Nightlife in Bonampak

“Nightlife” is kind of an ironic term for Bonampak. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, but still managed to entertain ourselves! The place where we were staying was a river’s width away from Guatemala. After sunset, we built a fire on the riverbank and told some crazy stories, including one from Alonso about his brush (literally) with a jaguar while camping. After hearing about jungle predators, some of the guys had to go out past the edges of the firelight to gather sticks. A howler monkey overhead took the opportunity to scare them half to death with its painful screaming. I tried not to give them too much crap about squealing like little girls. ☺

We also climbed out on the rocks in the middle of the river and did some skywatching. Alonso has a green laserpointer from NASA that basically shoots indefinitely into the sky. We got to see some amazing constellations and compare those of the western world with those of the Maya.

Later into the night, we also heard the motorboats of the coyotes, who transport illegal immigrants from Guatemala to Mexico by night. Alonso explained the river served as transport and fishing during the day, but it was definitely not a safe place to be at night. We also heard about the banditos who smuggle lots of drugs up and down the river. I was glad to be sitting on the Mexican side of the riverbank and away from the water by then!