Guatemala, Traveling to Antigua and the Evening
Photo count: 334
Count does not include "bad" photos that have already been deleted.
Then we saw Brent´s workplace and went to Antigua.
After Brent picked us up yesterday, we swung by where he works in a brief visit before we were off to the airport to pick up his aunt and cousin (poor bastard´s driving around like crazy shepherding arriving friends and relatives, most of whom, like us, no hablo español). Pottery shards abounded, and I took some very nice photograph that you may see someday. One of his co-workers was kind enough to give us an overview of what work they are doing there with pottery - basically using chemical analysis to determine the composition of the pottery clay and therefor the original location, which leads to the ability to learn new things about the society. For example, one of the more recent discoveries was a few sites where it appeared that clay figurines had been "sacrificed", either to aid in transitions to the afterlife (in which case, all the figurines were transitional, as in a shaman with his removable hat, figurines with masks, etc.) or as a sort of sacrifice to help settle into a new place, where the figurines were from the person´s original location. Interesting stuff. Phil also got to chat with Brent´s boss, who is the one who handles the chemical analysis; he seemed delighted to talk to another chemist.
The ride from Guatemala City to Antigua had many scenic views of cloud-covered mountains and jungle with small settlements in between. Unfortunately, as it is the rainy season in Guatemala, the skies opened up and rain poured down on us from when we entered the airport until we were installed in our hotel several hours later. So instead of keeping the window rolled down and snapping pix constantly as I did in Guatemala City, we staying crowded inside (1 pickup, 6 people). The importance of tarps to protect luggage cannot be understated.
Brent´s aunt is a character. She seems to be the sort of person who has somehow ended up trying new things but isn't quite sure how. The driving habits in Guatemala caused her great alarm. She also has a habit of constantly asking questions whenever there is a lull in the conversation-whether they be (sometimes extremely) personal questions or simply demands for information about whatever happens to be nearby. And I quote, "Now that´s the real Guatemala!" "Mirza, explain about the chairs." (About some small chairs near the fire at their hotel.) Poor Mirza (Brent´s Guatemalan fiancee, who is also an archaeologist). Being Guatemalan, she was clearly deemed the expert who would know everything about everything and who had arranged everything (when in fact Brent did most of the arranging). There was much eye-rolling. Also a long list of things that the son was under direct orders to take photographs of. She seems to be a perfectly nice older lady, but she does have a knack for asking either really obvious or unanswerable questions.
Antigua
Antigua really is as lovely as everyone says it is. The cobblestone streets are lined with small villas, mostly hotels, restaurants, and shops painted shades of terracotta orange, yellow, and blue. Behind closed and guarded (by men with guns) doors, every villa has a central courtyard, most of which hold tropical gardens. Bougainvillia spill over rooftops. Around every corner, it seems, is a stone monastery or cathedral, striking even in decay. In the distance, one sees jungle and cloud-covered mountains and volcanoes.
Brent´s family was dropped off at a breathtakingly gorgeous hotel, one of the finest in Antigua. I cannot do it justice with a description, but I did take plenty of photographs! Imagine a Spanish hacienda with antique furniture and gorgeously aged paintings everywhere. The center courtyard is open to the sky, and tropical flowers overflow their baskets and cascade down the walls. Ferns and orchids root in the walls. Its the sort of place where, when you check in, they bring you a glass of wine in welcome. I´ll post the name once I recall what it is!
Them we all went out for dinner at La Posada de Don Rodrigo, a fine-dining Guatemalan/French restaurant. There´s really a lot more French influence here than I was expecting. The food was, of course, delicious. The restaurant´s tables face the courtyard, and we had excellent views of a cloud-covered volcano slowly dipping into invisibility as we ate.
For future reference, if you are planning on visiting Antigua, make sure that you do get reservations at a hotel if you are going to be arriving on the weekend. Antigua is not just a popular tourist destination; it also seems to be a very popular weekend getaway for Guatemalans - especially Guatemalan lovebirds. I haven´t seen so many couples walking hand in hand and being utterly mooshy since I visited Paris.
