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(October 17-23)

Hello Everyone-

We have been in Guatemala for a week. We have been staying in Antigua which is an upscale town built on the ruins of the original Spanish seat in Guatemala. We first took a walking tour with an American woman who has lived here 30 years and so now we are Antiguan experts. We visted some recently uncovered tombs of Spanish monks from the 16th century. She also invited us to come to an art gallery opening that night - we never expected to be drinking wine and eating hor d'oeuvres and viewing artworks in Guatemala. The featured Guatemalan artist has just been commissioned to paint a mural in the new San Francisco Library so that was a coincidence.

We also went to Chichicastenango which holds the largest outdoor market on Sundays. We bargained, in Spanish, for clothes, rugs, etc. Don did very well getting the price down, In fact he was so stubborn one woman had to follow us the whole time and they argued back and forth over the price but we finally ended up with a beautifully embroidered calendar.

Then we flew from Guatemala city to Tikal (on a very terrifyingly old Russian propeller plane). Tikal is the famous Mayan ruin near the Belize border. This kingdom was built and occupied from around 500BC to 900AD. In its full glory, it housed 100,000 people. Several large temples were built from solid limestone up to 200 ft. High. We climbed a few of these (including the tallest) and got quite a workout. Tikal is in the deep jungle and we were constantly entertained by gray foxes, spider and howler monkeys (the howler call was pretty bone-chillingly to experience), leaf-cutter ants, buzzards, toucans, parrots and a cute creature that looked like a small raccoon, but with a long, flexible snout.. We stayed in the "Jungle Lodge"which was built for the archeologists while they uncovered the site (1956).

We had no problem finding an Internet connection; there are many shops offering the service for $6/hr with fiber optic link-up!! And all the latest software.

Next, we continue on to San Jose, Costa Rica to see the Cloud Forests and more jungle flora and fauna.

From Don & Karen Gray

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