These are a few pictures and video clips of Joseph’s first birthday party.  As you can see in the first picture, Norma made a special car cake for him to enjoy.  She wanted to give him the whole thing, but Chris convinced her to only give him a part (although it was a rather large one). We had two families over to celebrate, and Joseph and Erik enjoyed having their friends come to play.

Joseph eyeing his cake

The aftermath

On our way back to El Salvador, we stopped by an interesting castle in the middle of Guatemala. 

This fortress was initially built in the 16th century to protect warehouses of goods destined for Spain.  The river, Rio Dulce, comes into Guatemala from the Atlantic Ocean and connects to a rather large lake, Lago Izabal.  At the intersection of this river and the lake, this castle was built.  Interestingly, posession of the castle traded several times between pirates and local authorities. After many additions and renovations, it was turned into a jail and finally abandoned (too many pirate attacks).  This was a good stopping point and a fun place for Erik to explore.

Erik, Norma, and Joseph

Before we left El Salvador, we wanted to visit Tikal, Guatemala.  We heard that it was one of the most impressive Mayan Ruin sites, and we certainly weren’t disappointed.  Rather than flying (and spending $900 with TACA), we drove 8.5 hours, and arrived without any problems.  We stayed in the park at the Jungle Lodge.  While staying in the park was convenient, the $120 per night for a hotel with no air conditioning, small rooms, and electricity that shut off a varying times during the day, seemed pretty pricey to me. 

We took a tour in the morning with a very competent guide, Israel Cornel (isegura1958@hotmail.com).  If you want a Spanish speaking guide, I would highly recommend using him.  We saw about 80% of Tikal with him and then returned back to the hotel for lunch and naps.  In the evening, we returned to the park to see the sunset from the top of Temple 4 (the highest one in the park).  Erik climbed all 179 stairs completely by himself, and I doubt that many three-year olds can claim to have scaled the highest temple in Tikal without help.  After returning home from seeing an impressive sunset, Erik said “It broke.”  Norma and I asked him what was broken, to which he replied, “Erik broke.”  Needless to say we both had a pretty good laugh that both he and we were so tired from such a long day.

We are really glad that we had a chance to see such an amazing place.

Joseph, Norma, Erik, and Chris Bergaust

Panoramic view of the Gran Plaza (click here for a larger image)

Erik and Chris Bergaust (Chris’ favorite photo from the trip)

Joseph and Norma Bergaust inside a restored palace

Erik climbing the stairs on Temple 4 by himself

Chris and Joseph on top of Temple 4