El Parque Nacional Tikal

I have finally gotten around to editing some of the photographs that I have taken during my trip last October to Tikal, the Mayan ruins in the center of El Petén in Guatemala. If you recall at the beginning of the year I wrote a long piece on the bus ride to El Flores - the jump off city for El Parque Nacional Tikal. You can find it in the archive, it is entitled ‘Guatemalan Nights’ and is from January 22, 2007.

Two things in particular struck me during my visit, one was that it was a park; it’s set up and designed for tourist. I guess I was thinking that it would be more primitive. Why I thought it would be otherwise I don’t know it seems obvious. And aside form the tourist park aspect of it; it is still primitive, much of it has not been excavated yet. There are many temples and pyramids that are still completed covered by jungle, if it were not for their symmetrical shape you’d completely miss them.

The other unexpected impression was the distance, it’s large; it can take fifteen or twenty minutes to walk between temples, and there are a lot of temples. Again, if I have given it any thought, I would have realized; it’s a city after all, as big as or bigger than many small cities in the United States.

I have only included a few of the photographs on my Notebook site. However, if you enjoy these photographs you can see a larger selection on my Flickr site in the set entitled Tikal. If you are interested in Mayan ruins you might also want to view the set from Chichén Itzá, the Mayan ruins in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. For a modern day view of the Mayan of Guatemala I have a set from the Mayan village of Chichicastenango in the Guatemala highlands

Above you will find an audio comment I recorded during my visit. You can listen by pressing the play arrow on the audio player icon below.

So enjoy, and if you ever get a chance to visit take plenty of water, insect repellent, the energy for climbing, a change of clothes – the humidity will have you dripping, and sturdy hiking boots.

Thanks for viewing and listening. And please comment, even negative comments are enjoyed and welcome.

Legends

Top Photograph: Veiw from the Top - Temple IV

2nd Photograph: Concealed Pyramid

3rd Photograph: Temple Raising Out of the Jungle

4th Photograph: Steps to Temple IV

So Much Trouble in this World

'So Much Trouble in this world' - Street Musician at the Dupont Circle Farmers' Market in early August 2007.

My apologies to the musician - I did not get his name. If anyone knows his name please let me know.

Enjoy his sound and art.



Left: Chess in the Circle

Below: Soap Lady at the Market








Take a look at my latest uploads on Flickr.com

Kensington Meets Norman Rockwell

Once again the summer comes to an end in Kensington, Maryland with the Labor Day Parade - the perfect way to end the summer. Find a shady spot because Labor Day in Kensington is always hot. It all begins with the parade of politicians; all with fake smiles and the obligatory wife. If they’re not there they’re not running. After the local poles come the civil groups, clubs, local merchants, Boy Scout, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, marching bands, the high school cheer leading squads. The art council has the art car, the circus club has the unicycles, the Folkloric Boliviano has the dancers, even the local storage rental company parades their truck and hand out plastic key chains.

This may not be what America is, but it sure is what it wants to be.

Enjoy the sights and sounds of the Labor Day Parade in Kensington, Maryland.


Blair High School Cheer Squad Victory Chant!























Top Photograph: Kensington Meets Norman Rockwell

Top Left: Gaithersburg Marching Band

Top Right: Congressman Chris Van Hollen

Bottom Left: Parade Scene

The Circus Club on parade for Labor Day

Audio Test Clip

I am testing embedding audio clips into my blog. This is a test of the archive.org service.

Please bear with me. I will notice a notice when the tests are complete.

Bill Shields

Journal News & Updates

Time for a few updates, I’ve begun to re-establish the photo links – the first few are completed. I should have the rest of the links set-up by the end of the day.

I have also added a video bar to the home page. All you have to do to view the video is double clink on it and Youtube will do the rest. I will try and change the video every few weeks. Alternatively, you can click on the video channel (on the right hand side of the page) and you will be taken to Youtube where you can view all the videos I have available.

Another addition to the page is a frappr map. It is located at the bottom of the page. It is a simple way of seeing where viewers are located, so please add yourself, and leave a comment.

I still have not completed the work on the Audio Channel – it is still in testing mode. I hope to have the audio up and running in the next few months.

In the mean time I hope you are enjoying the posts and photographs. I will try and add new material as often as possible. Let me hear your comments, or suggestions. A comments link is provided after every post; or if you would rather write to me privately - send an email to bill.shields@verizon.net.

Photographs

As I hope you can see I worked on the Journal site. I've learned how to incorporate photographs. I have added an archive section - unfortunately the archive section is designed only for organizing the posts; it is not intended as a repository of photographs or audio files. I have added a link to my Yahoo Photo site. Right now it is a link to a public album (Guatemala, within my Yahoo Photo site), hopefully I will be able to set up a link that directs the reader to a page with all my publicly available albums.

Audio files will be more of a challenge. I will work on setting up a site that will serve as a repository for my audio files – ultimately I anticipate distributing the audio files as a podcast.