An afternoon in Guatemala

We took a day run into Guatemala because of the Mayan ruins called "Quirigua". It's about a four hour drive from Copan so it was a full day. The weather was slightly irritable and it did rain a good bit of our drive and while we were visiting the ruins. Worse than the rain was the unreal humidity that we experienced. For the first time in my life I actually was unable to keep the sweat from running like a faucet off my forehead. It was a totally new experience for me and one I'm not totally ready to experience again!
Quirigua is a nice ruins group to see when visiting the Copan area as the two cities are tied together through war. The fall of Mayan community in Copan was a direct result of a lost battle with the village at Quirigua. Quirigua also used Copan as a model to build its city so it was interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two. For more information on the ruins you can click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quirigu%C3%A1



We also stopped in the regionally important city of Chiquimula and took a quick walk around the town. It was a bustling and busy city that serves as a regional shopping hub. Our driver says that he makes a monthly trip to the city to buy things he can't find in Copan. That seems to be a common thing for the citizens of the outlying areas to do.
For more information on Chiquimula click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquimula

The drive through Guatemala was easy and much flatter, particularly as we got closer to the ruins, than the Copan region in Honduras. As you can see from some of the photos I took from the car the area was very pretty, lush and green.

We didn't spend a lot of time in the country but enjoyed the things that we were able to see. Hope you enjoy the pictures and feel free to leave comments!