Puerto Quetzal for Antigua. Incredibly humid as it was today, we braved 8 laps before changing for a second time to go on our only ship's tour of this vacation. We only do these if the alternatives of walking and car-hire are not viable. Our destination is the ancient city of Antigua, which from 1552 to 1773 was the capital of Guatemala. After it was razed by repeated earthquakes the capital was moved. What is left is an UNESCO World Heritage site which is now and quite deservedly a very popular tourist destination. The tiny streets are not suitable to the nonetheless modest size of our coach and we witness many hair-raising moments in the last portion of the journey - including numerous occasions where the only way to turn was by getting half-way through a junction and then partially reversing back to complete the turn like a three-point.
There are twenty three churches and monasteries in the old town, mostly in a rather poor state of repair, some to the point where double iron gates prevent access, others are still in use despite crumbling. The cobbled streets at least mean traffic is always slow and it's a good job as the pavements are narrow and high and variable, people spill out onto the street regularly. The buildings are painted many bright colours and it is visually very pleasing. Vendor signs are modest, we only just notice a small brass Burger King logo and apparently MacDonalds is the same - UNESCO status has some appealing side effects!
One astonishing place we visit is the best hotel in town - a former monastery site of course, Hotel Casa Santa Domingo. Now a beautiful conversion with museum, ruins, excavated crypts, vaulted wedding halls, restaurants and gardens. It was a destination in its own right and served excellent food too - try the Churriguere - like New York style Pastrami cooked rare with maize, guacamole, salsa and twice fried beans, delicious!
Central Park is the main square and in this modest plaza hoards of tourists mix with the locals to enjoy the street performers, boot-shine boys and vendors of coloured scarves (ladies) and pan-pipes (men.) everything is one dollar, and saying 'no' becomes a mantra because they are not giving up! Naturally, Yoskshire wins this match.
Our journey passed a natural version of Mount Rushmore, this one showing a Mayan's face quite clearly. Also we passed close to one of the twenty three volcanoes in Guatamala of which three have shown recent activity. Indeed we had to use a Bailey Bridge at one point where lava flow had destroyed the previous bridge in 2014.
We were back just before sunset and and enjoyed another three miles of sweltering walking round the promenade deck as the evening sky turned pink before dark. One dining option last night was a deck/poolside BBQ. The cynic in me observes that this is in part to accommodate the late and unpredictable return of many tours today. We didn't partake, what's the point of eating in near 100% humidity and 30 degrees when our fabulous Pinnacle Grill staff is waiting for us to arrive in air-conditioned comfort? For a similar reason there's no show tonight, so it's back to the varandah to post my FB photos and write this blog. (PS which wouldn't post after all that - internet at sea is best described as annoying!)
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