Alive with Flora and Fauna
While looking over the city scene spread out before us, a lot of palm trees could be seen. There were many different kinds of palm trees, some were heavily loaded with coconuts. A few palms had clusters of what looked like nuts or fruit. An occasional fig tree could be seen with a fresh crop of green fruit forming among the branches. Small clusters of cacti could be seen here and there among other plants. Brightly colored blossoms could be seen on large bougainvillea bushes as well as contrasting yellow flowers like we saw in Costa Rica.
Growies and greenies along the trail |
Very colorful flowers really stood out
among all the green plants |
A favorite of the Mayans was a bitter drink made from cacao beans that was used in religious ceremonies as well as special occasions. We were told that cacao beans were also used as money at one time. Our tour guide pulled a cacao bean out of a pod to give us a closer look at what was the beginning of chocolate. As I held a bean in my hand, it was impressive to me that the Mayans put so much importance in this small bitter tasting object.
Our tour guide removes cacao bean from a pod |
A cacao bean that can be made into chocolate and was sometimes used as money |
There seemed to not be a great deal of wildlife which may have been a result of all the people in the area. With that said, we did see a few birds flying among the palm trees. However, most wild critters were on the ground in the form of iguanas and snakes. There was a small snake that I thought looked unusual. It was about three feet (1M) long that was brown on top with a black strip along its side and a white underside. What looked interesting to me was the snake had a green head that was almost the same shade of green as the grass around it.
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