July 8th -10th

8:15 we began the next leg of our journey after a good breakfast at the hotel of course.  We discovered at the corner, when the lady cop approached our car that we were going the wrong way down a one-way street.  It is easier than you would think.  We told her we were leaving Nebaj and she told us she would give us the right of way.  About two more blocks and I discovered I had left my iPod in the hotel room so we turned around and passed the policeman again.  President yelled out the window that we had forgotten our cell phone and she shook her head and smiled and waved us on.  We retrieved the iPod and passed her once again.  Again she smiled and waved us on.  We left town for real at 8:30 and headed up over the mountains again.  We stopped at Sacapulus to check out their market.  I bought another belt for Q40.  We had to cross a narrow bridge to get to and from Sacapulus.

Narrow bridge

Selling their wares in the shade of a central park tree.

Off again up and over the winding steep roads to San Pedro Jocopilas.  We had intended to stay at Santa Cruz de Quiche but after a little wandering we decided there wasn't much there to see and continued up and down mountains.

In Santa Cruz de Quiche we found a small parade with two firetrucks loaded with children.  When they saw me taking their picture they all started waving.

Children waving.

We stopped in Chichicastenango on a none market day and it was dead so onto Solola. It was market day so we stopped.  The men wear traditional costume here and it was very interesting.

Walls of material.

Traditional clothing.  And you thought the women wore mismatched clothes.

Market.

My new huipile

They carry everything on their heads.

Another man in traditional clothing

Native dress

The ride home. About 20 are in the back of that "taxi"

Church in Solola

And then on to Panajachel where President found us a nice place, Hotel Cacique.  We had lunch at Pollo Campero and then drove to Santa Caterina Polopo where we bought a couple of memorabilia (hand made fan, crochet card-just little trinkets), returned to the hotel with intentions of swimming in the pool but it was cold so we played 5 crowns instead.

Santa Catarina Polopo.

Saturday morning we decided to go to San Antonio Polopo as Chris likes ceramics and they are famous for them.  The stores were just barely opening and the shop keepers were trying to grab us into their shops before they even had the door open.  The ceramic store opened and Chris bought several nice pieces and I bought a thimble and bud vase. Once again we found ourselves on a narrow road and having to turn around.

Another 20 point turn with a large drop-off right behind

Ceramic turtles

Ceramic Frogs

Part of the shop

Ceramic Owls

We headed back to Panajachel to continue our adventure and found four different parades going on in town with high school bands and blocking roads so we had to take a number of narrow back streets to get out of town.  I think we saw all of the different parades on our way.  

One of the school bands

We zipped across the street and out of town just ahead of this group in another parade

There was a demonstration on the road outside of Panajachel but we were able to drive right by without incident.  We finally made it to Antigua and decided that Saturday was not a good day to go there.  It was jam packed.  We were able to make our way to Casa Santa Domingo for lunch and then headed home.  Traffic as usual was terrible in and near the city but we made it.

Sunday was uneventful except we did have Brother Fillmore drive us downtown to pick up our rental car for the up coming week.  Makes us feel rather independent!