The ruins looked just like this except not a blue in the sky and darker and with a lot of rain.
So here’s the scoop. The killer hurricane, Dean, forced us to cancel the Kelly family trip to Cancun. Kate and I were suposed to meet her family in Cancun tomorrow afternoon but Cancun officials have asked tourists not to come. So tickets have ben canceled and plans changed. As of now we are meeting in San Diego. Lucky for us BYU has changed our tickets so we can meet them there.
In the meantime Kate and I we have decided to visit Palenque, a famouse Mayan city that trived during the Early and Lateclassic periods (425 – 725 AD). Yesterday we arrived by bus…and by bus I mean food processor. I get car sick about as often as Bush admints he makes mistakes, but by the end of the ride I was ready to give up the morning meal. To make matters worse they ran a 6 hour “Die Hard” marathon…and the bus ride was only 5 hours…go figure. We crashed in the first hotel we could find (with a pool) and had a nice dinner, a lovely swim, and a crapy sleep on crappy beds. I will let Kate tell you more about this in her forthcoming entery.
This mroning we went to the ruins and man are they amazing. The only problem is we are experaancing a little of Dean’s furry and it has been raining all day. Just after we entered teh park some tourists were walking through the jungle when a giant tree branch nearly fell on them. Luckly they ran to safty, but it was crazy.
While Barbara never made it to hurricane status, we still have felt its affects. It has been raining in San Cristobal for a week and yesterday when whats left of the storm hit, we had rain and hail for hours. There is nothing like the sound of rain and hail on a tin roof and thunder to help you focus on your work project. Actually, I have really enjoyed the rain and lightning, reminds me of storms back in Kenya. The only downside is the neighborhood doesn’t drain very well, so we basically have to boat out of the compound.
Tropical Storm Barbara was supposed to be the first of the hurricanes this season, but before it hit the Mexico -Guatemala border it shrunk to small storm status. Lets just say if what hit us yesterday was just a small storm I can’t imagine what would happen if a hurricane or its remnants hit San Cristobal. Well they say “9 Hurricanes Expected in Revised Forecast” so we’ll see what happens.
A few shots from the storm
We have had rain the last few days…and lots of it. Apparently San Cristobal doesn’t handle rain very well. I was told that a few years ago the entire city flooded because the main drainage pipe was blocked with garbage. There was so much water the military had to blow up the drainage pipe with a bomb to get the water draining. I was told this in Spanish so please question its accuracy…but it did happen. There are some photos of the New World Archaeological Compound Kate and I live & work in with 4 feet of water in some rooms.
Today the sun is out and the clouds aren’t so menacing. The rain has been fun, especially soothing at night. The sound is very lulling. The say the mosquitoes come out when the rainy season starts but they go away as the rain continues. I am just glad Kate and I aren’t living down the mountain where it is hot and mosquitoy all the time.
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