
On Friday we worked at Centro Maya in the morning and said our goodbyes there. In the afternoon we said our goodbyes to our host family. When we left Benedicto's mother gave us all handmand Guatemalan bags as well as a table cloth Laurel had commissioned.

Here we are saying goodbye to Benedicto, Maria, and Brian. Benedicto was actually headed to Xela so shared the shuttle bus to Antigua with us as far as the interchange. We arrived in Antigua around 7:30pm. We checked into our hotel and headed out to a French restaurant (which was good, but hard to find). Then back to our hotel in order to be up at 4am to catch our 5am tour to Copan.

After a long rainy season and a small earthquake to jumble things up our 6 hour drive became a bit of an adventure trying to get around all the rockslides. There was actually one place where 1/2 the road had disappeared down the side of the mountain and much of the dirt supporting the remaining 1/2 of the road had gone down the mountain with it.

It is mostly all the road hazzards combined with high speeds that make travel dangerous in Guatemala. Cows, horses, pigs, and sheep were often on the road. However, dogs where by far the most common animals seen on the road. I had the unfortunate experience to witness a dog desperately trying to avoid being hit by a tour bus and then exploding on impact. It was truely horrible. Fortunately, Laurel and the children only saw the aftermath.