The Rest of the Story!

We saved our final outing from the closure for this week because we simply had too much to include.  We're back to work now for a week and still readjusting to our busy schedule.  On Friday of the second week of the closure we got together with the Wilsons, the Murris and the Barneys and hired the same people who took us to Immigration a few weeks ago.  They provided a driver and an English-speaking guide to do a tour of downtown Guatemala City.  We drove up and back down the Avenide de Los Americas which is a long street with a median divider that contains monuments to all the countries of Central America.  They all used to be one big country in colonial times.  Our guide, Miguel, explained what each monument was.  It was pretty interesting.  We then went to the center of town and toured the national palace which was built in the early 1940s. It is a museum and is also used for government functions.  It was quite beautiful.

 We had to wait outside for the next tour to begin, so we got some photos of the front of the building.

 This hanging light has a quetzal bird sitting on it.  It is the national bird of Guatemala and is used in their art, their money, and, yes, even their flag!

Miguel had us all stand on this plaque at the front entrance.  He asked each of us how we felt when we stood on it.  When we were all finished, he told us that standing on it meant we would return to Guatemala some day. It represents the 0 kilometer which means it is the exact center of the city.

When we entered the building we were met by a cute young lady who was our tour guide in the building.  We walked upstairs and viewed some beautiful murals that were painted over the stairs.  We took several pictures, but it was too dark to get good shots, so we didn't include any here.  They included pictures of the Conquistadors and the Mayans and even a mural of Don Quixote.  We then walked into the center of the building where we could see down into this courtyard.

This picture didn't turn out very well, but you can see that there were some beautiful stained glass windows. They represent the 10 virtues of a good nation.  They were shattered in 1980 by a car bomb but were later rebuilt.  There were a lot of symbols and dates painted on the ceilings and woodwork, but it wasn't possible to get good pictures.

 This is the sala de reception or reception room.  The chandelier is bohemian crystal on which brass and golden quetzals perch. 

These stained glass windows are in the banquet hall.  They each represented something, but we have forgotten the specifics.

This  mural was on the next level up.  It represents the indigenous religions and was of particular interest to Gary as he and Dena once saw this ceremony being performed at Tikal.  The medicine man ripped off the head of a chicken and sprinkled blood on the person for whom the ceremony was being performed.

This is a fountain.  There was water in the far end, but this end was dry.  The guide said they add water when they are having government functions.

This monument, as far as we could understand, is representative of the peace arrived at after the civil war in the 1980s.  The two hands are both left hands.  That had some significance, but not sure what it was.  There is a fresh, white rose on the palm of the upper hand that is changed every day.  At the top of the stairs in the background is a monument to the unknown heroes.

 When we finished our tour, we stopped at a grand piano where a pianist played their national anthem for us.  He was a really good pianist, and it was beautifully done.

We walked across the plaza from the palace and walked through this cathedral.

This is the outside of the cathedral.  It is the metropolitan cathedral and was built between 1782 and 1815.  The towers weren't completed until 1867. 


As you walk through the cathedral, you see a lot of altars of different saints. 

 and of the the Savior, Mary, the apostles and so on.

 This is the main altar under a rotunda.  Many of the works of art came from Antiqua so are much older than the cathedral. 

The Virgen del Perpetuo Socorro (the virgin of perpetual relief) is the oldest image in Guatemala.  

the painting was brought into the country by Hernan Cortez in 1522.  It has survived three earthquakes, (1830, 1917, and 1976). We didn't get a picture of this, so took this one off the internet.

The image below is called the "milk virgin because she is breastfeeding the Christ child.  This image was not allowed in the Vatican because they considered it immoral.  Guess that's the opinion of a bunch of old, celibate men!

This represents the Savior in the tomb.

And this is the rotunda over the altar.  There are carvings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the triangles between the woodwork.

After our tour of the Cathedral we went to the Mercado Central which is just behind the cathedral and is the market we visited the day we went to the Relief Map.  We found a nice, leather belt for Gary and a painting for our living room.  It was a very informative, cultural, and fun day!

A Trip to Paradise!

We have so many photos from our trip this week that we will likely not get everything in one post.  We'll see, but we may save part of the adventures for next week.

On Tuesday we left at 5:00 a.m. to drive to Rio Dulce which is in the tropical lowlands just inland from the Caribbean.  There were enough of us that we couldn't all fit in the bus, so 10 of us rode in a van driven by our travel planner, Hermana Viveros.  Her daughter Lucila also came along with her darling 15 month old son, Jose Pablo.  Here he is sporting Dorine's sombrero!

We were delayed by an accident on the road ahead of us where a semi cab exploded killing two people and blocking the road for quite a while.  We arrived in Rio Dulce (Sweet River) at lunch time.  We had lunch in this charming thatched roof, open air cafe.

