Tikal National Park...Day 8

 Today we spent the morning walking around Tikal National Park. Before heading out, we ate breakfast. I ordered French Toast and due to extremely slow service most of us didn't eat until 8 am. We met our guide, Rony, at the main building which has a replica of the national park. Rony gave some background information on the park, the Mayans, and what we would be doing for the morning.

During the day we stopped at several temples for the students to climb. It was nice to see some changes done to the park since my last visit. Instead of insane stairs to climb at temple IV, they had added a better stair system to get to the top. We still had some insane stairs to climb but the views from the top were worth it. The day was bearable. With some cloud coverage, it wasn't as hot until we reached the central complex then the students got to feel what it was truly like in the tropics.

After the tour, some students bought trinkets from the vendors and we all ate lunch before heading back to Rio Mopan.

 Along the road back to the border, we once again entered the Waiting Place. This time, road paving. Needless to say this was at least an hours wait while one side of the road was being paved and traffic traveled on the other side of the road. We headed back to Melchor and stopped at the Boutique Antiqua and got to meet the entire Hernedez family. After loading up our purchases, we headed to Rio Mopan and to a very nice steak and potatoes dinner.  Last night in Guatemala. The kids headed back to their rooms to pack up their belongs and to put aside anything that they wanted to donate to the clinic.

Good Shepherd Clinic, Road to Tikal...Day 7

After on last stroll around Jaguar Creek, we packed up the vans and headed to the Good Shepherd Clinic to see Margret Wann. While we drove the miles to the clinic the topic of conversation in the van lead to faith and God. When we arrived at the clinic the other van was having the same type of conversation. Margret showed the kids around the clinic. Her clinic focuses on woman's health but also treats others from the surrounding area. They have doctors that come and to do surgery. Margret spoke to the kids about being a servant. She stated, "No matter what you do, give 2005 of yourself. You will be tired but you'll be able to say you lived a full life!" After this moving talk, we were treated to lunch before heading to the border.

 It took awhile at the border. Leaving Belize wasn't so much of an issue but entering Guatemala was. First there was no one present to stamp the passports, then the man filing the information on the vans only did one van and had to do another one when we thought we were ready to go, then we had to pay an illegal fee to cross the river. Needless to say this was the point of the trip where the kids stated they could have done with out. We started using the term "Waiting Place." This was just one of the "Waiting Places" we would experience while in Guatemala.

We took a brief stop at Rio Mopan to leave a lot of the bags since we were only staying in Tikal for a night. Marcus was out in the bush leading a team so his wife took care of every thing. After rio Mopan, we stopped at Boutique Antiqua, owned by the Hernedez family. This would give students a chance to see what textile items they could purchase so that they wouldn't spend a lot while in the park.

The road in Guatemala heading to Tikal is always an adventure. Some improvements were being made, like paving the road, but we still had to bob and weave to avoid massive pot holes, sleeping policemen, etc.  Eventually we made it to Tikal National Park. Along the park road, we stopped to look a different type of wildlife or to take interesting road crossing signs that you wouldn't see in America.

Once in the park, we headed to the Jaguar Inn where we would be staying for the night. Here we would have our meals, being able to pick from a menu was a nice change, and in the morning pick up our guide to the park. Doc and I worked on a little project before calling it a night.