Why do guys snore so much more than women? For some reason, I kept being woken up again and again by loud snores from the two hammocks next to me. Imagine two energizer bunnies sleeping next to you, one on each side, but instead of banging on their pink drum all night they are snoring. Of course, since they are running on energizer batteries, the noise never ends. I don`t run on energizer batteries, mine are rechargeable. Let`s just say that they didn`t get recharged last night ;-) For some weird reason, everyone else had the best night`s sleep so far on our trek. How cute!

We had another nice and easy day today. In just over 3 hours we got to our next Lost City / campsite Nakbé, where we had a lazy lunch and siesta. The campsite was lovely; a huge mostly open space, very clean and well kept (& swept), and feeling very cozy in the shade of a large pyramid. All our campsites have had a similar setup: a structure for hanging hammocks made out of branches, a clay fire pit and a table or prep space covered with a tarp roof, and a hole-in-the-ground toilet house not too far away. Way better than anticipated!

The "crowning glory" of this campsite was the toilet, which enables you to look straight into a looted Maya grave mound as you`re doing your business. Needless to say I won`t be coming here after dark - I`d rather take my chances with the tarantulas in the woods than with the ghostly mummies of a disturbed gravemound.

Despite the potential horror-movie experience, this site is our definite favourite so far. The vigilantes here also seem happier - they actually like working at Nakbé! Perhaps they are just in a better frame of mind because they have been here for two weeks and not almost five, going on overtime without knowing when they`ll be "let out". Oh, and I`m sure it helps to have a ham-radio to get some news from the outside world without having to walk three hours (the Mirador vigilantes have to walk to Nakbé to get their going-home-or-not verdict).

During our siesta the vigilantes came over to show us some newspaper clips about the area and have us sign the guestbook. They could not boast Mel Gibson, but we found several other interesting-looking previous visitors such as:

Name: Yakitori Mitsubishi (or something similarly Japanese)
Profession: Supreme Ruler of the Universe

and after we left:

Name: Sara
Profession: Desperada

Name: Kath
Profession: Ladrona

Name: Silje
Profession: Media espiritual

We thought all this was highly hilarious, though I see now that it may not be so funny for the person in charge of compiling the 2005 visitor statistics...

After watching us giggle for a while, two of the vigilantes took us out to see the main areas of Nakbé, a few pyramids with names I can`t remember. Another day another bunch of pyramids from whose tops you can see the jungle... We also got to see a couple of stelas with vague inscriptions. However, the main attraction of the day was definitely an underground cave, its entrance covered with a manhole sized slab of stone, put in its place by the Mayas and still kept in place by the vigilantes who are scared of snakes falling in. With great ceremony the stone was removed and we were invited down into the darkness. Rob and Fabio, our intrepid explorers, went down first, torches in hand.

There was silence for a few seconds, then a loud "holy shit!"

*Silence*

*Nervous laughter*

English accent: "This can`t be possible"

Italian accent: "Do you think they have been placed here by the vigilantes to scare us?"

English accent: "Yes, they must have been"

*More nervous laughter*

English accent: "Kath, don`t come down whatever you do"

At this time, Sara´s curiosity got the better of her and she went down to join the boys. Before long we heard a scream and a scramble to get back out. "Spiders!!! Monstrous spiders everywhere!!!" she yelled, and I backed away from the entrance a little more.

Yup, spiders they were, the size of a grown man`s hand, creatures of my nightmares which I saw at a safe distance on Rob`s digital camera. I still shudder when I think of them... though I remind myself that they live in dark caves, not in people`s hammocks.

The next adventure of the day was playing around with a huge swing made by mother nature from a thick liana. Apart from this, we did keep enough of an interest in actual pyramids to climb the one next to our campsite, Pyramid 1, to watch the sun set.

We had an early night while the guides and vigilantes had a chat, a laugh and smoked the rest of their cigarettes...