April 2, 2007

The Peten region of Guatemala is a vast lowland forest adjacent to Mexico and Belize. Midday temperatures approach 90. There's a nice breeze in the open areas of Tikal, the nearby ancient Maya temple complex. Skies are blue with white puffy clouds.

We are in the middle of the jungle, in Parque Nacional de Tikal. We've seen red-lored parrots, keel-billed toucans, montezuma oropendolas and the great cassowary. (I recommend a Google image search to check out some of these birds.) We've taken to calling the flamboyant oropendolas "crazybirds" for their boisterous, strange noises and their big nests right in the middle of Tikal's Gran Plaza. There also are a lot of familiar species here including magnolia warblers, belted kingfishers and little blue herons.

Toward sunset yesterday, we noticed a couple of people looking up at a tree in the Mundo Perdido (Lost World) section. There was loud rustling in the branches above. A four-foot-tall spider monkey was thrashing around up there. We soon noticed at least six, high in the ceiba and other trees above us. We were soon the only people in the area. The monkeys put on a show unlike anything at the zoo. They were completely insane--leaping from tree to tree, impossible distances grasping at a branch at the last moment with a paw, foot, prehensile tail.

At one point, they started squawking and right out of "Wild Kingdom" a hawk swooped in and nicked one good. It let out a painful whimper that left even the most stoic fellow primate sympathetic. Another hawk swooped in, but this time the monkey was ready and avoided the attack.

Black vultures are like crows here. They beg from visitors at the Gran Plaza. At least a dozen are roosting in a big tree outside our room as I write this. Black vultures are common in the southern United States--but their behavior here is surprising. Still, the image of them perched high on 1,500-year-old ruins is quite dramatic. It's these little discoveries that may be the best part of the adventure so far.