almost incomprehensible.
It was an incredible afternoon in Tikal and the following day was as memorable as this was.