After being on my feet for six hours this morning, my knees were killing me, and I was just generally exhausted. But with hours to kill and a strong desire not to pay another 50 quetzales for a morning hike tomorrow, I went back in (I had noticed one nature trail outside the ticket-check area that I can take tomorrow morning). Instead of heading into the main area of the park, though, I took what looked to be a remote route to isolated Templo VI.
For the first 15 minutes, all I saw were mosquitoes and tiny tree toads. I picked up one of the tree toads: it was cool.
I noticed after while that the mosquitoes wouldn’t bother me if I kept moving, even at a slow, Joe-in-his-his-last-six-months-pace stroll. They just couldn’t keep up, and would hover in a cloud behind me. But stop for 30 seconds, and they were all over me.
Actually, the walk was pretty boring. A few times, I heard the snapping of branches and some small items falling to the jungle floor, but after the pounding rain, a lot of twigs and nuts were loose, and I couldn’t spot any monkeys.
That is, until I was about 30 minutes in. Then, I spotted a pair of good 150 yards from me–too far for my zoom lens, but I was so bored, I hung out watching just in case they got close to the trail. I’m glad I did, because five minutes later, that pair was joined, first by five or six more spider monkeys, and then by another dozen. It must have been at least 20 individuals in total, and they just kept jumping back and forth between two sets of trees on either side of the past.
I even found a little past into the jungle that went right under one of the trees they were feeding it. After 15 minutes, my neck was near numb with pain from looking up into the canopy with a six-pound camera rested on top of my face. But the opportunity was incredible. There was always at least one spider monkey a mere seven or eight feet above me and not blocked by intervening foliage.
[click any picture to enlarge]
I left eventually, but I didn’t give in to the pain in my neck. I gave in to my flash, the batteries specifically. After I don’t know how long, the flash began to take a minute to recharge. I had three fresh batteries in my pack, so I opened up my flash to replace three of the four. They were actually hot to the touch. Not warm. Literally hot. Just a hair below too-hot-to-handle.
So, I didn’t talk about my new flash when I bought my new camera. Well, my old flash wasn’t compatible with the 1d Mark II N, so I bought the top-of-the-line Canon flash. But I didn’t read the manual or experiment with it before arriving in Guatemala. I just took the old batteries from my flash and put them in the new one. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the new flash the first couple days. It wasn’t any different from the old, from what I could tell. Basically, I paid $500 for compatibility. Damn Canon and their proprietary systems.
But with three fresh batteries… oh man, I could snap off three shots in succession without waiting for recharge. Incredible! I can only imagine what it will be like with four fresh batteries. Why does this matter? Well, in this case, the monkeys are distracted by the flash, and look right at you after you nail them with the strobe. I’d seen this before in Costa Rica, but by the time my old flash recharged, the monkey was looking away again. Now, I shoot one to get the monkey’s attention, and once more for the real picture.
Of course, I had to rotate the four drained batteries every few minutes, since the flash would start taking minutes to recharge again, but hey! Anyway, when the four drained batteries couldn’t help the other three charge the flash anymore, I was done.
After that, I took the long way home. I was utterly exhausted, but there was one more set of ruins close by. Might as well check ’em out. On the way, this European couple showed me this ridiculous, furry white caterpillar.
By the time I got home at 7pm, my knees were in agony, my back on strike, my neck in open revolt, and my stomach growling more loudly than a howler monkey. I don’t know, maybe I won’t have the energy to take that morning hike after all.
Still, a good walk for shooting. The pictures of the spider monkeys were fantastic.