Friday, July 15 - a very full day!

David had a few work tasks to complete before arriving a few minutes late to Spanish tutoring (how in character!).  During our 30 minute break, we purchased a couple of baked treats at a local panaderia (bakery) across the street from the school and snacked in front of Iglesia de la Merced.  Elyse purchased a hair band from one of the street vendors.  (The street vendors are polite but aggressive and it is hard to say “no, gracias” all the time!)

The view from our street

La Merced, the Church of Mercy, a block from our school

A surprisingly clear morning, with the top of Vulcan de Agua visible

After four hours of one-on-one Spanish, we walked a few blocks to the official tourist office to gather some information about tours and day trips.  From there we walked back North toward our destination for the day, Cerro de la Cruz, which sits on the side of a hill at the north end of the city.  As we looked for a place to lunch, we turned left to discover that we had completed a circle and were back near our apartment. (The city is actually quite small).  We had lunch at Restaurante Frida’s, named after the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.  There were lots of Andy Warhol-style paintings of her on the walls.  David had huitlacoche enchiladas (sometimes called “Corn smut”) and a locally brewed beer and Elyse had vegetarian tacos.  It was delicious and delightful. 

After lunch, we grabbed a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) for a round trip up the hill to Cerro de Las Cruces, saving us the long climb.  You can see from the photos that the view provides a better sense of the size of Antigua in relation to Volcan de Agua. 

After resting back at our apartment, David went out again to buy bread and wine only to discover that a large marketplace in the Parque Central was already underway as part of the two week La Fiestas Reales de Santiago.  (Santiago is the patron saint of Antigua, whose original name was Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala.  Elyse joined up and we walked around buying a few small items, including a round of solid chocolate which we will need to figure out how to use.  We finally picked up bread and wine and finished the day with a Shabbat dinner of grilled vegetables, the ingredients for which we had purchased at the Thursday market.  Era muy delicioso!

Some more extraordinary flora of the area:

Buenas Noches y Shabbat Shalom!

An Introduction to Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua is a lovely gem of a city surrounded by several volcanoes.  Coming here is like falling through a rift in time and being transported back to the colonial period of Central America.  Let me explain:

Antigua (Then called Santiago) was the third capital city of the Captaincy-General de Guatemala, the colonial government, founded in 1524.  It was destroyed and rebuilt several times by fires, earthquakes and volcanic activity, but served as the capital until 1773 when the Santa Maria Earthquakes destroyed most of it.  At that time, the authorities ordered the capital moved to a safer location and created Guatemala City - today a booming metropolis of 3 million people.

Antigua was abandoned in a state of ruin.

Slowly, some people started coming back (to join the poor who never left) who set up community in what was left of the old colonial city.  Because of this, the city retains its 17^th century charm – including cobblestone streets, low colonial buildings and many ruined and collapsed churches and convents. 

 

In the 1940’s efforts began to preserve the historical character of the city and it was later named a UNESCO world heritage site.  The entire downtown is considered an historic monument and all restoration and building must preserve its character – hence, time travel.  Here is a short little article from UNESCO explaining more if you are interested.

The city is stunningly beautiful. With colorful low-rise buildings facing the cobblestone streets, giant wooden doorways with fancy peep-holes and door knockers and lots of ruins churches to explore.  The streets are narrow (and always crowded with cars, motorcycles and tuktuks), and one must be very careful as one walks to not trip, fall or break a bone on the cobblestones and uneven walkways. 

Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the city sits in the Panchay Valley at 1,530.17 m above sea level.  To the north, there is first the small hill Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross) which you can climb up and get a wonderful view of the city.   You can see directly across the valley to Vulcan de Agua (Volcano of Water, so called because of its constant cloud cover at the top).  Off to the west, on rare clear days, you can glimpse Vulcan de Fuego (the fire volcano, so called because of the active lava and fire plumes sometimes visible) and Vulcan Acetenango in the distance.

The city is laid out in a very formal, colonial grid pattern:  the streets are either North/South (and named Calle Norte 1,2,3, or Calle Sur 1,2,3, respectively) or East/West (Calle Oriente  1,2,3 or Calle Poniente 1,2,3 respectively) all centered on the main square – with a large fountain and lots of trees and always crowds of people – vendors selling fruit, trinkets or crafts, families picnicking and tourists gawking at all of it.  It’s about 16 square blocks in total and you can walk the entire city in a day, although it is easy to get distracted wandering through markets, craft stores, ruined churches, etc.

I have become very fond of the giant wooden doorways for the houses here.  Usually, the giant doorways lead to courtyards with multiple dwellings (or shops, etc).  The doorways often have peep-hole windows and fancy iron door knockers in the shape of a lion, a hand, even an otter!

Our apartment is on the north end of the city on a quiet block.  To get to us, you have to first enter through a giant wooden doorway into a spacious, open-to-the-sky courtyard.  Around this courtyard, there are two floors with several other apartments.  Then go through a small tunnel that holds the laundry room, and out to a back building that holds our apartment with its gorgeous garden.  We are so far back from the street that it is very quiet, most of the time.

It's always warm, not too hot, and humid with frequent rains this time of year.