January 16, 2010 (written by both Spencer and Jeanine)
Last night we returned from an absolutely wonderful trip to Petén (the northern most departmento in Guatemala) and the ruins of Tikal. It is a national reserve which is part of the rain forest. It is dense jungle with jaguars, pythons, other snakes, and hundreds of species of birds and other animals. Most of the Petén is uninhabited. The purpose of the trip was to visit the ruins of the Mayans who left many hints of their lives and beliefs carved in stone on the stele and ancient buildings. We are going to write our report in “chapters” so the pictures can be interspersed on the blog. This is an experiment, so I hope it works the way we are envisioning it.