August 14th through August 16th

August 14^th through August 16^th:  We packed so much fun into the first 3 days of Charlotte, Evan and Moose’s visit that I need to do 2 posts for the week.  Monday we picked up our daughter, Charlotte, and our two grandsons, Evan and Moose at the airport.  These two grandsons recently turned 12 years old and so we wanted them to come and do baptisms for the dead at the Guatemala Temple and to see some of beautiful Guatemala.  We took them to the house, fed them and hit the road to Rio Dulce.  

Happy faces and good times ahead.

We stopped at the ruins at Quirigua to see the wonderful carved stelae.  We had a picnic lunch and spent only about an hour walking around the ruins and the jungle.  

Lunch at Quirigua

Quirigua

This is the largest stelae in Central America.

The stelae are very impressive at Quirigua.

Stand up straight Poppa

Moose wanted to hike into the jungle.

The conquerors at Quirigua.

We then drove to Rio Dulce.  We got there in time to visit the Castle San Felipe, an old fort/castle that was built to stop pirates from coming up river.  Our hotel was only a block from the castle.  Afterward we cooled off in the pool.  We ate dinner at the side of the pool and enjoyed a lightning and thunder storm.  We went to bed early because I told them all that we needed to be on the road at 6:00am.  

Castle San Felipe



Click Below to view the castle.

San Felipe Castle

Everyone is running out of energy.

Cooling off in the pool was great.

Tuesday In reality, we got on the road at 6:30am, not too bad, I’d say.  About an hour and 30 minutes into our drive, I realized that I had left my phone in our hotel room.  I called them and sure enough it was where I had left it, in the bathroom.  I told them to hang on to it and we would be back the next day to get it. We arrived at Tikal about 9:30am.      We then had breakfast, bought our tickets for the park and drove to the where the real entrance to the ruins are.  The ride between where you buy your tickets and enter the ruins is about 30 minutes long.  

Breakfast before entering Tikal.

The entrance into Tikal.

The road into Tikal is so beautiful.

Click below to see the road into Tikal

The tree tunnel into Tikal

Headed into the park.

We waited for a truck that has bench seats in the back to come back to the entrance and then rode to the back side of Temple I.  That saved us a 30 minute walk.  We walked around the ruins for about 4 hours.  It was hot and humid.  

Mom and I have been here a few times so we let the others wonder and climb around and we stayed pretty much at ground level. 

Click below to see Moose climb


Moose climbing a temple

Can you see mom and I talking to a man with a red shirt.

These are the stairs on the back side of temple IV that you have to climb in order to get to the top and enjoy the view.

Charlotte, Evan and Moose climbed to the top of Temple IV and you can see 4 of the other temples sticking up out of the jungle.

Sorry you are washed out Char. Right behind Charlotte is Temple IV and we were trying to get it in the background.

Here is Temple II with lots of people at the top.

We came across this snake eating a frog.

Resting

Charlotte and Evan heading off to explore
 Mundo Perdido.

Truck ride out.

Click below to see the truck ride

The truck ride out of Tikal

We did a little souvenir shopping and then we drove back to the park entrance and Charlotte, Evan and Moose went zip lining.  They all enjoyed it.  We then drove about 1 hour and 45 minutes to Poptun and stayed at the Finca Ixobel.  Finca translates as estate, but I think a better description would be ranch or farm. We had dinner in the restaurant. We had a little cottage to ourselves and slept under mosquito netting. 

The adventure begins.

They go right across the road and entrance into the park.

Moose ziplining

Click below to see Moose

Moose ziplining

Evan ziplining

Click below to see Evan

Evan ziplining

Charlotte ziplining

Click below to see Charlotte

Charlotte ziplining

They all made it with the help of their two guides.

The door to our cottage.

This was a mural painted on the bathroom wall.

Moose loves hammocks.

This guy was in a cage right next to our cottage.

Wednesday, I got everyone up at 5:30 am and we were on the road by 6:00 am.  We drove back to Rio Dulce and got my phone and then kept going, arriving back in Guatemala City about 1:00 pm.  We only had about a 40 minute delay for construction crossing the mountain between El Rancho and Guatemala City.  

Charlotte and Evan trying to wake up.  
We were protected from the mosquitos.

Getting ready to hit the road.

Everyone seemed fascinated with my driving skills.

Click below to see Dad's driving

Dad passing cars and trucks

We fixed lunch and then went to the central market where we spent a couple of hours shopping.  We then came home and got cleaned up and went to the temple.  I baptized Mom, Charlotte, Evan and Moose for some of our dead ancestors.  It was Moose’s first time, he having been ordained a deacon only the day before he flew here.  It was a sweet experience.  I had some family names I had been saving and a couple of the sisters at the temple asked if we could do some names for them. 

After doing baptisms for the dead.

We then ordered pizza and played CEO. The night before Evan had ruled as CEO most of the night, but Charlotte was the clear CEO this time around.  Mom is enjoying the hugs and dotting on the boys.  I am loving having them here also.  Family is the best.