A Full Half Third Day

 Day three.   This is a day that I think shall always remain strong in my memory.  There are a couple reasons.  One, waking up in Guatemala can not really be registered as normal in my life experience...  yet.  The picture above is yet another unforgettable Guatemalan transport demonstration.  Kid maybe between 10 and 12 driving a four wheeler through town with a girl on the back.  The kid was wearing sun glasses and really I think he was trying hard to look cool.  Which he kind of did.   This we saw while driving to a local Mayan ruin.

 When we arrived at the park where the ruins were I thought this tree shadow was doing a good job of making the solid ground look more unique than usual.

 Here is one of the first ruins we saw upon our arrival.  A foundation of what they think must have been some sort of Mayan house.  These ruins are thought to vary in in age from 3000 BC to the Mayan collapse around the time of the Spanish invasions.  Next we went over to a small shelter with a table in it.  On the table was a diorama of the site we were at.  The guide was starting to show us where we would be going and what we would be seeing at each site.  He spoke in Spanish, so I was only getting part of what he said. Most through our hosts translation and a word or two on my own.
I suddenly noticed the a wobbling of the floor or ground of the building.  I thought the floor might be fake and the building was simply not built well.  Then the wobbling turned into shaking and I looked at the guide who had a fearful smile that had stopped him mid explanation.  Then we all looked at each other as we simultaneously noted the ground all around and under us start to shake.  This was followed by a deep rumble which seemed louder because of the grounds accompanying shake.  We all ran out of the shelter into the rain of falling leaves as the girls from the visiting school group added their dramatic screams. Then for about 10 to 15 seconds we just shook.  Then it slowed down and stopped and I wondered if the ground was still wobbly or if it was simply my weak knees. It was amazing.  At the time my brother and I had no idea how big it was.  We figured this was fairly common and we had just got a taste of a normal Guatemalan geologic event. After all we had already seen half a dozen volcanoes.  It was not till later that we realized how blessed we really were.   Thankfully, Lucrecia contacted our family right away to let them know we were okay.  This was a big blessing to our family.

Adaptability is normal in Guatemala and an earthquake happens and you go on with the tour.  So after that we went on to see some very interesting Mayan ruins.  Here is our guide explaining the carvings on this altar.  Most of the carvings were hard to see in real life, making pictures almost a hopeless cause.  I liked his pointer stick which consisted of a wooden stick with a feather tied to the end.

This is an example of an ancient Mayan drainage system.  This is how it was discovered. Talk about being built to last.  While there we got to see an area where they were uncovering a road.  What was interesting was that you could see that there had been structures built on top of it later.  This was a very clear example of multiple historical changes at one site.

Here is a little example of some of the damage caused by the earthquake.  These are the temporary shelters used by the archaeologists at the site while they are digging.  The shelter we were in when the earthquake started was of solider build.   Also note the leaves that shook off the trees during the earthquake.

This is an example of where the name Takalik Abaj comes from.  In the old Mayan language it translates to "standing stones", which are unique to this site.  This particular one was about 8 or 9 feet tall.  On the sides there were smooth indentations where the priests would sharpen their knives.  It was very interesting to run your hand along the smooth rock and think about all that had come before.

This is one of the many stone monuments at this site.  If you look closely you can see the body of a man with and arm holding a spear.  This was one of the more well defined carving we saw.

This is me and Michael standing on a partially uncovered pyramid. That is probably one of the most exciting things about this site.  They figure only about 40% of it has been uncovered.    While we were there, there were parts we could not go because they were in the midst of unearthing a Mayan king's tomb.  And they also would not allow us to take pictures of those parts.

Another standing stone.  This one is supposed to be a pregnant lady.

Another partially uncovered pyramid or maybe just a hillside terrace.  Either way, it is some very impressive stone work.

We were surrounded by jungle.  This is a path from one site to another.

We got to go a look at a collection of some artifacts they have found at the site.  This is a jade burial mask.  The white is not part of the mask, it simply represents how it would be placed on the face.

This is another stone altar with a standing stone on the dead side of one of the pyramids.  The pyramids had a side that represented life and the other side represented death.  There is a carving on this standing stone.  It is two men with a glythic panel between them.

Here is a big frog face.  Another symbol of death.

And a crocodile.  On the death side.

Again, this is amazing stone work.  This represents a lot of work.

Panorama of the pyramid.

When we got back to our hosts house there were a couple signs that there had been a shake up.  This is one of their big windows which had been broken.

My new Guatemalan canine friend, Quirea.  Hope I spelled that right.  She liked to playfully bite which ever limb was available.

Maria (pictured above) was the magician of the kitchen.  She made some of the tastiest food I have ever had.
That was the first half of the day.  A pretty full half day at that.  Later we discovered that the earthquake we had experienced was a 7.4 magnitude, whose epicenter had been just of the coast from where we were.  An earthquake of that size had not happened in Guatemala since 1976.  It also ended in tragedy for about 70 people who lost their lives in collapsing structures. Again we had a multitude of reasons to feel very blessed for God's protection and grace.  Because when you feel the ground shaking, you realize how out of control you really are.