As custom dictates, at dawn they continue to commemorate my birthday by setting of a string of a thousand or so firecrackers outside my window.
After breakfast and Morning Prayer, it's time to say good-bye. As you might recall, we didn't plan to be on this trip. It went so well, I was thinking if this was our last time here, we'd be going out on a high note. Then my wife says maybe we should come back, and I was getting kinda misty again ... .
April 21, 2007 Iximche
Our bus first stops at these Mayan Ruins, near Tecpan. A few of us who've seen them several times before stay outside in the surrounding park.
April 21, 2007 Antigua
Near mid-day our bus brings us to the Central Square in the one-time colonial capital of Antigua. I head up Fourth Street East to the Cafe Micho. It's a little espresso bar but also serve food to tables around the central courtyard of the block, which includes a large fountain. To my surprise they've changed the McMicho; it's now fried egg, ham, and cheese on a bagel, instead of a croissant, but the waitress special orders it the old way. I never try to order it in a restaurant back home; somehow spending a week where it would be impossible to get makes it so desirable, sort of like when it was hard to get Coors Beer.
I once again try to see the inside of La Merced church, and once again there's a wedding in progress.
At another church, mourners were comforting a widow in the plaza outside the main entrance. There was still some time before the funeral, so I took a quick look inside. There I noticed for the first time a statue of Senor Sepultado, an image of Christ in the Sepulchre, enclosed in glass. I stopped in a few other churches, and each had one. The statues were all the same, but each was clothed differently.
The Cathedral was among the many buildings destroyed in the 1773 earthquake. The part on the central square was eventually restored as a parish church, but most of the rest of the block remained a ruin. A restoration project started a few years ago. Here you can see the new arch brickwork.
From the front of the former Cathedral, here's the view of Central Park, the town square.
Final video, the Fountain of the Sirens in the middle of the square.
Speaking of sirens, there's apparently a custom for newly married couples to drive around the square in a car with a flashing red light, siren, and a large paper wedding bell on the hood. One caught me by surprise and I couldn't get a shot of it.
April 21, 2007, Guatemala City
The order of nuns that runs the orphanage has a motherhouse in Guatemala City. We bunk here when our flight leaves too early for us to come in directly from Santa Apolonia. It once was the home of a wealthy local, and even has a pool; none of us ever did more than dangle our feet in it, but this year I sqeezed a swimsuit in my carry-on bag, and dive in. Then our Pizza Hut delivery arrives for our supper.
At Evening Prayer, one of our folks brings out stacks of bookmarks she had her students make in English class. I take a stack to enclose in Thank You cards for people who contributed to the trip; I'm keeping the one that says "Don't sleep. Continue to read."
No comments:
Post a Comment