I love a good sunrise but I’m often not awake for the show so when I got the opportunity to watch a sunre over the ruins of Tikal in Guatemala, I was all over it. Sure it meant meeting the guide at 3:45am with a flashlight but how often does one get to sit at the top of a an ancient pyramid and watch the sun rise out of a misty jungle?

Getting ready that morning was a little bit challenging since we had stayed the night right in the park where electricity was only turned on for a couple hours each day and those hours were not when we got up, meaning cold shower and dressing by flashlight. But the owner of the establishment, obviously having just woken up himself and was still half-naked, met us in the lobby with coffee.

We met our guide along with some biology students (who we’d made friends with the previous night while searching for tarantulas) and set on our way, just a few spots of light moving through the jungle.

It’s a weird feeling to be walking through a tropical jungle in pitch blackness because the animals are at their most active at this time and very vocal. And very close. There were noises all around and roars from the howler monkeys in the trees were no less scary than a Jaguar as we slowly made our way through the darkness, careful not to step on the leaf cutter ants that made trails of green across our path.

We were headed for the pyramid at the far end of the archeaological park, Temple IV. It was a pretty good distance and the misty low light of pre-dawn made it especially exciting when we would pass ruins among the trees and not realize it until we were right next to it. We felt like we were the only ones in the entire park, and we pretty much were.

When we reached Temple IV, we climbed all the way to the top and sat on the top steps that overlooked the Petén and some of the taller ruins poking out of the deep green jungle vegetation. Among the many different sounds of birds, large roars rumbled below us as the sun slowly rose out of the mist. It got larger as it rose and change from yellow to orange to red and the whole sky was full of color. Absolutely breathtaking, and completely worth getting up at 3am. I’m pretty sure ruins were meant to be seen by the golden glow of the rising sun.

When my husband and I first arrived in Placencia, a village at the very tip of the a long and skinny peninsula in southern Belize, we were late for checking in to our room for the night due to one of our bus breaking down pretty much every time it came to a hill (which is bad news when you’re going through the mountains) that caused us to miss a transfer and a good chunk of the afternoon. The small office was no longer open at the ridiculously late hour of 8pm and so we wandered around the place a bit until we came upon a little girl playing in the sand.

“What are you looking for?” she asked us in a very grown up way. When we replied with the name of the owner she said, “That’s my mom. She’s at our house. I can take you there.” We just kind of looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and headed off after the girl down a gravel “street” which turned into sand after maybe about 30 feets which was fronted by small houses. It felt more like an alley because of the width and yet these were the front doors to each of the houses and at each intersection there was a sign for the “street” name. My flipflops were basically useless in the sand which is probably why the majority of the people we saw there were barefoot, and looked as though they had been for many years if not forever.

After what I would imagine might have been about a block, maybe two, she lead us into a yard (fenced off piece of sand) and there was the lady we were looking for. She greeted us, thanked her daughter for being so good about helping her guests and then told us that our room was unlocked and the key was inside. She didn’t seem to find it weird at all that her daughter who must’ve been around the age of 7 led a couple of total strangers to her house. Not only are the streets of the village quaint, but so are those that along them.

The effect that nature can have on our thoughts, emotions and ultimately our actions is a powerful thing. Of course this is what makes nature so astounding. Typically we think of the effects as a positive thing but what about the opposite – what about fear or even anger turning to violence?

Here in the Pacific Northwest, our forests are notorious for beautiful sunrays shining through evergreens that quickly give way to creepy, dripping and dark spaces covered in a low mist. One minute there is that feeling as if you could spend all day in that dun-drenched spot and then suddenly you can’t get inside fast enough.

Taking this to an extreme, I recall the Lars van Trier film Antichrist that was both the most intense movie I’ve seen in awhile as well as absolutely stunning cinematography. However, while I personally thought this movie was brilliant, don’t watch this if you’re not a fan of dark and extremely graffic psychodramas – just enjoy the clip at the bottom of this post.

Without analyzing the movie or going beyond the topic of how nature plays with our emotions, I just wanted to point out the power that nature has in this film and on the actors. The deep gut-wrenching emotional and sometimes suspensful scenes were perfectly paired with sound to bring out the most in the imagery.

But I will leave it at that and just let you enjoy what I think is one of the best clips of all time because I don’t want to spoil the movie for those who do want to see it.

The clip from movie below plays out the mental journey to a cabin in the woods they call Eden and the power that nature has on Her. She was at Eden before and He is trying to help her confront her fear of the outdoors.