Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
I first need to apologize for the broken English you read in yesterday's blog.....I wrote that at about 1am after quite a day with autocorrect (which does more harm than good at times - "can" instead of "van"....grrrrr) and neglected to proof read it today before posting. You would expect my Spanish to be broken, not my English...hahaha.
Today was our first full day in Antigua and it was quite wonderful. We slept till around 8, although we both typically wake up around 6, read a bit, and force ourselves to go back to sleep. I washed a few clothing items in the sink to get me through the rest of the trip with clean skivvies! Haha
We had packaged oatmeal for breakfast on the terrace of our hotel. The hotel is actually an older house renovated as a hotel....it is quite lovely. Gramma mentioned this morning she had never before seen the sky so blue.....you can imagine that means the view from our terrace was exceptional. Side note: Gramma thinks of everything.....she brought along a single water heater to heat water for our oatmeal and coffee/tea, tea and coffee bags, oatmeal packets, a container to heat it in, and spoons..... I mean the woman thinks of everything. I can't tell you how nice it has been to have such amenities wherever we go.....not to mention the boiling sterilizes the water so we can consume it without ill effects.
After breakfast (desayuno) we went out exploring the city and visited 2 major sites: 1) the central cathedral, and 2) la recolecion. Both were amazing! The cathedral still had the front area functioning and in good condition, but the rest was in ruin. Their were two earthquakes in the 1700s that damaged the buildings which were repaired and then another quake in 1773 which completely destroyed these and many other cathedrals in the city. They were completely in ruin...you could see some detail in the archways, but both were completely destroyed. It was amazing to see the sure size of these structures and the history behind them. The Recolecion was only finished a year (1715) before the first quake in 1716. It was certainly a grand place of worship for the people of Antigua and literally a huge fall for them as they then transplanted the religious and political center from Antigua to Guatemala City.
We spent some time in the parque (central plaza) of the city people watching and enjoying the absolutely perfect weather. Guatemala is typically known as the "eternal spring," and I know why...the weather is beautiful, especially in this part of the country. We enjoyed lunch in the plaza and splurged for a local pastry in the afternoon. We had the pleasure of meeting a local artist and watch him paint in water color.....so cool!
After much thought and calculations we have decided not to continue with our original travel itinerary. The trip from Antigua to Copan was going to be over 7 hours on a bus each way and we simply decided we didn't absolutely need to go as our third travel companion wasn't with us who Is really interested in the ruins. So, we will be spending tonight and tomorrow in Antigua as planned and heading to Xela (quetzaltenango).....xela is the Myan word for this city. It is a very historic city with a number of things to do from it like visiting the oldest archeological site in Guatemala, hot springs, visiting small communities, bird watching, etc. We feel this will give us some time to relax and enjoy the rest of our trip without the burden of a long bus trip to and from Copan. Copan will have to be another trip! Doing it this way we get to have another morning in Antigua and leave Friday afternoon to Xela. We will then be in Xela Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and leave afternoon on Monday....so we get Monday morning in Xela also. We will then travel from Xela to Antigua and then to Guatemala City directly to our hotel and head home on Tuesday morning. These travel plans will give us time to truly take advantage of every second we can in this beautiful country.
We spent the evening at our favorite restaurant La Pena del Sol Latino. The live music tonight was traditional Guatemalan which is a lot like Spanish/ Mexican influenced using vocal, classical guitars, mouth pipes, and organic wood flutes. We shared French onion soup, ratatouille with a Spanish torta, red wine, coconut flan, and a special treat of Guatemalan hot chocolate.
Phase 3 is in full swing and tomorrow we visit local villages where they do weaving and other handcrafted arts....stay tuned..more adventures to come from the terrific duo!
P.S. for Adam (my dear husband).....Gramma brought me this mug this morning and said I should use it! It is apparently obvious that a girl a world away is missing her boy! :)
Buenos noches from Antigua,
Gramma & Kristin Noel
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And he certainly misses his wife!!!!
ReplyDelete-Adam