After calling around to many different places, we ended up staying at Hotel Santa Clara. Prices have more than doubled since our guidebook listings were last updated, which was a bit painful for our wallet, but every other place we checked was packed to the gills. It has pretty basic rooms with extremely firm beds, and our room was right next to where they kept the watchdog, who was very diligent in his duty of warning off intruders throughout the evening. On the plus side, the blue-tiled bathroom was very clean and the shower/bath was extravagent. The courtyard´s stone fountain and patio is ringed with lime trees that have orchids growing on them and hanging baskets of ferns. This morning we sat in the courtyard and sipped our complimentary Cafe Americano and watched the doves flutter between the tiled roof and the lime trees.
After we were settled in the hotel last night, we went out for a night-time walk. Antigua´s Central Park is bordered by the great stone Cathedral and by Palacio de Capitanes, arched exterior walkways that are filled with many tiny shops, restaurants, and cafes selling everything under the sun: jade jewelry and statues, woven textiles, odds and ends, internet access, cameras and film, convenience store goods, candy, books, pottery figurines, tours, travel packages, currency exchange, etc. Courting couples love strolling through the central park, and horse-drawn carriages bravely dare the cobblestone streets, which are clogged bumper-to-bumper with tuk-tuks (auto-rikshaws), taxis, busses, and motorcycles.
Inside one of the ruined churches, we saw a Guatemalan wedding being held. A path through the inside was lined with candles and covered with rose petals for the bride and groom to walk on, and a horse-drawn carriage waited outside. Sadly, this meant that we could not go inside to explore.
We stopped by one of the hole-in-the-wall corner stores, picked up a couple of bottles of Gallo, the national beer of Guatemala, and a bottle of agua pura (filtered/spring water), and then retired to our hotel room.
Phil says I have to leave the internet cafe now, so I suppose I´ll post about what we did today...tomorrow.
Count does not include "bad" photos that have already been deleted.
Then we saw Brent´s workplace and went to Antigua.
After Brent picked us up yesterday, we swung by where he works in a brief visit before we were off to the airport to pick up his aunt and cousin (poor bastard´s driving around like crazy shepherding arriving friends and relatives, most of whom, like us, no hablo español). Pottery shards abounded, and I took some very nice photograph that you may see someday. One of his co-workers was kind enough to give us an overview of what work they are doing there with pottery - basically using chemical analysis to determine the composition of the pottery clay and therefor the original location, which leads to the ability to learn new things about the society. For example, one of the more recent discoveries was a few sites where it appeared that clay figurines had been "sacrificed", either to aid in transitions to the afterlife (in which case, all the figurines were transitional, as in a shaman with his removable hat, figurines with masks, etc.) or as a sort of sacrifice to help settle into a new place, where the figurines were from the person´s original location. Interesting stuff. Phil also got to chat with Brent´s boss, who is the one who handles the chemical analysis; he seemed delighted to talk to another chemist.
The ride from Guatemala City to Antigua had many scenic views of cloud-covered mountains and jungle with small settlements in between. Unfortunately, as it is the rainy season in Guatemala, the skies opened up and rain poured down on us from when we entered the airport until we were installed in our hotel several hours later. So instead of keeping the window rolled down and snapping pix constantly as I did in Guatemala City, we staying crowded inside (1 pickup, 6 people). The importance of tarps to protect luggage cannot be understated.
