Quirigua Ruins

My good friends Mike and Gretchen came to visit me over a four day weekend at the beginning of May. I went round and round trying to figure out what to take them to do. They really wanted to go visit Tikal, but it really wasn't logical without flying there. The roads are really curvy and dangerous here and it didn't seem wise to be driving for 16-20 hours within a span of 3-4 days. So I decided to take the to Rio Dulce, somewhere I also wanted to visit, and we also got a short stop at some Mayan ruins on the way up there as well. There were two other couples and Stephanie that we carpooled with to get there. It was a great trip.

Quirigua was the Mayan city state that defeated Copan, but the ruins here were not as impressive as those in Copan. It was still cool though and I'm glad that Mike and Gretchen got to see some of this too! Quirigua is famous for its stellas, which are the carved stones that stand tall.

The leaning stella of Quirigua! (Not the real name, just made it up! ha ha)

Mike and Gretchen with a stella.

Mike Gretchen and I on the steps of the acropolis.

Gretchen being silly!

Gretchen and I by a really large tree!!!

Introducing Gretchen to Guatemala's own cerveza, Gallo!