Gateway to the colonial and natural splendor
of Guatemala, Puerto Quetzal is overseen by a dramatic mountain range and a
pair of magnificent volcanic peaks. Here are a couple of pictures of us coming
in.
Our tour today is to Antigua, a historic and
cultural center set in a verdant mountain-ringed valley of the central highlands,
is one of the best-preserved Spanish colonial cities in the Western Hemisphere.
Spanish Renaissance and baroque churches, picturesque monasteries and colorful
homes recall the city’s 200 years as the capital of Spain’s Middle American
colonies.
To get there, you guessed it, we took a long (2-hour)
bus ride. Do they not put these things close to the port? There are seven
active volcanos here. They also mine here, mostly jade, gold, alabaster,
silver, copper and zinc. The favorite food here is corn and our guide said they
can prepare it 100 different ways. They also eat black beans and rice. The flag
has two blue stripes for the two oceans and one white one for purity. Spanish
is the official language, but the Mayan speak their own language of with there
are 22 of them. Here are some of the pictures we took on the ride. One of the
volcanos is called Ira, you can see the ash coming out of the volcano in one of
the pictures. It is 3850m high. Coffee takes three years to produce and it has
to be harvested by hand. They are paid by the pound to harvest it. You will
also see here a picture of one of the lava rivers where the eruption has come
down. It was a beautiful ride.
The city has an abundance of historic buildings
(most in excellent repair) including elegant pastel-colored mansions, gracious
plazas, baroque civic buildings like the arcaded General Captaincy, and lovely
churches like the Catedral de Santiago, which dates to 1545. Our first stop was
at a jade factory and museum. It was very interesting.
They now took us to the center of town where we
could walk around and absorb some of the beauty of this town. The streets are
all cobblestone and the buildings are all very old.
Now we are on our way back to the ship. We
stopped for a bathroom break and refreshment break at a gas station where we
fortified ourselves with a beer and a chicken empanada. It was an uneventful
ride to the port till about 1 km out when we came to a complete stop. Apparently,
the truck drivers decide to demonstrate and had blocked the port entrance with
their trucks. It was chaos with cars turning around and going the wrong way
down ramps and roads. We waited it out and the police convinced them to open
the port and 15 minutes later we were back at our home away from home.
