We sat on top of the ruins of a Mayan temple, watching the sun sink towards the western horizon. Tikal National Park limits the number of people who can take a sunset tour each day, and I wanted to offer my wife something special. So we hired a guide, hiked in, and climbed the steep wooden stairs to sit on the platform. As the sky slipped into its evening colors, a keel-billed toucan sailed past, just above the treetops.

The platform on top of Mundo Perdido can hold about thirty people comfortably, but I thnk we were closer to thirty-five. We sat shoulder-to-shoulder with one another, perched above the dense canopy. In front of us we could see the combs of Temple IV and Temple I rising above the trees. In this part of Guatemala the land is low and level, with slight ridges undulating across the forest.

Auto-generated description: A sketch depicts a lush green landscape with scattered bushes and distant structures under a partly cloudy sky.

The colors of the trees are a lesson in ecosystems. They’re not just green. Most of them are topped with various kinds of bromeliads, plants that don’t send roots down into the soil but that live in the air. The main function of their roots is to cling to the branches. The bromeliads collect rain in their leaves, and get their energy from the sun and the air. Bright green succulents, yellow and orange orchids, and red fronds all arise between the leaves and flowers of the trees and vines. The nearest trees have vibrant colors; each wave of trees into the distance is darker green, fading to blue and purple into the far horizon.

Unzipping the backpack at my feet, I pulled out my sketchbook and colored pencils. Looking to the North, I began to sketch the slowly changing colors.

To my left sat a family from Spain. A girl who was maybe three or four years old sat between her youthful parents. She glanced at my sketchbook and then asked her father, “¿Papá, tienes un bolígrafo?” “Daddy, do you have a pen I can use?” No, he replied.

I dug into my backpack and pulled out some more paper, and laid a sheet down on the wood in front of them, and put down a tri-colored ballpoint pen where the girl could reach it. “¿Quieres dibujar el bosque conmigo?” “Do you want to sketch the forest with me?” She looked at her parents, who nodded their approval, and she began to draw. Her parents looked at me with smiles, and watched their daughter draw. Soon she was frustrated that her sketch didn’t look the way she wanted it to, so I opened my pencil case in front of her and chatted with her about what colors we saw in the trees and in the sky. Each time we named a color, she took the appropriate pencil and drew some more. We continued that way for the next twenty minutes or so until the sun began to touch the horizon and it became both too dark and too brilliant to keep sketching. Together we all watched the sun blaze and shoot out rays above a small cloud before disappearing below the distant hills.

Auto-generated description: A picturesque sunset with the sun partially hidden behind a cloud, casting rays of light across a serene landscape of hills.

Before we parted that evening, I asked if I could take a photo of her art, telling her it was one of the nicest drawings I’d seen in a long time. She smiled and said I could.

Auto-generated description: A piece of paper displays colorful, abstract crayon scribbles on a wooden surface.

The next day, while walking through the park again, we ran into the family and I asked her name. “Daniela,” she said. Daniela, I hope you had a wonderful time in Tikal, and I hope you keep making art. Thanks for sharing the moment with me!