This morning at dawn we got up and headed out from the jungle where we have been for the last several days. It rained last night and in the morning giving our last hours here at the agroforestry and permaculture farm a solid rainforest feel. The place is stocked with a huge number of food, medicine, fiber, and lumber trees. Its basically a rainforest filled with useful plants. The farm swirls with birdlife, many kinds of hummingbirds, parakeets, toucans, warblers, oropendulas etc etc. One night an agouti (smallish herbivore, a big rodent) came out of the jungle edge. The owner shot it and we cooked it up; quite tasty. We've been eating coconut, bananas, corn, greens, cabbage, cacao, and some other fruit which I cant remember names of. The project hosts students coming to research tropical agriculture and agroforestry. Its all to show that we can provide for our needs, quite easily in fact, and still have room for all the other plants and animals too.
Yesterday a young man led us through the jungle to a nearby Mayan ruins called Lubaantun. It was a smallish city sitting on a hill surrounded by villages and "suburbs". The remaining ruins of the city center were impressive, with temple mounds, the ruler's palace, ball courts (for the ceremonial ball game), market area, and various other buildings. We imagined the bustle and pomp of the city center with parades, ceremony, trading, incense, color, sound, all supported by the surrounding area. Very much like an urban center today. I bet the residents couldn't imagine a time when they weren't there, and yet now, 1000 years later its just empty except the stone structures and jungle. So much for permanence.
Tommorrow the boat back to Guatemala. Our last few days here.
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