"A man can be himself only as long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free." - Arthur Schopenhauer
Self portrait while I was hiking the mountains around "La Mitad del Mundo" alone. La Mitad del Mundo or the middle of the word, is located just north of of Quito, Ecuador and this is where the Equator pass.
La RutaInka ended in the accent Mayan city of Tikal and of course I was really pumped to get to see this fascinating place. The day we got to Tikal we decided not to go in till the next day since we had arrived late and wouldn't have that much time to explore. I was told for 50 bucks I could get snuck into the park before they opened and see the sunrise from the highest temple. That night we camped right outside and there was a down pour, I thought it wouldn't of been worth it to go in for the sunrise since you probably wont be able to see much, but I did swear to my self to go back and see the sunrise.
The next day some friends and I got a group together, got a tour guild, and started our hike into the jungle to get to the temples. As soon as we started walking the tour guild told us that everything we saw when Tikal was at it's prime had no trees at all and was just building after building like NYC. As you hiked you could see a hill after a hill after a hill and a nicely made rode between them, this is because each of them hills are temples/buildings under all the dirt.
You can't image the size of the largest temples until you see them in person. Just image hiking on a trail threw the jungle and then getting to a clearing wheres there's a stone wall and you look up and you just can see any end to it. There are only a few temples you can go up on but the climb up them is quit an adventurer it's self and then the climb down scares the shit out of you. The steps you use to go up are straight up into the air, they're more like a ladder then steps. The average height of the temples are about 20 floors high, so just imagine climbing up the side of a 20 floor building on a ladder and then when you get to the top there aren't any railings and then you have to climb back down that ladder.
The hypothesis why Tikal was abandoned is that all the trees you see below were all cut down by the Mayans to build temples and buildings. So because they had cut all the trees down area dried out and it was uninhabitable. What blows my mind is the fact that 100s of years later Mother Natural has taken this area back and you can barley see the huge city that was once there.
The image below was taken from same spot that was used for Star Wars. I've post a clip below from the film so you can compare.
If you zoom in to a small section of the middle of the left side in the image above you find these two little guys below. Tikal is a real jungle and there are no cages at all, the animals are in the wild and roaming freely.
I'm a huge Patriots fan and when I seen this lady, with a Pats hat, in Tikal, the middle of a jungle, you best believe I was pumped. It was just great benign able to be at the NYC of the ancient world and then seeing another Pats fan there what more could I ask for.
Once we got to El Salvador we were greeted by very friendly people from Ministerio de Turismo de El Salvador or the department of trouisum of the country. The first place they took us was the city of La Paz where they gave of shirt, had a chance to shop for suverners, go to a musume, and we ate typical food. After beening in this town for a few hours they took us to the bottlem of the a montant(La Peña Rajada) where we had to hike about an hour hour and hafe to the top where we were going to set up camp for the night. The top of La Peña Rajadt is the highest point in El Salvador. They had a little cabin on the top where they gave us Pupusa a typical food and where we all played games as a group. A few friends and I also played around with some long exposures.
The last days we were in Honduras we stayed in a little town out side of the ancient Mayan city of Copan. Out of all the places we had been in all off Central America Copan has the best preserved pyramids and statues I had seen, you could just image what this great city looked like in its prime.
While in Honduras we went to a small town where in colonially time the people of the town managed to use the water from a water fall to crate public showers, pools, and places where they could wash their cloths. Till this day this is still used day by the locals.
The day after been in Leon we went to Juigalpa in Chontales to a the museum of Gregorio Aguilar Barea. This museum is divided into two parts, the first part consisted of the largest statuses in South America made by the natives thousands of years ago and the other part was an exhibition of deformed animals which had a fetus with just one eye place in the middle of it's forehead.
The next place we went to was El Parque de las Piedras Pintadas or the park of the painted rocks. At the park we walked up a hill going from archaeological site to archaeological site looking at ancient cravings on rocks. There was cravings every were you stepped. About every ten feet you walk you would see twenty by twenty foot wide rock with all kinds of carvings on them. Some of the carving were of animals to honer them.
Other of the carving were of people, some of shaman dancing and participating in rituals. This park still needs a lot of work, only a few sites have a roof over them to protect them from the elements and there are a lot of rocks with carvings to be found. The problem is that they don't have the money to build the roofs or to have archaeologist properly uncover the cravings. This is the second historical site they we had been to and could not be properly show because of lack of money. I feel if money could be gather to have these area fixed up for tourism Nicaragua would receive a lot of income as well as becoming very touristic and most important help conserve their history. It would be a disaster to hear that these carving made so long ago would not be there any more, proof of first human art on earth.
At one of the sites there was man made pool where we were told that the shaman told the tribe members that they had to take all the women's virginity and then she could shower in this pool and would get their virginity back for their husband.
At the top of the hill there was a great 360 view of the land around us which we were told that is full of these carvings.
During the walk there was all kinds of bugs, like ants, flies, misquotes, bees, etc. But the one that I have heard about and only seen on TV was the stick bug. So when we came upon one I just had to get a shot of it.
The day after been in Leon we went to Juigalpa in Chontales to a the museum of Gregorio Aguilar Barea. This museum is divided into two parts, the first part consisted of the largest statuses in South America made by the natives thousands of years ago and the other part was an exhibition of deformed animals which had a fetus with just one eye place in the middle of it's forehead.
The next place we went to was El Parque de las Piedras Pintadas or the park of the painted rocks. At the park we walked up a hill going from archaeological site to archaeological site looking at ancient cravings on rocks. There was cravings every were you stepped. About every ten feet you walk you would see twenty by twenty foot wide rock with all kinds of carvings on them. Some of the carving were of animals to honer them.
Other of the carving were of people, some of shaman dancing and participating in rituals. This park still needs a lot of work, only a few sites have a roof over them to protect them from the elements and there are a lot of rocks with carvings to be found. The problem is that they don't have the money to build the roofs or to have archaeologist properly uncover the cravings. This is the second historical site they we had been to and could not be properly show because of lack of money. I feel if money could be gather to have these area fixed up for tourism Nicaragua would receive a lot of income as well as becoming very touristic and most important help conserve their history. It would be a disaster to hear that these carving made so long ago would not be there any more, proof of first human art on earth. 
