The Jaguar Rescue Center

 One day I took a bike and visited the Jaguar Rescue Center. The story of the center is interesting; An Italian woman and a Spanish man worked in the same Zoo in Spain, but did not know each other. Then the Zoo arranged a tour to Costa Rica where they got to know each other, fell in love with each other and with Costa Rica. They bought a house and soon people learned that they had worked in a zoo, so someone brought a baby jaguar to them. The jaguar died, but people continued to bring them animals, and so they had the idea of opening up a center, and have volunteers working there. They also opened up for the public so that they could have an income since the goverment is not funding the center. They have a variety of animals, but no jaguars, but the center was named after the first animal they had. You get a tour from a volunteer when you go there, so you will learn a lot about the animals. One monkey was f.ex. found clinging on the road to his dead mother. He was clinging to her for 2 days before someone brought him to the center. Most of the monkeys have similar stories, they are orphans because the mother has been killed on the road or by a fire. The sloths come in because they are electrocuted by the many power lines that are hanging near trees. They try to get from one tree to another, and touch the power lines. it is very traumatizing for sloths, they have a slow metabolism and are very sensible to outer disturbance. Because they live a slow and solitary life, they are easily stressed by human activity and can easily develop skin infections. Some animals are confiscated from people that attempt to smuggle the animals out of Costa Rica. The margay cat (also called the climber cat because they are the best climbers among cats) in the park came there because of this reason. It was a good thing that he was saved because he was held in the trunk of a car and fed coffe and bread!!! Can you imagine that!? When Develino came to the park, he was so weak and undernourished that they were afraid he would die. Little is known about this little jungle cat, it is nocturnal and solitary and like to roam the remote areas of the rainforest. It is on the list of near threatened animals. Margays spend their entire life in trees, they even hunt in the trees, whereas its larger relative, the ocelot, mostly hunts on the ground.  The margays hunst monkeys and birds in the treetops, skillfully because of an ankle flexibility that enables them to climb down a tree head-first. Its ankles can turn 180 degrees, and it can grab on to the tree equally well with the fore and hind paws. It can jump almost 4 meters. Develinos decire to hunt and kill is kept alive by giving him live prey, and he has to climb, leap and sneak to get it. The woman (Anca) that runs the park has taken him to the jungle many times to release him, he follows her on the trail, she leaves him, but 3-4 days after he comes knocking on Ancas door. They hope that he will be ready to leave when its time for him to get a girlfriend. The orphan monkeys in the park they take to a 'monkey park' in the jungle where they meet wild troops, when they are ready to leave the safety of the shelter, they will be adopted into one of the wild troops. It has been a very successful method, one female that was adopted into a troop brought her whole troop to visit Anca a year after she found a troop, and she was pregnant.

 This is a baby two fingered sloth, it lost its mum. It was very hyper, climbing around all the time, not what we would think a sloth would do.

These are baby opossums. Opossums are usually solitary and nomadic, staying in one area as long as food and water are easily available. Some families will group together in ready-made burrows or even under houses. Though they will temporarily occupy abandoned burrows, they do not dig or put much effort into building their own. As nocturnal animals, they favor dark, secure areas. These areas may be below ground or above. When they are threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", meaning that they mimic the smell and appearance of a sick or dead animal. In the movie Ice Age there are a couple of opossums, they play dead and hang from the trees by their feet.

 A grown up three fingered sloth who came to the park because it touched an electric wire. Even though they are quite docile they are able to defend themselves when they are in their environment; the trees. Their claws are powerful (remember they hang all day by their claws), and they can bite as well. They are most vulnerable on the ground, so they spend as little time as possible on the ground. They go to the toilet only once or twice a week, then they have to climb down to the ground.

