Making Friends in Foreign Countries: Flores and Tikal, Saying Bye to ARCAS

Captain's log, Day 215: There is so much that an education in ecology or conservation would be missing if it were just carried out in the classroom. The crucial messages of conservation are delivered with the greatest success when brought right before people's eyes, which is how organizations like CIEE's Tropical Ecology Program in Monteverde, Bioparque Amaru, Fundacion Mazan, and ARCAS have made such a lasting impression on the lives of so many. Like most things in life, the best way to get to know the reality of tropical conservation is to live it--if you're given the chance, as I have been, and am so grateful for. Though the Baba Dioum quote I've got near my blogger profile sums this all up nicely--“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught," ithe lessons don't always just come to you. You've got to keep looking. The more you immerse yourself, the more inquisitive you are, the more people you try to meet, the wider you open your eyes, the more you'll get out of your travels in Latin America...and everywhere.

My friends all know I like to talk to everybody. I get it from my mother. 

The boat/lancha drivers on Lake Peten Itza, who would later become my friends and show me around the surrounding communities. The man cleaning bathrooms at Tikal, who paused to look at the same pair of Yellow-winged Tanagers I had been eyeing. The older couple on my recent flight to Quito who had Lewis and Clark hats on; whose daughter I had, by chance, spent an afternoon advising in Ernesto's conservation biology class. The cooking staff at Yarina Lodge, and birdmaster Jaima Grefa; Kichwa and Waorani colleagues from the Amazon.

I wouldn't have found two of Tikal's premier birding guides if I hadn't befriended Carlos, ARCAS's on-call lancha driver. He told us to call his uncle, Miguel Marin, before we went to Tikal---and if that didn't work, to search in the park itself, where service was bad. Which is what we ended up doing.

Here are the pictures from the end of my Guatemala trip, starting with the two days we spent in Tikal National Park. 

...and like all good adventures, it started with BIRDS. The Ocellated Turkey is found only in and around the Yucatan Peninsula. They were all over the park. 

This woman photobombed my shot of the first Mayan temple on our walking tour. Look at that EXCITEMENT.

Apparently the Mayans really loved a good quad/ham workout: all the temple steps were huge. 

For those of you who have never seen one, this is a Ceiba tree.

My friend Matt, from CIEE, came and worked with me for a week at ARCAS, and accompanied me to Tikal. 

So someone, namely Matt, was privy to all my conspiracy theories about the Mayan temples actually being sacred birdwatching towers. I mean, come ON. Look at that view over the Mayan Biosphere Reserve. They built some of these to be right at canopy level...

In the main plaza of Tikal, I spotted this man, Hugo Haroldo Enriquez, leading a group of twitchers (slang for birdwatchers from England) around. Turns out Hugo was working with Miguel, but they had split the group up into those who were willing to climb the steep stairs up to Temple IV. Not only that...

But they'd also just seen an Orange-Breasted Falcon!

Many of the temples were still being explored by anthropologists and archaeologists. The money for many of the excavation projects were donated from foreign nations: Japan had just donated several million to finance the excavation of an as-yet untouched temple close to the one in this picture. 

This is my good friend Matt! Matt came down and worked with me at ARCAS for a week, at the end of which we headed to Tikal together. This is us on top of Temple IV, with the Mayan Biosphere as far as we can see in three directions. It was super impressive...

As was our luck in finding one Miguel Marin! He invited us to join him for a birdwatching tour the following morning. Score.

Sunset on top of Temple IV.

We also got to see some serious moonlight when we walked back. Talk about spooky-just us, the owls, the nightjars, and Mayan temples, thousands of years old. 

We stayed the night in El Remate, outside of the park, and joined Hugo, Miguel, and their group in the morning.

Black-headed trogon! Miguel taught me a handful of unfamiliar bird calls, and we found a Couch's Kingbird!

When the twitchers went off to take tea, Matt and I decided to continue our solo trek around the park.

Gray-headed kite, nesting in the main plaza. 

Temple in the main plaza--looks kinda like GONDOR.

A model layout of Tikal. Many of the structures pictured here aren't excavated yet, which is exciting. 

If you read my last post , Rio Azul National Park is where ARCAS releases their animals! The dirt road to Uaxactun leading away from Tikal National Park goes much deeper into the Mayan Biosphere Reserve. Matt and I took two hours to wander it and appreciate the forest where there was less (in fact, no) tourist activity. We saw a number of animals and birds we hadn't seen within the park. Took us back to our walks through Corcovado National Park during our CIEE study abroad program in Costa Rica. Yee.

