Jungle Crossing by Sydney Salter Read Free Book Online Page B

built near the edge of the water, like a movie star's mansion. The guide talked about how the buildings were designed to show the cycles of the sun and Venus. Turns out the Mayans were pretty good at math too. Barb peered over the cliff at the narrow beach below while I watched a pair of iguanas chase each other over the rocks into a group of stunted palms. When I looked back, Barb was gone.
    "Do you see my sister?" I asked the English girls, Gemma and Anna.
    Gemma pointed to the cliff. "I think she might have gone exploring."
    Way, way down, Barb jumped off a large gray rock onto the sand and picked up something.
    "Barb!" I yelled. "Come back!"
    Rock outcroppings surrounded the beach. Barb reached up to the big boulder and tried to pull herself up, looking so tiny as she threw her hands in the air. She shrieked as a wave curled around her ankles.
    I started down the steep path, thinking Barb must be part mountain goat to get down this thing. I slipped in a sandy section, scraping my hand on a sharp rock. Finally I got down near the beach and jumped off the huge boulder.
    Barb held up a bottle cap. "It glittered like gold from up there."
    "Thousands of people walk through here every day," I said. "You're not going to find any treasure. You'd be lucky to find a seashell or an interesting rock."
    I walked over to the big rock. "Let me give you a boost." I shoved her onto its stony surface, but I couldn't get back up: too short. A big wave splashed around the cuffs of my shorts. I reached with my hand and tried to find a hold for my foot, but my legs were too stubby. I plopped back on the sand just in time to be soaked by another wave. I really was going to be killed in a rip tide! And that wasn't even
on
my list of reasons.
    Dante ran down the path, jumped onto the sand, cupped his hand, and nodded to me. I put my soggy shoe in his hands and gripped the rock.
    "Thanks so much," I said.
    People up above cheered, even the flower-shirted tourists. Several snapped photos. Great. I'd be the loser tourist in some stranger's scrapbook.
    I scrambled up the path as quick as I could, with Dante following right behind, getting a great view of my wet butt. At least I had something exciting, not to mention true, to put in my next postcard to Fiona: Rescued by Hunky Blond Belgian. I didn't have to say it was because of my silly, treasure-seeking sister and my excessively short stature.
    "Strong legs," Dante said before racing up the last few feet to meet up with Monique. I totally blushed, lost my balance, and slipped, getting sand all over my wet shirt.
    Alfredo set up the picnic lunch in the field where the craftsmen had lived. Everyone snacked on fruit while he talked about the big trading canoes landing between the cliffs on the wide beach that came right into the city. Why hadn't Barb spotted gold twinkling on that actually accessible beach? I brushed more sand off my drying shirt.
    "Nice going, wet one," Talia said to me before turning to Barb. "You okay, cutie? I would've rescued you."
    Barb started telling Talia about the sunken pirate treasure, so I walked toward the water, pulled off my wet shoes, and waded in the surf to a flat rock. I took out my journal and added new reasons to my list. Number 43: beaches where you can get stranded and nearly killed; number 44: being the loser tourist in some stranger's scrapbook. Next to a drawing I'd started of Muluc, I quickly sketched a comical tourist photo of myself, but then Nando walked toward me, so I stashed the journal back in my knapsack.
    "Have a tortilla," he said. "My mother made them."
    "I'm not hungry." My stomach rumbled, but I wasn't going to let Nando be nice because he pitied me. New reason, number 45: inspiring pity from even the meanest (see number 40) tour guide.
    Nando glanced at my stomach. "Try it."
    I dangled my feet in the water, letting an incoming wave splash my legs.
    "Okay." I bit into the soft, fresh tortilla. "This is actually pretty good." I spent only a