A few weeks ago, my roommates and I drove 14 hours into the jungle to visit the sight of some ancient Mayan ruins. As far as 4th century pyramids in the jungle of Central America go, I guess they were pretty sweet. And if my interest in Mayan civilization extended beyond Mel Gibson’s Apocolypto, I might have been really impressed. But mostly I was just hot. And dehydrated. And worried that one of the mosquitoes lunching on my legs was infected with Malaria. Because I’d totally been banking on the fact that being from Hawaii and all would have given me enough tropical climate street cred with the ‘squitos that they’d leave me alone and I wouldn’t need to take Malaria pills or wear any bug repellent. Um, yeah…apparently the mosquitoes in Guatemala don’t discriminate.  They’ll eat anyone.

Anyway, what I found most interesting about the ruins was the fact that they’d been well, ruined. There was actual graffiti on some of the walls and apparently, even with guards posted around the grounds, ancient artefacts go missing from the temples all the time.  Sad, isn’t it?

I climbed up one of them and found this plant growing on the top. Somehow I don’t think that it was the ancient Mayans who wrote “Richard was here.” But those ancient Mayans were a pretty clever bunch. They invented the calendar and predicted the end of the world, so who am to say that they didn’t time-travel, too?

Reannon Muth

Reannon Muth is a full-time writer, social media consultant and owner and manager of the Taken by the Wind travel blog. Born in Hawaii, Reannon has lived in five countries, at Disney World and on a cruise ship. She currently lives in fabulous Las Vegas.