Adventures of the Hatchell Family: Tikal and Rio Dulce

Well... we're pretty tired, and we're trying to find time amidst our studying to share our adventures from the past weekend with our friends and family. We have quite a bit to tell!!!...

Last week was our first week of 6 hours of Spanish each day. Although it proved a bit tiring, we believe that we have progressed well and that the extra hours of practice in the afternoons with our teachers will prove beneficial for us. That doesn't mean we wouldn't still appreciate your prayers for endurance!

Now, for our weekend adventure...

Last Friday, we left from Antigua with about 30 people- including other students, a teacher from the school, and our host family- for Tikal in a school bus (yes, we said a school bus... not the most comfortable mode of transportation for a 24-hour roundtrip). Tikal is the general name for a national park and collection of Mayan ruins in the northern region of Guatemala. These ruins aren't your typical small pieces of statues and stones left here and there... these were the remains of whole central complexes of Mayan cities and magnificent temples. We really just stood around open-mouthed part of the day in amazement of the size and complexity of the buildings. We walked around for 7 hours or so in the park (and climbed a few temples) and probably only saw half of the ruins. We think our pictures may be more interesting than anything we could describe of them...

Just like in Legends of the Hidden Temple - thanks, Nickelodean!

Us on top of the highest temple, Temple IV. You can see other temples in the background.

Temple V. And yes, that tiny person climbing the really steep stairs is DeeDee.

Kris in front of Temple I - the Jaguar!

(Steve, we cannot believe you actually slept on top of this in the 1970s!!)

Us and some of our host family (the four females directly to the left of us)

When we left Tikal Sunday morning (at 4 A.M.... don't worry, the roosters next to our hotel helped wake us up!), we drove 4 hours to Rio Dulce, the main river in Guatemala that connects the mainland to the Atlantic Ocean. We enjoyed a nice breakfast on the water, then traveled to the famous site, el Castillo de San Felipe- a castle from the mid-1600s that helped protect the waters of Lake Isabel from intrusion from the Rio Dulce. We took a short boat ride touring part of the river (costing only $2 a piece... have we mentioned that we love prices here?!) and then got a guided tour of the castle, with original cannons and all. We finished our 6-hour bus ride back to Antigua quite pooped and ready for bed!