I must admit, this was a pretty epic day. It was one of those days that you get to the end of and just sit back and have this really dorky, goofy, extremely happy smile on your face and say "wow, that was totally awesome".
We had breakfast at the hotel (which I have fallen in love with by the way). Then, we headed off to Tikal. I got a chance to read more of my book, "Green Revolution", on the drive there, which was still good after months of bookwork caused me to neglect it. I sat next to Tara, who declared that the next book I brought to read "Marx and Satan" and the one that I intend to read soon "Hippies of the Religious Right" sounded really awesome and intriguing. Although she said this while laughing hysterically.
We had 6 hours to tour Tikal before the van picked us up again and we could eat lunch. We climbed staircases constructed along the sides of the temples to the top on three of them and then one actual staircase of one short one. I discovered a slight fear of heights, mainly because I was sticking close to Hannah and Gabs at the end of the line and they were both deathly afraid of heights. Although you might also develop a fear if you had to climb up several hundred feet into the air on rickety wooden stairs straight up, often made of small planks that, on the main temple, were spaced so far apart that if I had fallen, I could have gone right through. Luckily, most were at least a little better. But, still rather scary. The view from the top was always worth it though. If I get a chance to upload photos sometime, I want you to see how far up we really were- enough that it often looks like we were standing in front of an awesome backdrop.
It started raining while we were there- I am now convinced that I will not go one single day without rain during my stay here. Now, I am used to it. However, I did manage to pack my little black "Free Umbrella" that I got from some guy who was handing them out on the quad one day when it was pouring. He was with Christian Campus Fellowship, and my umbrella still has the blue, laminated tag on it.
We saw the view from Star Wars and I have some pretty sweet photos of it, in the fog. So, it made it even more awesome. I also got pics of actual stela and some recreations. All in all, Tikal was awesome and huge. I am becoming more and more convinced that the aliens really did help them- jk ;)
We did go into a ceramics museum, a stela museum (both of which did not allow photos), saw a huge Tikal model, and visited the "gift shop" (basically, a bunch of local people with their own booths). I didn't quite make it to lunch and ended up getting really weak before. However, I found snacks about 10 minutes before lunch. So, I ended up just making it. Actually, the guy named Bob found out last night that I was a vegetarian and I could tell that he was a major meat-lover (he keeps making comments about "the vegetarian"). However, I think his wife made it possible for me to have a cheese sandwhich instead of a ham and cheese one. It was pretty amazing and I almost freaked out! The box said "Queso" on it, and it was just for me.
We ate on the road and then went to go zip-lining by 3. We got a harness and everything, and it was just as much fun as I had imagined. We went back and forth across the jungle on a series of about 7-8 separate lines. One of the guys nicknamed me "Jane" because I was so reckless and wanted to kill him (so he said). You had to brake whenever you were approaching the landing platform and I did brake when he told me to, just not as hard as I should have I guess. He always caught me just before I smashed into a tree. Since it was raining, we all got covered in both mud and grease. So, we were all a mess at the end of the adventure, but, it was totally worth it. It was also Steve's favorite part of the day. I got a video of him zip-lining that I will probably have to wait until I get back to the states to upload.
Once we got back, I spotted Bob's grandsons in a paddle-boat in the river that was right in front of our hotel. I asked Dr. L about the paddle-boat and she said it was connected to our hotel. There were also two single kayaks parked there too, so, I was very interested in those. I asked the guy at the hotel, who happened to be standing behind us when we were talking, and he said that they were free to hotel guests, and that we could just take out the boat! My voice got really, really high-pitched and I literally jumped up and down. Tara was standing next to me as well and she offered to take the other kayak out with me. I didn't bother to even try to get the caked mud off of me and went straight for the river. Tara and I had an amazing time! We were out for about 2 hours I think, just floating out in the middle of the river toward a random peninsula. We got a chance to talk about a lot of different things and she now thinks I am cool, and I feel the same about her. All in all, it was a great kayak adventure (also have pics from that). I told her about my awesome "canoeing buddies", both of whom, I believe, are reading this. I did think about you two, we could have had oodles of fun!!
I ended up buying gifts for myself, yeah I do silly things like that, and my two youngest brothers at the gift shop here. It was a wonderful day, and I was very excited to experience it all and take it all in. I feel like it was several awesome things wrapped into a 24-hour package deal.
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