Breakfast was at 7:00 and then we packed up and said good-bye to our friends at the Hotel Modelo. Stan and I gave Gloria, the native waitress, a Q50 tip. She was beaming.

It took forever to get out of Xela to Cuatro Caminos. Even the road to Huehuetenango was much more built up than it was 30 years ago. We stopped at the mirador that looks across the pumice-filled, plate-boundary, Motagua Fault Valley to the Sierra Madre Cuchimatanes on the North American Plate. It took a long time to get through Huehuetenango to the road up to the summit. To my surprise, it is now paved.

We got to the top and ate our Hotel Modelo box lunches at the monument at the top and bombarded by requests for candy, food, money, empty cans, etc. by a bunch of local kids. They were all very dirty; several had colds; and one little girl appeared as if she had fetal alcohol syndrome. We all gave in and gave them something, in fact just about everything that was loose.

After talking about the plate boundary tectonics and looking at the volcanic arc in the distance from Tacaná, on the Mexican border, to Pacaya, we descended and stopped at a serpentinite road cut that Gerry Carlson and I looked at in 1976. Then we made our way back through the city and headed southward. It was dusk by the time we got to Cuatro Caminos so we stopped and bought apples and donuts in the market. In the dark, we headed down the Zunil Canyon, arriving at the Hotel El Jardín after 8:00. We had 3 bungalows waiting for us. We all ate dinner and saw incandescence up on Santiaguito. Everyone was in a festive mood. We saw several incandescent eruptions during dinner. Mojitos Cubanos were the drink of the night. We stayed up and talked until 11:30. I arranged for box lunches through the night manager, Rosario.

I talked a lot with John Lyons about Guatemala and geology. I hope we can visit him at the Fuego Observatory. Naomi informed us that Nathan was having rather severe intestinal problems. John diagnosed Nathan's condition as a bacterial diarrhea and went to ask Amanda for Cipro but was unsuccessful. I thought he was right about his diagnosis so I went and asked Amanda for the drugs and got them. I was hailed as a hero.

Feeling very tired, I retired to our bungalow and climbed into bed in the bunk room. Ryan was already asleep and John and Maulik came in soon after.