Saturday, February 12, 2011

Saturday February 12th, 2011 Santiaguita

9:19am On the road for a weekend adventure
Just stopped by the side of the road to look at the twin Volcanoes Santa Maria, and Santiaguita. We were blessed with the a shot of Santiaguita spewing out a puff of smoke! Totally Rad! So now we're continuingon our way to Takalik Abaj to see the ruins.

9:45am
Got a glimpse of some rubber trees. I always thought it was all syntheticly made in a lab. But the process is like Sap.

12:16pm Takalik Abaj
Just finished he tour of the Takalib Abaj site. Took about 2 hours, and wow it was incredible. Our guide was very informative, Liz and Rita translated. The Mayans paid very close attention to west, east, south, and north. West represented Death, and East was birth. So when you died they would bury you facing west, unlessyou were a child. They faced children to the east towards life because they didn't get one. If you died and were burried facin east and you're an adult, then your family would end there, and would not continue on in the afterlife. It's unclear wether they did this on purpose as a punishement for a crime or not.

Toads, Serpents and Owls represented after life. Frogs were the main symbol for birth I believe, apparently because of the fact hat Frogs have alot of eggs. This of course was on the East side of the temple, for life. Their were 9 statues also to represent the 9 cycles of Pregnancy.

The Vegetation ther was so alien feeling. We saw wild avocado, banana's. I think I saw a fig gourd which I painted for a BG in Kratts and had no idea what it was until I googled it. I also saw a Cocoa Tree! Their was also a petting zoo. Hard to pet the animals tho cuz they were in cages.

It's incredibly hot as well. I'm feelin quite dehydrated again, and my sunscreen is all flak on me for some reason. Their was one Temple we couldn't take pictures of because still being reconstructed and I think nationoal georaphic has the rights to first photos or something? Its really interesting to see how they're attempting to reconstruct it as well as figure out what it is and what it was used for all at tthe same time. We got to walk inside it tho. They've uncovered what they believe to be a ball court, and a stone walkway that looks to connect alters to the temple as well

6:03pm
On our way home. My laundry is locked in the laundry place :( that cloased at 4:30. I should make Adrenalina in time to book my climb tomorrow morning tho!

The first thing you notice when you arrive at the coffee plantation (after the horrificly bumpy road for about 5 km of paint machine shakin goodness, on a road wide enough barely for our vehicle) is the vegitation. It was like being in the amazon or something.  Big Palm tree's, and bamboo.

When we got their they fed us lunch. Chicken, pickled beats, and mashed potatoes. Also we drank this wonderful juice which taste like iced tea but it was made of "Rosa do Jamyca" or habiscus flower. It was very sweet and delicious! We also (of course) got our cup of coffee made from the coffee beans grown on the plantation, which tasted great just black. A lot of Tourist come to stay on the plantation to bird watch They have over 100 different species, many of witch you can only see at certain times of day, like sunrise or sunset too.

We start off with the Zip line across the forest tho!As soon as you run off that edge and just glide over the forest, with grande palm leaves covering the ground while you twirl with endless valley's of trees created for the presence of giants.

We went for about a 40 minute walk thru the forest after doing 2 ziplines, our guide told us a lot about the vegitiation in the forest. Something called a wyaboo or Gwyabo tree can grow up to 100ft in only 12 years!

We bird watched some parakeets' for a bit. Their song was so beautiful echoing from the trees. Their was this leaf and with and interesting underside to it.. "Paulino", (our guide) wrote out his name with a capped pen. As you write the white on the back of the leaf is scraped off, revealing dark letters with the leaf colour. He also told us about some tree's and plants in the forest hat have medicinal properties, one of which can be used to create a natural parasite remover. Somehow haha, shoulda wrote it down..The forest was really incredible, wih bamboo's teetering all around us. we walked alongside this stream and a steep ridge on the otherside. We were almost completely encased by the teetering trees all growing in cooperation endlessly fighting to seal off the sky to those who dare to travel within it.

6:40pm It's on now!

Got to Adrenalina in the nick of time to book my climb tomorrow for 7 am pick up time. Just me and my hopefully english speaking instructor lol. I get a pequeno breakfast with it I'm told. and the whole day is costing my $55US. It'll just be me and the instructor too. (hopefully a cutey!)

8:00pm Wind down.
Pizza for dinner tonight, nom nom nom! With Pollo, onion and tomates, sliced not cubed. I Took over 500 pics and videos today... yikers!! Both camera's died too haha

Left Gillsepies and Tom, David, and Max were standing outside across the street. Looks like they were having a good a night haha. They rescued our laundry too!! Apparently they ran into the guy that runs the laundry place and he opened it up and gave it to them! which is just Awesome cuz both my pairs of pant's were in there and both my sweaters, AND my towel!! I had to borrow pants and a towel from Margarita and John! Johns' shirt smelled like him. I dressed it up with a scarf from karen haha. Sleep now. its 10:22pm I'm pooped and I have Climbing in 8 hours and 47 mins! EEE!

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