5 Mar--Tikal

Fri, 5 Mar we booked the 7am bus to Tikal, which picked us up at 7:30, ..... and had a flat tire on the way .... it is about an hour ride, so we were walking the grounds by 9:30am. the first thing we saw were these tails ... it was the White Nosed Coatimundi, a relative to our raccoon. their tail is 75-100% the size of it's body and head. they sleep in treetops at night, are omniviorous and forage during the day. they were cute ... but i understand, about as desirable to have around your home as our raccoons ! the next thing we saw were the Howler Monkeys ... i was very excited about this because i wanted to see them while at Chaa Creek and did not ... so ... now i've seen them ... still have not heard them though ... i showed you a photo of the Ceiba (say-ba) Tree, the Maya Sacred Tree of Life, when we were in Chaa Creek ... we'll the one they have here, dwarfs the one at Chaa Creek .... at 210ft and more than 6ft in diameter, which does not count the extensive and wide buttresses it has for stability... it's a monster. it definitely commands your attention when you see it. however, i haven't seen one that you can drive your car through, like the Redwoods. 'we' have them beat there :) i continue to be fascinated with the Leaf Cutter Ant. unfortunately i never saw another procession like i did the first night at Chaa Creek; but several times i've noticed their 'trails' while walking through the rain forest. this was another 'trail' that i noticed. and ... there was one lonely ant, trying his best to carry something, ...it wasn't a leaf, but looked kind of like the top of an acorn ... you know, that little 'hat' that is has on it ... anyway, this was not a Leaf Cutter Ant, because they are red and this guy was black. he struggled and struggled and of course, i watched him for awhile ... until i could tell that Eddi was losing her patience with me :) in the photo, you can also see a lot of pieces of leaves that had been cut by the ants and left on the trail. i love the nature stuff ... i would have been happy to watch the ants, birds, coatimundi, and monkeys all day long ... but that wasn't why we were there :) these beautiful bromeliads were everywhere in the trees ... their light green foliage and pink flowers were striking with the dark green leaves of the rain forest trees. they were covering a lot of the branches at the top of the Ceiba Tree .... monkeys? did someone mention monkeys? this is a Spider Monkey ... he was very happy just hanging by his huge tail and eating his breakfast. i watched him for a long time too :) i will also put some video on You Tube, will let you know when that's finished they had few 'concession stands' at Tikal because of it's size. a guide was there with a group and Eddi started talking to him, i joined in, and challenged him to find me a tarantula .... a few minutes later he returned ... the same guide showed us this Peanut Head Moth, he was about 4" long. i had seen a photo at the Nature Center at Chaa Creek. they really do look like someone stuck a peanut on their head ! after leaving here i saw more Spider Monkeys ... this is the Montezuma Oropendola bird. they were making a lot of noise in one of the trees in the Grand Plaza at Tikal. When we climbed Temple II we saw their the nests hang from the top of a tree. the nests from 2-6ft long, and there can be as many as 50-150 nests in a colony; and each colony has only one dominate male .. how you like those odds ????

these beautiful turkeys were walking and feeding on the grounds here. they are called Ocellated Turkey, deriving it's name from the peacock-like ocelli (eyes) on the tail feathers. it is good tasting and popular with hunters and are increasingly rare in the area. it is found only in Central America, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico ok, so i'm at Tikal, one of the largest and most famous Maya civilization sights in the world .. and i haven't shown you one photograph of a temple yet ..... sorry, ... i'll put them in another blog ...