Puerto Quetzal Gorgeous Guatemala

Donna check out gorgeous Guatamelan goods.

Volcano of Fire looms over Antigua

Tuesday, April 23^rd

^{Puerto Quetzal}

Gorgeous Guatemala

Since this was our first time in Guatemala, we decided to take a group tour away from the port and see the city of Antigua de Guatemala. We had a nice breakfast and then boarded a small tour bus for a day of touring to this mountain city. We were looking forward to some cooler weather and a chance to see this town. We were happy for the temperatures in the 70’s after the sticky 90 degree temperature and the humidity of the last 5 days at the coast. We were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and size of Antigua as we had not expected such a lovely large town. We now understand why this place was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage sight. We have been to a number of places with this designation throughout the world and have never been disappointed and Antigua was no exception.

We were lucky to have been assigned an excellent tour guide for this day excursion. Our guide, Nury, is an archeologist and local who has been a tour guide for 25 years so she was able to share an enormous amount of information during the 5 hour trip.

Once we arrived in the town our elevation was over 5000 feet and very comfortable for wandering throughout. We first went to the jade museum and again met the American expert on jade. Mary Lou recognized us and welcomed us to her museum and jade factory and showed us around. Then we had an hour or so to wander through the central plaza and market area of this lovely town. We bought some of the items that Guatemala is so famous for, hand woven textiles and mountain coffee beans. We even bought some hand painted necklaces from one of the Mayan women selling them in the plaza.

On  the trip back to the ship, Nury continued her talk about the culture of the Mayan people and told us that 65% of the native people in the country are Mayan and that they are from 21 different groups, each with their own culture and language. Very few have intermarried but she said that her family had done so, therefore she is a mestizo. She also explained that there are over 300 volcanoes in the country. She said that 37 of these are cones and 4 are active with the last eruption very recently in October 2012. They are also plagued by constant earthquakes due to their location on two fault lines. She pointed out some of the buildings and churches that have been destroyed and are currently being rebuilt in Antigua. That restoration is slow due to cost. It was a wonderful educational tour.

We had a chance to Skype home and catch up on our email at a dockside internet café.  Yes, we can live a day or two without going online!

We missed lunch due to our tour so we opted for an earlier dinner and enjoyed the company at our table. They were French Canadians from Quebec City and were bilingual. We were happy to find that they could speak English well as we can’t speak French. With the majority of the guests on this ship from Canada we have met many of our northern neighbors and feel right at home again since our CA. winter home friends are mostly from Canada.

Enjoying Antigua's central plaza

The show was excellent. The entertainer played a variety of instruments, some real and some homemade. They included the banjo, guitar, bagpipes and the ever popular turkey baster! He presented a musical comedy act which was quite entertaining. After the show, we went dancing and then off to bed. Tomorrow is the first of many stops in Mexico.