What a Forty-Eight Hours!

 August 30, 2023

This will be a whirlwind description of the past couple of days because it's really late and it's the first time we've had power and/or wifi since a couple of mornings ago! 

We started out yesterday morning with a lovely breakfast buffet and hit the road for Quirigua, one of only three UNESCO World Heritage sites in Guatemala.  It is the smallest but it is recognized because it has the largest stellas! Many are thirty feet tall!!  On the way we stop for lunch at La Vina, for a buffet and ice cream desserts.  I have a drink made from squash seeds.  It's kind of earthy and sweet and I love it! (When I get a chance I'll post the amazing photos!!) 

Frijoles negro, scrambled eggs, pancakes, fried bananas, other goodies

We totally surprised Ginger!!

Connie had such a good idea!

Lovely dining room

Always fresh fruit and that marvelous farmer's cheese

Smart people knew there would be time for shopping during the traffic snarl.

Never pass up a chance to stretch!

Never expected cacti amongst all this green!

Agriculture is very important.

There are still lots of campaign posters by the roadsides

Eventually we'll get to taste the fruit of this tree!

Yum!  Chocolate coated ice cream bar!

We've made it to Quirigua!

The glyphs on the side are dates

There are signs for people who aren't lucky enough to have Juan to explain everything to them!

Devastating flooding from Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020

protecting the bananas from the critters

There are occasional "malls".

frijoles negro and ships

also guacamole!

Yum!!

so many delicious choices!

and chocolate-covered frozen bananas for dessert!

No one thought Suga could possibly get this in her mouth!

Getting there we encountered strange traffic patterns where travel was reduced to one lane at a time, even though we didn't see any construction or accidents or other explanations!  As a result we scurried through the site so that we could get across the Honduran border before it closed!  Turns out it closes at nine, so we were fine! We have to leave Guatemala and walk to the other line in the same building and enter Honduras, which requires finger prints (finally mine work!) and thirty quetzals or about four dollars.  Ginger hands everyone their "admission fee" and we head back to the van.  Have I mentioned that it is an eighteen seater Mercedes?  We travel in style!  Especially since there are only seven of us plus Jan and Gregorio, our "pilote" (driver).

We had dinner at an amazing restaurant called Nia Lola and make our way to the Hotel Mary, only to find that our beautiful rooms are all in the dark, as the power has gone out due to the heavy rainstorm. Isn't it grand that everyone has a cell phone with a flash light!  There is warm water and Jan and I do just fine, even though it is a bit warm.

August 31, 2023

The next morning we have breakfast  in the open air dining room and can see the gorgeous plants and woodwork.  And I spot Jan's first orchid of the trip!  We are on our way to Copan, the Paris of the Mayas, and it is overwhelming!  

Details when it's not so late; but suffice it so say that Juan's expertise is astounding and we gradually learn to recognize some of the glyphs and learn all about "Eighteen Rabbits" the founder of Copan, who left Quirigua when he was defeated.  His stellas and buildings are enormous. There are nine areas to the site and only one has been excavated.  And it is huge and impressive.  I can't imagine what the original city looked like!  We also visit the museum on site and learn that the most impressive stellas and alters and sculptures have been place here! Mind blowing to realize that this is two thousand years old!  

One day a month school children are admitted free!

Even the scale model is intimidating!  This is just the part of the city where the very rich lived.  It's only one twelfth of the whole city.

Much of the site it shaded - very welcome!

The entire site had drainage facilities.

an avocado tree

They welcome everyone!

Sometimes a staircase like this would be the only hint that a structure was inside a mound.

The bark of the amate tree was used as paper to make the ancient codices.  The most
famous was the Popol Vuh, the "Mayan Bible" or the "Community Book".

Even with the school kids, we really felt as though we had the place to ourselves!

You can see the meeting of two kings.

Jaguar

You've got to climb if you want to see the good stuff!

Fish

Ball field

Orchids everywhere!

Suga's tat matches this.

Originally all the stellas had altars.

Turtle

Note the cocoa pods.

Look at the details in the feet and sandals!

We have lunch at the site and then head back across the border to our next hotel.  Along the way we stop at a roadside vendor and Juan buys us lychees which some people had never had.  So good! 

We are chugging right along until we notice the huge lineup of stopped eighteen wheelers!  We stop, too, and try to figure out what's going on.  Some smaller cars are continuing to drive and some motorcycles and tuktuks are going down the right side of the trucks. After a bit we start down the road only to pull off on the left side, behind a lot of other cars.  Sometimes we see cars comes at us, down the middle of the road between the trucks and our line of cars.  We move forward a bit, several times.  It's getting late and there seems to be no progress or even a person who is in charge! Finally, Juan, Ginger, and I walk in the direction we are trying to go and talk to several groups of people.  It turns out that the people in the little town ahead have been out of electricity for quite a while (like weeks?) and are demonstrating against the government because they have done nothing about it!  They have blocked the road and aren't letting any vehicles pass, not even motorcycles! 

Apparently they're deepening the river.

Some of the corn is dead!  We can't figure out why!  Maybe it's been harvested already??

Ginger and I want the same photo!

Lychees!!

There's nothing to do but turn around and see if we can find a hotel in the closest town.  We get very lucky and find the Hotel Santa Monica with three available rooms.  Juan, Ginger, Gregorio, and I have one room (with four beds!).  Jan, Karen, Mark, and Ginny have another four-bed room;  and Suga and Switch are together because Switch still isn't feeling great and it seems prudent for them to be separate from the rest of us. 

We assemble for dinner downstairs and after a really, foolishly long wait, we get our drinks and food.  Ginger and I have ordered the shrimp cerviche and it is delicious and enormous!  I feel really guilty leaving so much food but I can't help it! 

Upstairs for showers and we're all in bed by eleven.  Of course I'm still up but at least the light is out so others can sleep.  We especially want Gregorio to get a good night's rest!  :)