Guatemala City

Yesterday we were in Guatemala City and we went to a few things. We went to the Archeology museum, we went to the relief map, and we went to the zoo. I really liked the zoo. We tried to go to the Popul Vuh Museum (the Popul Vuh is kinda like the Mayan Bible) and the Children´s Museum, but they were closed for the holidays. So we got a taxi to the mall, then we walked around, got a little snack, went to the mall. I tied mom in air hockey at the video arcade. Mom and Dad played Ms. PacMan and Dad played Galiga while I played street fighter. Then we went to a hotel and waited for about an hour because our shuttle was delayed. The hotel was special because it was where I first met my mom and dad when I was a baby.

At the zoo, we saw some coyotes. The coyotes howled for a long time. We saw some coatimundis, an ostrich, a peacock, a white peacock, a puma, a bunch of parrots, an eagle, and a barn owl. We saw a boa constrictor, a false corn snake, a python and a bunch of other snakes. We didn´t see any bears. We some spider monkeys, some with babies. We saw a lion, and a jaguar. We didn´t see a quetzal; I wonder why that was.

At the Archeology Museum, there was a whole collection of masks. A mask of a wolf, jaguar, lion, puma, pig, bull. They had this cool ceremony with maniquins that was suposed to be the Dance of the Deer (Danza del Venado) which had a guy with a rifle and three people with deer masks and capes, and five people that were watching with jaguar masks, and one regular guy wearing a hood over his face. They had a display of Maximon, who is a Mayan saint that smokes and drinks. They had a whole display of Tikal with miniature guys. Outside there was a fountain, and around the fountain with rock carvings. There was one that was a crocodile with a skull in the back of its head, and there were Mayan heads and monkeys. Then we entered a cool room with a bunch of jade necklaces and I think the Mayan alphabet on two slabs of stone. Then when we went around the corner, we saw a skeleton in its crypt covered with jade necklaces, bracelets and stuff.

Then we drove to the relief map that showed the whole of Guatemala and a bit of Mexico. It had Antigua, San Juan, San Pedro, the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. You could see Tikal and all the other pyramids, and they had little docks on the Pacific and Atlantic.

Today we are going to be around the house and take laundry in the town. We have to pick that up at about 4 p.m. Tomorrow we start our five day trip to Tikal and some caves.