There are so many wonderful looking birds here, with many different colors and songs. We caught this one sitting on the fence in front of the church building.
We took our P day to see how the road to Semuc Champey was from Fray. 15 kilometers of pavemant and then 3 hours of gravel, rocks, and boulders. We felt like we were in a washing machine for two hours, most of the time just barely crawling along in 4 wheel drive. When we finally got to the turnoff and final leg of the trip, rather than spend the last hour on roads that were probably worse, we chickened out and took a paved road, which continued on to Coban. The scenery was beautiful though!
One of the little towns we went through. The kids would see us and shout gringos. We gave a piece of candy to a few walking on the road that smiled and waved at us and a man carrying wood on his back with a strap on his forehead.
Hills upon hills. So beautiful. But we probably won't try driving it again :(
Along the way, we hit a road block. A man was out in the middle of the road with a pick axe, and had placed some big rocks across the road so we couldn't pass. We asked the price for passing and were told 100 Quetzales. Alan asked if that was the gringo price or the "chapin" (native guatemalan) price. He said everyone pays it. :) So we said we weren't going to pay it, and started turning around to go back. He came down to Q25, very quick, and then finally just opened it up for us to pass. We gave him Q20 and went through. It is common that people pretend to be fixing roads (some actually do real repairs to potholes, but some appear to be creating potholes instead) in order to get money. It is a kind of panhandling with a twist.
We got home and I made cupcakes to celebrate Cristina and Esdras' birthdays and we went over and helped build a fire to grill the chicken.
Esdras dipped the tortillas in the chicken drippings and grilled them as well.
Angel, Melaney, and Cristopher ran around in their hero capes and played soccer until time to eat.
11 adults and 3 kids, with grilled chicken, spaghetti, and salad. Delicious!
The kids knocked themselves out with all their energy gone and full stomachs.
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