Thursday, August 05, 2010

 

Quirigua Mayan Ruins of Guatemala

The big activity here at Mario's Marina last week (for us summer campers) was a 1/2-day trip to a local site of Mayan ruins called Quirigua. This small site is off the beaten track of the modern world and not visited much by tourists, but it is less than an hour away from the marina here.

Quirigua is known for it's stelae which are intricately carved stone pillars. Of all the Mayan ruins in Central America, these are supposed to be the best preserved. From what you can see in the pictures, there is still a lot of detail easily viewed. I really liked the feather motifs running down the corners of some of the stelae.

After the Mayans abandoned this area and drifted off into other areas, the jungle grew up over all of their building projects. It was eerie to walk around the site and imagine that over a thousand years ago this place was bustling with activity.

Today, the jungle has been cleared just enough for us to view these artifacts and surrounds the site, but just barely. Right beyond the boundaries of the park are large banana plantations. This is where YOUR bananas come from if you buy Del Monte brand.

It was hot and humid with the threat of rain which is what it is everyday here in the lowlands of Guatemala during the summer months. But we trudged through the sodden grass and even explored out into the muddy and buggy jungle to see more.

These are the "steps" (?) leading up to the major building area. We had a hard time climbing them as they were so tall. Wait a minute here...the local Mayan indians are quite short statured. These must have been (are still are) a tough climb. Oh look! Jonesy is wearing some of the socks that I knit for him. See? He really does wear his "all-season wool" socks when we venture out.

The largest structure was the Acropolis which is all made of large stone blocks. We could see where excavations were still being conducted here so perhaps there will be more treasures to see in the future. No big temples here. We'll have to travel to other sites to see those. But the artwork is beautiful at Quirigua.









So, we're doing fine. We both had our routine dental checkup & cleanings ($25 each) by an english-speaking dentist. Then, Jonesy had a small filling repaired (another $25). I had my annual mammogram ($35) which was done on a walk-in basis and I had the films in my hands with the radiologist's report of good news in 2 days. Life is good.

Comments:
Hi,

the Maya place looks really nice and very interesting.
I used to live in Mexico in the 1980`s. And I visited some Maya places there. Once we had a school trip planed to the south and to Guatemala. But unfortunately we had a bad accident with a
lot of injured students and teachers. So we had to go home after two days. We never reached the border to Guatemala. :-(

Best regards, enjoy your time,
Judith from Switzerland
 
Wow, what a sight, very beautiful! It brought back memories of my visit to Macchu Picchu, Peru a few years ago. It's amazing to think that the people built / carved all this stuff by hand, not like there were bulldozers and cranes to help them out.

Glad you both got a clean bill of health too. Take care and stay safe Terry and Jonesy!
 
Wow that is bringing me back over 30 years. Hubby and I visited Cancun way before it was the tourist trap that it is now. We took a side trip including lunch to the (dont laugh at my phonetic spelling) chicken it zoo...ruins which had just been discovered. They were clearing it with hand held machete's, no heavy equipment down there, and we only got to see the little vine covered corner that was finished....just to think wew saw it that way... thanx for the trip down memory lane.
So happy for your good news... Darrell
 
Such beautiful carvings in the ruins! And I love the prices of your medical and dental work!
 
.... all I can say is WOW!!! these ruins are beautiful. You keep finding more and better things all the time.... what a great adventure. Take care.
 
Amazing pictures.
 
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