At the Beach

Our adventure last weekend was to take off to the beach at Monterico, on the southern border of Guatemala. It is a black sand beach that has a very touristy feel, loud music, and expensive seafood. We took Max into the ocean, but he didn´t last long there. He belted out his disapproval with the first wave that crashed at my ankles and sprayed water and sand all over us. The waves were probably the most powerful that I´ve ever swam in. I tried to bodysurf over and over and was repeatedly hurled into the ocean floor. There were a few times that I was just hoping that I wouldn´t lose consciousness. Max did, however, enjoy playing on the beach. We tried to keep his hands out of his mouth, but as you can see from the picture, his parents failed. It made us laugh for the next few days to discover black grains of sand in his diaper.

The reason that we chose to go to Monterico is that they boast one of Central America´s few sea turtle reserves. Sea turtles have a 1 in 100 chance of survival to adulthood for various reasons, so that´s why Monterico houses this reserve. The females come ashore and lay eggs from July to August and then the eggs hat ch from November to March. Every Saturday afternoon during the hatching season the reserve invites guests to come and help in the releasing of the sea turtles. For a fee of 10 quetzales ($1.50) you can ¨buy¨a turtle to race. They draw a line in the sand about 3 feet in front of the starting line. If your turtle is the first one to make it across the line then you win a free dinner at a local restaurant. Our turtle didn´t win. In fact, for some reason, he kept turning around and walking back towards us. (We felt the love.) Actually, turtles inherently crawl towards the light which is reflected off the water. For that reason, it´s imperative that they release the turtles at dusk.

Our friend Jatsiri, one of the girls of the Perez family with whom we´re staying, loved the turtles. (Jatsirí´s sister, Ismari, is pictured to the left wrapped up in her towel. She was less than happy that we woke her up from her nap to watch the turtles walk.) Max wasn´t quite sure how he felt. It was great to watch the turtles crawl slowly across the sand only to watch them be washed right back to the starting line with each wave of surf that rushed onto the beach. Overall, we had a great time.

Guate! Guate!

Greetings everyone from Guatemala! Yes, we finally made it and we are safe. There is much to talk about, it´s hard to know where to start. The above picture was taken while hiking through the jungle at Tikal, the largest Mayan complex ever built. It´s in Northern Guatemala in the state of Peten. Max has been a good sport. It was a 9 hour bus ride from Guatemala City to get up there, and although we were on a ¨first-class¨ bus, the air-conditioner was blowing out hot air and with all the sharp turns we were making at high speeds, the ride was quite nauseating. We made about 10 stops on our ¨directo¨ (non-stop) bus.

The ruins were sweet. Sarah´s only complaint was that this tour guide did not tell us anything about the ruins or people themselves. I was satisfied, however. I think Sarah was expecting to get the same quality of tours that she got from her professors in the study abroad program in Jerusalem. Max´s favorite part of touring the jungle was sitting on his Mom´s shoulders for the first time and realizing her hair was long enough that he could grab it and stick it in his mouth.

Also in Tikal we went on a canopy tour. We were kind of nervous about taking Max at high velocities through the trees, but we decided it would be a good experience for him. He is our little ¨travel baby¨ afterall. He liked chewing on the harnesses as we loaded up, but he screamed his heart out the whole time after we started on the zip line course, speeding from platform to platform above the jungle trees. We kind of regretted the decision to take him. Oh well.

We also toured Lake Atitlan, which is rumored among some scholars to be the Waters of Mormon. We almost got ripped off by a guy that wanted to take us around the lake for 400 quetzales ($50), but we soon found the public boat tour company that charged us only 180 quetzales. In the picture you can see some of the volcanoes that surround the lake and give it a very mystic feel. In fact, many of the Mayan locals believe it has healing powers and they come here to bathe. We visited three little villages along the lake. At the last village, San Antonio de Palopo, we found some Mayan ladies that were more interested in Max than in selling us there little woven bracelets. They held Max and let him participate in the weaving. They were terrified when showed them Max´s trick, standing up in my palm as I hold him up as a trophy.

We have lots more to say, but we´ll save it for the next post.