Brent´s aunt is a character. She seems to be the sort of person who has somehow ended up trying new things but isn't quite sure how. The driving habits in Guatemala caused her great alarm. She also has a habit of constantly asking questions whenever there is a lull in the conversation-whether they be (sometimes extremely) personal questions or simply demands for information about whatever happens to be nearby. And I quote, "Now that´s the real Guatemala!" "Mirza, explain about the chairs." (About some small chairs near the fire at their hotel.) Poor Mirza (Brent´s Guatemalan fiancee, who is also an archaeologist). Being Guatemalan, she was clearly deemed the expert who would know everything about everything and who had arranged everything (when in fact Brent did most of the arranging). There was much eye-rolling. Also a long list of things that the son was under direct orders to take photographs of. She seems to be a perfectly nice older lady, but she does have a knack for asking either really obvious or unanswerable questions.
Antigua
Antigua really is as lovely as everyone says it is. The cobblestone streets are lined with small villas, mostly hotels, restaurants, and shops painted shades of terracotta orange, yellow, and blue. Behind closed and guarded (by men with guns) doors, every villa has a central courtyard, most of which hold tropical gardens. Bougainvillia spill over rooftops. Around every corner, it seems, is a stone monastery or cathedral, striking even in decay. In the distance, one sees jungle and cloud-covered mountains and volcanoes.
Brent´s family was dropped off at a breathtakingly gorgeous hotel, one of the finest in Antigua. I cannot do it justice with a description, but I did take plenty of photographs! Imagine a Spanish hacienda with antique furniture and gorgeously aged paintings everywhere. The center courtyard is open to the sky, and tropical flowers overflow their baskets and cascade down the walls. Ferns and orchids root in the walls. Its the sort of place where, when you check in, they bring you a glass of wine in welcome. I´ll post the name once I recall what it is!
Them we all went out for dinner at La Posada de Don Rodrigo, a fine-dining Guatemalan/French restaurant. There´s really a lot more French influence here than I was expecting. The food was, of course, delicious. The restaurant´s tables face the courtyard, and we had excellent views of a cloud-covered volcano slowly dipping into invisibility as we ate.
For future reference, if you are planning on visiting Antigua, make sure that you do get reservations at a hotel if you are going to be arriving on the weekend. Antigua is not just a popular tourist destination; it also seems to be a very popular weekend getaway for Guatemalans - especially Guatemalan lovebirds. I haven´t seen so many couples walking hand in hand and being utterly mooshy since I visited Paris.
After calling around to many different places, we ended up staying at Hotel Santa Clara. Prices have more than doubled since our guidebook listings were last updated, which was a bit painful for our wallet, but every other place we checked was packed to the gills. It has pretty basic rooms with extremely firm beds, and our room was right next to where they kept the watchdog, who was very diligent in his duty of warning off intruders throughout the evening. On the plus side, the blue-tiled bathroom was very clean and the shower/bath was extravagent. The courtyard´s stone fountain and patio is ringed with lime trees that have orchids growing on them and hanging baskets of ferns. This morning we sat in the courtyard and sipped our complimentary Cafe Americano and watched the doves flutter between the tiled roof and the lime trees.
After we were settled in the hotel last night, we went out for a night-time walk. Antigua´s Central Park is bordered by the great stone Cathedral and by Palacio de Capitanes, arched exterior walkways that are filled with many tiny shops, restaurants, and cafes selling everything under the sun: jade jewelry and statues, woven textiles, odds and ends, internet access, cameras and film, convenience store goods, candy, books, pottery figurines, tours, travel packages, currency exchange, etc. Courting couples love strolling through the central park, and horse-drawn carriages bravely dare the cobblestone streets, which are clogged bumper-to-bumper with tuk-tuks (auto-rikshaws), taxis, busses, and motorcycles.
Inside one of the ruined churches, we saw a Guatemalan wedding being held. A path through the inside was lined with candles and covered with rose petals for the bride and groom to walk on, and a horse-drawn carriage waited outside. Sadly, this meant that we could not go inside to explore.
We stopped by one of the hole-in-the-wall corner stores, picked up a couple of bottles of Gallo, the national beer of Guatemala, and a bottle of agua pura (filtered/spring water), and then retired to our hotel room.
Phil says I have to leave the internet cafe now, so I suppose I´ll post about what we did today...tomorrow.