Guatemala Part 2

Goodbye Lake Atitlan and bicycle on the hotel grounds as a decoration.

We went on a three hour bus ride to Antigua, the former capital of Guatemala. 

Their signs are a little more subdued than ours.

The main plaza has lots of book sellers in tents. There were quite a bit in English which a couple of people wanted for the plane ride home. These were one of the few items that were more expensive than home. 

The next day we took a tour of a some Mayan ruins. 

Our tour guide was Mayan and he gave us a lot of information about the current state of politics and conflicts between the Spanish descendants and the Mayans.

All the Mayan ruins you see around Guatemala belonged to wealthy families. The normal populace lived in huts outside the compounds. The wealthy families would force their slaves to compete in a ball game on this court and whoever lost was killed.

 I knew about the ball courts but I thought it was just a friendly game.

We were very lucky to see a ceremony that was taking place on the grounds which only takes place a few times a year.

There was little museum attached to the ruins. This was the typical Mayan diet.

Later that afternoon we went to find the jade factory the tour guide told us about where we could learn about our birthdate on the Mayan calendar. Motorcycles are everywhere. 

We saw the aftermath of it at an accident between two motorcycles. 

Jade was very big in the Mayan culture.

This lady looked up our birthdates on the calendar and gave us information similar to a horoscope.

Dinner that night was at a nice little Italian place.

The tomahawk steak was only $18!!

On our last day, we went on a walking tour of Antigua. Our guide was a Spaniard. It was interesting to see his side of everything which was quite different from our Mayan tour guide's take on the two cultures. 

We went to the remains of the old Antigua cathedral and the attached convent. Fabulous!!  

The beauty of everything did not come out in the pictures.   

There were still Covid signs everywhere but we couldn't figure out this one.

Guatemala was fun but we were all ready to go  back home!