I'd definitely go back to Tikal for the hike to the Mirador (23 km) and Biotopo Cahui--shaped like a crocodile, and pictured here--next time around. 

Matt checkin' out a map of Guatemala when we got back to Flores. Peten is the large green section in the north. 

Sunsets on Flores with Brahmas and Gallos to end the trip.

...and street food! Matt loved that 25Q--quetzales--could get you more than a full meal and dessert. 

Sunrise in Flores the following morning.

The ARCAS volunteers hung out a lot in this Bar Amigos hostel. I'd recommend it for the interesting people, and even if the food's overpriced, it is delicious.

I waited for Matt to get up by putting together a list of discussion topics for a meeting with Alejandro. So much information to take back to Amaru! 

The day following our trip to Tikal, our friend Carlos showed us around his community on another part of Peten Itza: San Miguel. San Miguel and Flores are built on top of the ancient Mayan kingdom of King Kanec: in many parts of the surrounding forest, you can see unidentifiable structures with curled Mayan glyphs covered in the mosses and tree roots of time. 

There's a local legend about the Mayans who lived here when the conquistador Hernan Cortes arrived. Apparently, Cortes's horse was sick, and he asked the Mayans to watch over it and keep it healthy...or else he'd kill them all, as he was wont to do. The horse ended up dying, so the Mayans, in a desperate attempt to save themselves, built Cortes a horse sculpture from stone. Carlos says they accidentally dropped it in the lake before he arrived, but locals seem to have different opinions as to how the story actually ends. 

Carlos and me! Turns out he likes birds, just like his uncle. We're standing in front of the house he built himself. 

Hilly San Miguel, leading away from the lake. 

Carlos had a new puppy--his kids named him 'Harry' after Harry Potter. 

We fed this pony some Caimito! Om nom nom

The futbol field. A necessary part of any Latin American community. 

Looking down on Isla del Flores from above San Miguel!

D'awww. Matt and me, super tired from the last two days' nonstop adventures.

Carlos worked as a forest guard and cultural protector for Tayazal for seven years! He says they're underfunded, and would love to be able to do more research or restoration of the cultural treasure sitting under San Miguel...

A trip to the local beach and a White-collared Manakin lek before we headed back to Flores!

More street food. So delicious. So cheap.

Sweet plantains stuffed with black beans. Mmmm. 

As a parting celebration for Matt and a few others that were leaving that weekend, we ended up having a bonfire at ARCAS! Nevermind that it was sweltering that day...we had to fulfill our duty as Americans, and teach the Europeans how to make s'mores. Matt and I also got to pull out our old study abroad songbook and sing for a bit. Worth the heat? Definitely.  

There were quite a few people that arrived at ARCAS during my last week, after Matt had gone. Things got crazy hectic. And we almost sunk the ARCAS boat: 24 people total! Sheesh.

Some meandering hikes to find the Petencito Zoo were had. 

Turns out we took the, uh...long way. Oops.

Things we didn't know before the accidental long hike: there's another lagoon close to ARCAS! They called it Guitar lagoon, for its guitar-shape. 

The Zoo was much larger than we'd been expecting. It's funded by the Universitario de Peten, and has had government funding in the past. 

Alejandro had told us they had one of ARCAS's jaguars. They do. 

The zoo had an island where they kept some of the animals. Funny story--when I first got to ARCAS and started swimming in the lake, I didn't know that escaped crocodiles from the zoo lived around here. Ha. Ha.

Like at ARCAS, all of the animals in Petencito were native. Many of them had come from ARCAS. 

They had some interesting native insect displays, too. 

And this man: King of the Peccaries. He was so content with his herd. Didn't move from his seat the whole half hour we were walking around the island. hehe.

We made it back for dinner--my second to last ARCAS dinner, actually. This family is from Norway, and they're volunteering together for three months. They were the coolest.

Quetzal on the Guatemalan flag--and coins. Love it. 

I got to go in to town with a few of the newer volunteers for my last night. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to everyone working at the centers--my birdwatching CONAP friends demanded that I return. And I will. ARCAS is a dreamland for me, as a future conservation veterinarian. I'll be back.

And now, I'll be off.

Writing this on the morning before an Amaru Zoo roadtrip to Latacunga to meet Dr.Andres Ortega and Guambi, our future first Andean Condor.

Cheers, all. 

-Nikki