2/5-6/12: Guatemala City and home!

Guate! Guate!

 the bus helper calls as the bus drives rapidly through Antigua.  We caught the bus three blocks from Dona Olga's Place after making plans with a taxi driver to meet us at Tikal Futura in Guatemala City.  The young fellow stashed my pack in the front of the bus right by the driver.  Yehudah headed on with his pack and we swung his bag full of bought items, including a hammock, on the top rack.  The driver drove faster than one might think safe, but once everyone was packed in like sardines, three to a seat, he slowed down, as he had to stop often to let people on and off.  The taxi driver met us right at the bus stop but had some trouble finding the place we were staying as there are 2 Calle 15s in Area 13, but we finally got there, stashed our packs in our unmade-up room and walked over to the Art Museum:

plus a Handicraft Exhibit that wound up being set up with stuff from Lago Atitlan:

We saw a group of young folk in traditional attire perform some traditional dances, saw a mock presentation of a healing ceremony in the presence of a figure of Mashimon and perused the shops, in search of some earrings I hadn't bought in Antigua to no avail.

Yehudah took a short video of the dances:

 Then we went back to the Museums to the Archeology Museum and saw lots of stuff like in Copan:

 

Yehudah was happy we didn't see this wrecked bus at the beginning of our travels!

Back at the hotel we set ourselves up, then went in search of dinner, and wound up at the bottom part of the airport three blocks away.  After a not-very-good dinner we got back.  Yehudah went to bed ill and I watched TV for hours, flipping channels.  We got up at 5:40 a.m. and headed off to the airport.

We are currently in the Dallas airport, have passed through customs and are using these free 20 minute timed computers.  We both are so happy to be coming home!  It's been a long, amazing trip.

It has been frustrating not being able to post pictures effectively, since we don't have any personal means to do so.  My efforts to post large numbers of photos has failed several times, whether at an internet place or a friend's home.  So my task in the next few days is to post all the photos here and on Facebook, then to create a condensed slideshow.  The last piece will take several weeks of effort.  We also have short videos Yehudah took occasionally, which will take time to upload.

Thanks to those of you who have been following our journey!