This deer was brought in by a hunter that shot the mother right after giving birth to her. She was still wet from her birth. She can never go back to the wild because she has no fear of humans as she has grown up with humans. She thinks she is a dog according to the volunteers. The park also get predatory birds. Their main injuries come from humans littering along the streets. When people throw garbage by the road it attracts a lot of rats and mice. Predatory birds like falcons, eagles and spectacle owls are attracted to the abundance of rats and mice, and they hunt by night. When they hunt in the night they get hit by cars, and get their wings crippled, or they die. Snakes and amphibians are bred in the park, and you may wonder why someone would breed dangerous snakes that can kill people and frogs... Amphibians, because they have the special skin that allows them to take oxygen through it and live both in water and on land are very vulnerable to all the chemicals we dispose of in the nature.
Think about this; when all the predatory animals we like and those we do not like are gone what will happen? Most places have huge problems with rats and cockroaches. When we do not protect the snakes, predatory birds and small and jungle cats the problem is going to grow even more. Anca has a boa constrictor in her house, to control rats, mice and cockroaches. Because even if you do not see them, they are there, and they are many. If we do not take care of our amphibians, spiders and birds we will drown in insects and cockroaches. ALL the creatures put on this planet have a wonderful purpose of keeping everything in perfect balance. If you love the nature and animals, you can not hate any animals, not even the shark or spiders. Only humans have no purpose at all as long as we treat our planet as if it is worthless. Along with our pets and farm animals we are on the brink of destroying all life on earth and the earth itself. Pets, like cats and dogs, have managed to vipe out species of birds and animals. And to feed farm animals huge areas of virgin forests and jungles are destroyed every day, chasing away and  pressuring the animals that used to have the area as their home. Think twice about your actions on mother Earth, treat yourself better by not filling your body with chemicals. How can we care about pollution on the planet when we so willingly pollute ourselves every day? Do you want to breath toxins every day? Drink water and eat food that is contaminated with chemicals? Use body products with chemicals. The medical world try to tell us that we get sick because of our gens. That we get fat because of gens. That is NOT true ladies and gentlemen. The truth is that it is natural to be healthy and live a life of high quality, and we get sick because of the food and water we consume, and the air we breath. I believe there exist NO bacteria and viruses that are older than the human race that was a ever a natural or catastrophic threat to mankind.

The meeting at Copan Ruins

Mayan glyphs is the writinglanguage of the people that once inhabitated this land, and they are thought to be one of the oldest known writingsystems, and highly developed. The writing of the Mayans consists of glyphs for words such as; bird, house, jaguar and so on, and glyphs for syllables enabeling them to express abstracts. Carving their glyphs into stone allowed them to make them 3D so that they could combine 2 or more glyphs to make a sentence or a word.

A stelae of a Jaguar. Jaguars are the highest ranking animals in Mayan beliefsystem.

                                                              Beautiful altar

Overview of the archeological site.