 We both selected the same meal, steak with rice, refried beans and fried plantains with lemonade.  It was delicious!!.

After lunch we all boarded the boat which had just enough seats to accommodate us all comfortably.

Here's a "selfie" of us after we donned our life vests.

As we started up the river, we passed several trees full of these exotic birds.  Our guide said the black ones are cormorants, but he didn't say what the white ones are.. 

Just a short way up the river we stopped at this old fortress.  It was originally built in the 1500s to fight off the pirates coming in off the Caribbean to plunder the local villages.  We looked around for Cap'n Jack Sparrow but neither he or nor the Black Pearl made an appearance.

We all disembarked and went to explore the fortress.  This plaque tells that it is the Castillo De San Felipe.  It had fallen into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1651.  Much of it has now been restored in modern times so it is in good repair and looks much like it did when it was in use.  At the top of this photo you can see the moat that protects it from the land side.

 

We crossed a drawbridge to enter the building.  The first room we entered was the kitchen and dining area.

 In this room are some actual artifacts from the fortress and the river.  The chain connected to the anchor is a section of the chain they strung across the river so they could tighten it up to stop ships from passing.

 This room is where they held their prisoners, that is, the ones they didn't hang.  They were chained in groups of 6 to 8 in these small cells and kept in the dark with only a half cup of corn liquor a day for nourishment.  They were mostly starved to death.

 Here are some of  the many cannons aimed out in all directions from the fortress.

 Here you can see the view from up on the second floor showing the open courtyard in the center.

 This is the control for opening and closing the drawbridge.

We enjoyed the tour, but the Murri's seven grandchildren who were along enjoyed it the  most!

We then continued down the river for 25 miles.  The scenery was mostly beautiful tropical plants, but there were also some interesting homes along the shores.

 As we approached one village, two young girls paddled their canoes out to our boat to sell their wares.  We bought a pretty shell bracelet from this cutie.

A little further down the river we stopped to see a hot spring that was along the shore of the river.   Here is our boat waiting for us to climb back in.  You can see the name is Happy Fish II.

 This derelict boat caught our fancy, then we entered a deep canyon.  Our guide told us that this rock wall contained ancient inscriptions from early ships that came up the river.

 Here you can see the lush vegetation on the canyon walls.

Just as we got to where we could see out into the ocean, we arrived at our hotel, the Ville Carribe

 This is our view from the terrace outside our room.

The rooms were decorated with a lot of sea shells, rope, bamboo, and other nautical and tropical materials.

We got settled in our rooms then headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  We had just ordered when a huge rainstorm hit.  The restaurant was open to the air, so the waiters had to close the vented windows.  Rain was still getting in, and we had to change tables to get out of it.  It was over an hour before we were served, but the meal was delicious.

Here we are the next morning enjoying breakfast.  It was a buffet and also very good.

 We wandered for a while checking out our surroundings.  Here is the hotel pool.

 And we couldn't resist relaxing in one of the hammocks.

This is a variety of palm tree.  It looks more like an ostrich tail than a tree!

 This beautiful flower grew along the stairway to the hotel entrance.  It is beautiful before it blooms, and even more so after.

 Mid morning we boarded the boat again and headed out toward a beach that is managed by the hotel.  It was amazing how far we had to go to find a spot that wasn't so crowded with vegetation that you could actually find the sand!  Along the way we encountered this statue.  Someone asked the captain who it was.  His answer, "El Salvador del Mundo."  (The Savior of the World).  They said his arm was broken off in a hurricane several years ago.

Along the way we went up a small river for a little way.  We found a small village where this woman was doing her laundry.

 It appeared that this was her home.  They are very isolated and must live a very simple life.

These are mangroves.  Their roots spread over the water.

 

When we finally arrived at the beach, we had to take off our shoes and climb out of the boat into the water.

 And here we are enjoying the warm waters of the Caribbean. 

 Just to the right of the middle of this shot is a hole.  On the right side of it is a  sand crab which entertained us for some time.  The little piles of sand around it are where it threw the sand out of its hole as it dug deeper into the sand.

After enjoying this delightful beach for a couple of hours, we were given sandwiches and fruit then piled back in the boat to head back to the hotel.  The ocean was pretty rough, and we would go up over big swells then slap back down on the other side.  We had to hold sheets of plastic in front of us to keep from getting soaked.  Unfortunately, that combination created motion sickness in Dorine, and she ended up feeding the fish her lunch.   Someone gave her a Dramamine at the hotel, then we took the boat to Puerta Barrios where our buses were waiting.  Dorine slept most of the way home then most of the next day as well.  But, in spite of that, it was a fantastic trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Since I am all blogged out, we'll post our Friday adventure next week.  It was a tour of  Guatemala City and was very interesting.