Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

April 20

Once again we met for our tour at 8:45 so I woke up a little before 8 (again before the alarm) to get ready.  Just as yesterday, there is not really anything to do in the port town so our independent tour was to the city of Anguina.

The drive took about 90 minutes.  Guatemala has some very creative drivers.  For about half of the ride we were on a two lane road with a shoulder of about one meter on each side.  There was a solid yellow line down the middle which seemed to only be a suggestion of where to drive.  Any number of cars and motorcycles passed on the shoulder and one person in a pick-up  truck actually crossed to the other side of the road and drove on the shoulder until he could pass everything he wanted to and then got back on the right side of the road.

We made it safely to Antigua which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is known for its Spanish Baroque architecture.  We walked through Parque Central on the way to the Cathedral of Saint Joseph.  The cathedral has been demolished a number of times in the numerous earthquakes in the area.  We toured the rebuilt portion as well as the ruins of the old cathedral.

From there we walked (a lot) back through the park seeing the City Hall and the Captain General Palace on the way to see the Santa Catalina Arch.  Brief stop at a Jade Store and then on to La Merced Church.  It was then time for lunch at a local restaurant.  We ate in an open-air courtyard after choosing the main dish and two sides (I had chicken with rice and pasta salad).

It was then time to head for the highlight of the tour - our visit to the school, "Ninos con Benedicion".  On our Cruise Critic roll call we discussed what the school needed and many members volunteered to bring things (one person had 40 pounds of supples to bring).  We kept the discussion rather low key because another roll call had tried this in another port and had all the items confiscated by the local authorities.

When we arrived the students introduced themselves and then danced for us.  They were dressed in outfits representing different areas of Guatemala and the culture.  We had collected a lot of articles they needed - pencils, scissors, glue, paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, ink cartridges for their printer, etc.  One of our roll call members had made zippered pouches for each child which was stuffed with school items.  We also made a monetary contribution to the school which provides education as well as an afternoon enrichment time to some students in need.  I had volunteered to bring stickers and each child received a small zip-lock bag with about 100 stickers in it.  They seemed to enjoy them.

It was then time to return to the ship.  There were a number of souvenir stalls set up at the dock and I wandered through on the way back to the ship.

It was then time for a shower and a rest before getting ready for the evening.  At trivia I found one of our members, Sue, had been bitten by a dog yesterday and was going to have to fly home due to the possibility that the dog had rabies.  We only had four for trivia and we tied for third place.

Q. What is the name of the currency in Vietnam?
Q. What color is a polar bear's skin?
Q. In what country did stamp collecting begin?

Five for dinner tonight.  I had the Chicken Kiev and a crumble for dessert.

Lazy day planned for tomorrow.

Trivia answers - dong, black, France

Smooth sailing until next time!

a horse drawn carriage in front of the park

Parque Central

Cathedral

painting on part of the ruined cathedral

City Hall with the flag of Guatemala and the city

the Captain General Palace

a cool, quiet courtyard in the Jade store

street scene

La Merced Church

mosaic in the church made from paper mache

Santa Catalina Arch

ruined church

lunch

food cooking

side dishes

children performing for us

children dancing with some of our group

children looking at some of the supplies

statues by the pier

birds fishing by the ship (the white area in the water was where the fish were jumping)