Thursday, February 18, 2016 - Antigua, Guatemala...

We woke up in Bogota, Columbia. We needed to be through security and at the gate for boarding at 3:59am. Did I mention it was an early morning???? Let me just say that the gate was a complete U-turn through this very, very, very long terminal to an elevator which took you down one floor (because the escalator was broken) to the gate. We all navigated this and gathered at the gate. Then we boarded our flight to San Salvador where we would change planes to fly to Guatemala City. When we arrived in Guatemala City we had to get through Immigration and Customs. We were all very happy to see our luggage join us upon arrival in Guatemala City. There had been no guarantees it would make it though all the hoops we were jumping. The most pleasant sight was Alan McKay pacing around looking for our arrival. His arms were out and he was saying, "My children are all back!" He had been at the airport trying to track down our luggage to be sure it would get to Antigua and meet us there. When he saw us come out with our luggage in tow his face just radiated happiness. I thought he might even shed a tear of gratitude and joy. He and Ida Mae had their own adventure with their flights to Panama and then to Guatemala City. It was just good to be forty-four people ready to tour Guatemala.

We had two buses in Guatemala City and we automatically went with our group to our bus. We informed our Guatemalan tour guide that Group #1 was nicknamed Cuy and we would readily respond to his requests when he called us that. He was amused with that name. Our bus would drive through Guatemala City to the Trans-American Highway and on to Antigua.

These two pictures were taken in Guatemala City. The first is the original aqueduct made to carry water to the city. The second is a 'chicken bus'. These interesting modes of transportation are really old school buses that the United States deems worn out. They are purchased by people from Guatemala, refurbished and tricked out with chrome and spiffy paint jobs. They are called 'chicken buses' because they did carry chickens on them and because they are known to play games of chicken on the highway. There is a bus driver of course but there is also usually another person who is climbing on the top and fastening down luggage or items to be transported. The color of the bus gives you a hint as to its intended route. However, we were informed they may deviate from that on occasion and go where the money leads them. Their object is to carry as many passengers as fast as they can so they make more money. You can see them teeming with passengers and a man on top holding onto the items up there as the driver careens down the highway. It was suggested that we not try riding in them in our free time.

We entered Antigua. What a quaint little town. Alan had told it was like stepping back in time to old Seville, Spain. I have never been there but could picture it easily from Antigua. The city really covers about 12 square blocks and all the streets are made of stone. The doors were in different woods or colors and made me think of our love of the many colorful doors in Ireland. The streets were narrow. Lots of the people ride little motorcycles instead of cars. 

The hotel we stayed in was the favorite for Claude and me of the entire trip. It was small and each room was unique. We were on the second floor and our room overlooked a courtyard with a fountain in the middle. Very old style Spanish in the furnishings and the room itself. 

We were allowed to settle into our rooms. I did a bit of hand-washing of some clothes so they could dry. Then we met the group and loaded on the buses to go to lunch. Alan was apologizing profusely and said we would eat at a fast food establishment so that we had time to visit the things we were to see that day and not miss anything. We went to McDonald's. I can only tell you that from Claude and my perspective that was a perfect choice. We had been on the road for a week. We enjoyed all the Peruvian dishes we had tried but it was just perfect to have a burger, fries and a soda. Simply yummy. Several in our group also enjoyed a McFlurry. Claude and I passed on the ice cream. Here are some McDonald's pictures. This place was huge.

Tummies full and feeling very happy, we were off to see some of the sights in Antigua. 

We walked to the Plaza de Armas or Central Plaza of Antigua. There were vendors selling their wares, fountains, shrubbery being shaped into animals and all this surrounded by city office buildings and the Cathedral. I did get one picture of the flag of Guatemala flowing in the breeze over City Hall.

We walked around the corner of the Cathedral (pictured above) and entered a side door. We were entering the back part of the Cathedral for Antiqua. This portion was destroyed in an earthquake. We toured the rubble area first and then entered the front portion which is a little newer with restored portions as well.

These are pictures of the portion destroyed by an earthquake.

One of the features of this Cathedral is the catacombs below it. Claude and I both went down to see what we could see. They have a metal bar fence floor to ceiling keeping you from going back into the catacombs. There is a little chapel affair that you can see through the bars. This is Claude coming out of the catacombs. Hmmmm...

This little stand at the bottom of this picture had three compartments in the top. It is for washing things. We saw rows of them along the square in one town. They were for the ladies to come and do their laundry.

Then we entered the newer and restored portion of the Cathedral. It's front door is the one we saw from the Central Plaza. They were opening it as we went through and there was a horse drawn carriage on the street with the Central Plaza behind.

We hiked a little further and found Casa del Jade. Guatemala has lots of jade in many colors. Usually we think green when we think of Jake. Not so. There was every kind of shade from almost pure white to a pale lavender color to the tradition green. Our tour guide explained the process of getting and making the jade pieces. Then we went through their tiny museum with some ancient Maya pieces made from jade. Some of the masks would have been extremely heavy to wear. Since they have a fair number of people touring that are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they have a few pieces of carved jade that would appeal to them. There was a 'tree of life' carved into dark jade representative of Lehi's vision in the Book of Mormon. Claude and I were amused at the Star Wars collection!! Very timely with the new Star Wars movie that came out in December. 

Claude bought me a beautiful pendant in a silver setting that was the light lavender jade. It really looks almost white.

We visited the San Francisco church.

Antigua had several archways over the streets of the city.  

We had one last stop at the Mercado for Antigua. Claude and I wandered through the entire thing and bought nothing. By this time we were all a bit exhausted. We purchased most of our souvenirs for family in Peru so we really didn't need anything else unless we saw something that really caught our attention. We also knew there was some excellent shopping coming up the next day. We waited till our bus arrived and then enjoyed the ride back to our lovely little hotel. 

Claude and I would dine in the hotel restaurant that night. Let me just state here that dining in Peru and Guatemala was a very leisurely affair. In the States your server is right there with menus and a request for beverages. Then they are right back to take your order. They are back often to be sure everything is okay. They are back to refresh your beverage. They are back to get your bill to you so you can pay and be on your way. Money is made by the number of seating they can get through in an evening. This just doesn't seem to be a concern in any of the restaurants where we dined. We were shown a table and then waited a long time for menus. Then another long time before they came back to take your order. You were allowed to eat without much interruption at all. Then you waited and waited and waited until they finally brought your bill. Then you waited and waited and waited for them to take your payment. There is never a feeling of needing to move quickly so they can have your table for the next patron. Just a very different mindset. We were on vacation and that was usually okay. However, on the nights we had to get our luggage ready for storage and pack overnight bags for the next day, we might have preferred that rushed American way a little bit.