Quirigua

We finally made it over to Quirigua, some ruins near our house. It was fun but I wish we would have had a guide. They didn't have any there available. You must have to hire them at the tour agencies. We could still feel the feeling you get walking through an ancient area and the wander and awe of a civilization that once was, but it would have been even better to have an explanation of what we were looking at. We did have a little guide book that helped some.

I will definately do some investigating and read up on it before we go back again.

In one of the pictures Xela is holding a cotton like fiber in her hands. The trees were shedding this everywhere. We also saw a lot of rubber trees with little black cups collecting the rubber product. I should have taken a picture.

There is also a picture of Xela by a tree with huge roots growing up out of the ground. We thought that was cool, and a picture of Xela by a huge rock ruin. I am pretty positive that it is a carving of a turtle. I would like to read and see how the mayans viewed turtles. The tall carving by Ammon was one of many. They are monuments erected in honour of the rulers. They are carved with their likeness and symbols indicating how long they ruled. One had a picture of a man with his hands on the head of the ruler.

They are still excavating and it is obvious that there are more buried temples there because of the great mounds in the area. Our mayan guide at Tikal told us these are more temples.

You have to come visit this place with us!

Mel