MONDAY JUNE 29th CHRIS'S BITHDAY

We headed to town early for coffee and a little breakfast. After we got off the bus we saw Maria and invited her to come to McDonalds with us. It was good to be able to share time and breakfast with her. Then we headed over to the Museo de Chocolate for the class we signed up for. It turned out to be really good and fun. We learned the history of chocolate, how it started with the Olmecs then to the Mayas, onto the Aztecs and then the Spanish. how they prepared it for a hot chocolate drink and then was finally made into to chocolate. We ground coco beans, made different hot drinks and finally made our own chocolates from the pure chocolate. Afterwards we went to a Jade store and they had a small museum about Mayan jade and some beautiful jewelry. Then it was Dona Louisa's for lunch. It was good. It had started raining outside but didn't get too bad. We met Susy and went to a travel agency to set up a trip to go to Mayan ruins in Copan Honduras the following morning. We finally made it back to the base and had some dinner. 3:30 Tuesday morning Bruce took us to town to catch the shuttle for our Copan tour. We got to Copan at 10:30 a.m., got checked into our hotel and at 10:50 a tuk tuk came to take us to the ruins so we had no time to rest or eat. The ruins are pretty interesting and amazing. It is hot (low 90's) and humid in Copan. When we got done at the ruins we were pretty exhausted so we rested in our air conditioned hotel for a bit then set out to find some dinner. We found an interesting British restaurant. It turned out to be pretty good and we both enjoyed it. Next morning breakfast at the hotel then left to go back around noon. The shuttle van was pretty full when they came to pick us up but it got worse. It was a 15 passenger van and there ended up with 16 people in it. That was too many but it was what it was. We were suppose to be back to Antigua around 7 but traffic was really bad in Guatemala City and we didn't get back till 8. Again we hadn't eaten all day so we ate at Pollo Campero before catching the bus back to the base. Now it's Thursday and Chris's last day and we have mucho things to do. We head into town on the bus Then catch a tuk tuk to a hotel that has a shuttle that goes up to El Tenedor restaurant. We made it there and had breakfast. It was very good and it a beautiful and interesting place to look around and spend some time. When we got back down from there we found Clara in the park because Chris had told her she would buy a couple things from her. Then we walked over to another hotel that had a shuttle that went to Finca Filadelfia Coffee Farm and we went and did a coffee tour. That was pretty interesting and learned a lot but we had to hustle back to town to go to the Museo de Textiles before it closed at 5 p.m. Made it there around 4:30. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about the clothing they make in the different villages around Guatemala. Had dinner at Cafe Barrista then back to the base to get ready for Chris to leave. At 9 p.m. The driver showed up to take Chris to the Airport.