La Corona

This past week was spent up at La Corona, the lost Mayan city that was discovered in the mid-90s but had been heavily looted beginning in the 1960s (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0929_050929_maya_siteq.html). It’s really interesting working around all of these old Mayan sites. They’re completely consumed by the forest; the temples look more like tree-covered hills than former temples and dwellings. It’s like working around lost cities. I was able to visit 4 macaw nest trees at this site. Most the nests continue to be in Cantemo (Acacia glomerosa). One of the nests was too difficult to access and Pedro had to get the chick out of the nest (see photo)…crazy! This area is just packed with lagoons. There was a rather large one at our camp. Waking up in the morning and ambling down to the lagoon to see a snail kite perched, limpkins foraging, and a Morelet’s crocodile swimming nearby was not a bad way to start the day.

On the second day, after a long, hot afternoon, we headed down to the rio for a dip and a bath. After getting out of the truck, a troop of spider monkeys made their way past us overhead, making incredible jumps from one tree to the next. We heard a snap and a scream as one of the monkeys fell. We went over there to check it out but I guess it recovered itself and scrambled out of there. The whole north of Petén is crawling with primates. Well, the areas that haven’t been burned and cleared for cattle.

The roads out to the sites were long and rough, with quite a few muddy patches. We had to clear some trees which had fallen across the road and also had to dig out the truck after high-centering...no prob. Lots of down time; which I took advantage of to get in some bird watching and photography. All in all, a good time. Next week we head back to El Peru.