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By Victoria Schlesinger
The first time I explored the temple in Group H at Tikal National Park, I had the northernmost of the renowned ancient Maya ruins all to myself. I climbed up the temple's steep stone steps and wandered into its three inner chambers. Some anthropologists say the rooms in the tops of temples were meant to replicate caves in the side of a mountain. Maya priests sat in these sacred rooms and let blood from their bodies, allowing it to collect in small fig tree paper bowls. Mixed with leaves they burned the blood and as the smoke twisted and rose, a giant serpent emerged in front of the priests. The serpent's jaws split open and out leaned an ancestor there to guide and council.
Inside the first chamber I found a handmade ladder propped against the wall leading up to the roof. Rungs were fitted into crude notches on the frame and bound with botan vine. Placing hand above head, I climbed up the gray, dry wood on to the top of the temple, which lay flush with the jungle canopy. That first evening I watched a mother spider monkey, with a baby clinging to her belly, feed on the figs in a nearby tree, and within arm's reach was a mealy-headed parrot roosting on a branch that leaned in toward my limestone perch. Looking south, I could see the six major temples of Tikal poking up through the green canopy. In my travels through Central America, I've yet to discover a more exceptional place to witness the animals and plants of the ancient Maya.
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Victoria Schlesinger
Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya
FIELD GUIDE • 2002 • PAPER •
400 PAGES
Based in the San Francisco area, Victoria Schlesinger is a writer, conservationist, and devoted traveler
who has lived and conducted research throughout Mayadom. (MYA29, $29.95)
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