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!