Sunrise Jungle Tour

So much for wishing the Howlers would make noise.  They SCREAMED all night long.  How do you think it went?  Well, picture 4 kids getting up for the second day in a row at 4 am.  Pitch black.  No electricity.  Flash lights for the girls.  Headlamps for the boys.  Screaming in the jungle.  Mom and Dad say 'hey kids...we are going to go into that jungle.  You know the one we were in yesterday?  Where we talked about jaguars, snakes, and we saw a scorpion? Yep. That one. It'll be fun!'.  Lily and Grace weren't convinced.  I think the boys were excited, but it turns out that wearing a headlamp in the jungle isn't a great idea.  When you run, the bugs aren't attracted to the light.  Because I am so wicked fast I am sure....ahem.  But when you are walking, slowly, moths the size of kittens want to snuggle up to your face.  Didn't take long before the headlamps were also handheld lights.  Lily was probably the most scared.  I said 'come on...it's not like there's an active volcano in here' referring to the meltdown she had a couple of weeks ago where she was convinced we were going to get killed from the lava.  She didn't think it was as funny as I did.

I have to admit...the kids were troopers.  I'm not sure I'd have done that at the age of 8.  It was beautiful being in the jungle in the morning.  The howler monkeys and all.  Grace was convinced it was jaguars roaring.  That didn't help the situation either. :)  We walked all the way in and climbed to the top of Temple 4 to watch.  It was cloudy and misty and relaxing.  My legs were dead tired.  Turns out that running with the boys up and down the steps 'the mayan way' the day before did me in.  It's not the up that is bad when your quads give out...it's the downs...and we were WAY up.  The thought of tumbling down didn't sound like fun.  We did see a Toucan which was pretty awesome.  I didn't manage to get a picture of it.

The tour lasted until around 8 and we came back for breakfast and hit the pool again.  We were starving...felt like we'd been up forever and it was only 8!!!  Craziness.  After the pool we walked over to the museum.  I think the coolest thing to see was the photos of what Tikal looked like when it was discovered.  Jake found a painting he HAD to have of Tikal.  And given that the kid has read all of the books I've bought him on Mayans and the subject, it was hard to say no.  He used his money for it.  God knows where it will fit on the wall in his room, but he was the happiest kid I'd seen in awhile.  Lily found a wooden jaguar to get as a mascot for the Hero Twins club.

We hung out by the pool after that.  Did I mention it was hot?  95 and 95% humidity.  Not pleasant.  I was melting.  Ridiculous.  We ate lunch around 1 and then took the bus back to the airport at 3.  Not sure why we left that early because our flight wasn't until 6:30 but given the fact that the van had air conditioning, I didn't really care why we were leaving early.

We got about 30 minutes into the drive when we ran across a tree over the road.  Tim got out and helped kick it around enough so that we could drive in the ditch around it.  We almost ran over some pigs that were strolling casually across the road too.  No one down here is in a hurry.  Animals included!

We sat at the airport for awhile and boarded a MUCH larger plane.  I think this one probably seated 25 people.  We were the last ones on, so we didn't get to all sit together.  We did sit next to a guy from Oshkosh who was down visiting a kid they had as an exchange student from Guatemala.  I got his card to find out more about that. :)  It was only an 8 week program which sounds nice.  His son goes to a Catholic school though so it may only be an exchange done via Catholic schools.  I need to check.

We got off the plane and Guillermo's brother, David was waiting for us.  Hooray.  So excited to get back to our home away from home.  Jake said 'I'm going right to bed when I get home.'  I told him I was doing the same thing.  Was nice to walk into a clean house.  The housekeeper came when we were gone...and the temperature was 30 degrees cooler...and NO MONKEYS!  :) Win, Win.  Well..except for the 4 I brought home with me.