On saturday I visited the Mayan site here in Copan. From the beautiful and peaceful little town it is only 15 min. walk on a beautiful path through lush, green environment, where you can even see some coulorful birds and huge larvaes. The ruins themselves are situated in the middle of the lush, green valley, and though it is hot and humid, it has enough big trees to offer some reliefe from the middaysun. When I came there, some people where about to let loose 5 beautiful big red parrots from a cave where they had been rared to be let loose one day. It was marvelous too see the big georgious birds fly in a well of sparkeling red. They soared up to the tops of the nearest trees and setteled there calling each orher. Two of the birds obiously had formed a bond, and was flying together over our heads. Theese parrots will live for 60years and mate with the same mate through their lifes. When I went inside the archeological site I felt the tingel of excitment in me. The carved stelaes are so beautiful. I don`t think the pictures can do them justice at all, and they are of the best perserved carvings found on this continent. Coming here awakened again my curiosity and sense of adventure. I felt alive and ready to meet the world head on again. All of theese ancient sites do that to me. I feel a deep connection to the land, past and the people, both from the past and present. And I feel I can understand their view of life to some extent. They were surrounded by beautiful nature, dangerous animals and colourful birds. I spent hours at the site. One reason is because I met a young man from Japan who was on the same shuttlebus as me, and then I met him again at the site. We started out talking about Japan, Japaneese food and my favourite drink; green tea cream frappucchino! We ended up discussing 911, the mayans and the difference of the cultures, conspiracy, the power of the media. I asked him about how it is in Japan, and he told me that it is hard to know, because the media is lying a lot, and keeping a lot from the public eye, and also from the international eye. I told him a few mayan legends, stories and facts, which he appreciated, because I made the ruins and the ancients come alive to him, he said. And then we started talking about 2012. Since I started travelling here, I have found people who talk about spirituality and spirits, ancient knowledge, the forbidden, the unknown. People who have a feeling or know that there is something "else". Another conciousness, other dimentions, another knowledge. That there IS true knowledge and that we can access it if we want to. Something more than everything we have been thought through our cultures. We know so little because it is decided for us what is useful for us to know and not. Knowledge of the spiritworld or healing is frown upon, and even laughed at. When I meet a person like this, like this Japaneese, who listened to what I have to say, and who feels it, and respond with the deep knowledge that is burried deep within us all, my crown opens wide open, and I say things that I have no idea where they come from. I just know that it is important. This kind knowledge we far to often are willing to throw away as nonsense, because we want to be liked, we want to be accepted, we want to do the "right thing". And we never speak what we truly feel. I just know that it is the truth from the bottom of my being. I used to believe that there is no higher truth, and that it is different for different people and cultures. Yes, every one of us carry his or her own truth, and acting according to it can never be wrong. But there are also "higher truths". Like the people of Norway know now after the horrible events that took place. One higher truth is LOVE. Hatred and revenge belong to another catagory. Hatred and revenge will never be a higher truth, even if it might be true for some people. But how do they come to that? No one is born hateful and revengeful. No one is born angry or a terrorist. This is something a man or a woman learns. People might say that something is wrong in theese peoples minds when they kill someone. But who is to say what is normal or not when we all acctually can be a "victim" to the that kind of learning? Is claiming mental illness not a way to push away our responsebility to take a good look at what our culture has become. Full of lonely, frustrated and medicated people. Old people without proper care. People who goes from work, then home to their TV sets sending comercials every 5 min. Reminding you that you are nothing but a consumer, and that your value lies in how much you buy. In the meantime we are overstraining our planet, and creating tonns of toxic garbage. Do not forget that for the past 10 years we have been thought to hate and fear muslims, and islam after 9/11. We have learned to fear one little word; terrorism. I have heard it repeated so many times that I am sick of it. They never ever let us forget and live a normal life. Terrorism was /is used as an excuse for so many revengeful and fearful actions against certain groups. Subtle things, like banning the burka in some countries to bombing one of the poorest countries in the world. And now private amercian companies are earning tons of money rebuilding it. If you want to earn money theese days, you bomb a country and then rebuild it. You make the world an unsafe place to be, and then you sell security to the people. In the tradegy that happened in Norway maybe there is a big chance to make a change. We can show the world that we are special and pure. That we can respond with the higher truth of love and take a good look at our selves, and our culture and ask what can we do to teach people love and compassion in stead of hatred and fear? What is the part our media and goverment play? Do I have TIME for a friend in need, or am I too afraid to adress the needs of others and myslef? We live in a culture where people prefer spending time with their electronic toys, where men and women act as enemies causing a lot of stress and lonleyness. Where little children move back and forth between their mum and dad like a nomad and too many kids are diagnosed ADHD and medicated with speed. When I met this Japaneese and we had talked for a long time, and he turned out to be one of the truly wonderful people I met. Someone that I know intuitively and mentally makes sense of what I say and what I know and I know that there is HOPE for the planet. In spite of all the terrible things happening, like the events of Norway, there are marvellous people out there, who SPEAK the truth. Like the French man I met on the Xela - Atitlan trekk, who most "rightbelieving" people would laugh at. It turned out that one from the US also had some unusual points of view, and we all exchanged a lot of information. These are the people who walk this planet with their eyes open and fearless of knowing the truth in their own beeing. And I know theese are the people that in the end will connect the people of the world, when we all let go of fear. There are more of theese people in this part of the world. Maybe becuase where there is more suffering and mayhap people can not afford to be asleep? And I think also it is because they are the "maya". If not in pure blod, then in spirit and knowledge. Why do I say that? Because always, may that person be a tourist from Japan, Belgium or France, or a native to the country, it is always in the proximity of the Maya I meet them. And the Mexicans has indeed decleared me a Maya. And my Nauhal is the magician, the Jaguar. In Mexicali the Ozelotl. All symbols of the hidden and elusive, the magician playing with illutions. Meeting Mishiko at the ruins, and talking to him made me realize that if I had not been robbed and unable to go to Copan earlier I would not have met him, and in the end we found that we had been sitting among the ruins for several hours, oblivious to other people and the burning sun, just talking and talking. It was sad to say goodbye as he left for Utila on Sunday. And I am going to La Ceiba tomorrow to take the ferry over there. 

According to the Popul Vuh, the Maya bible, it took the goods 4 attempts to creat a beeing powerful enough to maintain the world. On the first attempt the gods made deers, ants, wolfs and other animals, but when the gods called upon the animals to make them speak the names of the gods, they just grunted and roared. The second attempt the gods made a human out of  mud, but the mudperson spoke without knowledge and understanding and soon he fell apart and dissolved back to mud, replaced by a human out of flesh. But the fleshbeings where wicked and evil, and the gods decided to wipe them out in a great flood. The third attempt the gods carved a person out of wood. They were better than the mudpeople, but not perfect, although they could speak, walk and even have children and populate the world. But the gods found that they walked around sleeping with no purpose at all. They had also forgotten their farmer, their shaper, and so they were destroyed. The surviviours turned into chattering monkeys found in the trees all over Mesoamerica. The gods finally got it right when they discovered maize. They made the flesh of the human we now out of maize. The mayans call themselves children of maize, and indeed with the knowledge of genetics that we have, researchers have found out that the genetics of maize is acctually VERY similar to human genetics. Meaning that we are closley related to maize, so the Maya acctually seem to have known this! Or the gods of the Maya anyway, but it took them 4 times to get it. Popul Vuh is one of the GREATEST religious texts of ALL time and contains facinating stories and legends of Maya belief and creation.