Guatemala - 2010

Day 11 - July 30 - Hugotenango

This is Kira, the family cat. Kira is pregnant. She also fetches a glove like a dog. Here she is on the spiral staircase up to the roof.

After finding out that Maria was nearly blind even WITH glasses, we passes by an optometrist and I found out that glasses, frames, and an exam was about $60. That seems like a very useful present.

Here I am teasing her about how good her new glasses look. The optometrist was from El Salvador and hard for me to understand, but he was meticulous. The exam took almost 1.5 hours. She will pick up her new glasses on next Wednesday.

At 5:00 in the morning we were awoken by a big boom: fire works shot off at the church next door. Why? It was a festival day for the patron saint of the bus drivers, who decked out their rigs appropriately.

Here are all of the camionettas decked out at the bus stop. You can't see it, but some of them have balloons inside the bus, too.

This is another one of Maria's friends. She is also a teacher at La Union. We kept bumping into her all overy town. Here she is, once again, in Yoli's travel agency. We started to call her "espia": spy, thus the dark glasses.

The Merced church at the northern end of town. Since both times in Antigua I have lived at the southern side of town (near the other big church: San Francisco), this is my first time to Merced.

The ruins behind Merced, the older part of the original church. Hugo said he went to school as a child next to this church and they would swim in this very large fountain. Unfortunately, the different pools are connected under the concrete. One day a student got trapped beneath one of the separators and died.

As we were walking along the top of the wall, Hugo looked over and saw one of his old spanish schools. He started to get the attention of his friends.

Way up on the ruins we were eye level with the avacados.

After Merced we went to the most expensive and fancy hotel in Antigua (Hugo says in Guatemala).

The people like the owner because he is very generous and supports the people. He buys all of his plants, produce and flowers locally and pays his local workers well.

Macaws for decoration.

This one is pretending to be hanging itself.

The hotel is actually build on ruins. Money can do anyting, I guess.

There is an archeological dig on the grounds.

The plant orchids on the trees. Orchids are parasites.
Notice the roots digging into the tree.

OK - Hugotenango. In Guatemala "tenango" means "place of". After working with Hugo all week I have realized that he knows people everywhere, even in the surrounding towns and cities. So, I decided that the department (state) of Sacatepequez should really be named: Hugotenango.

Here's a little video I took as we were walking out of a restaurant to his car. This is completely unplaned. In less than a block he meets at least 8 friends.

That evening I started my trip to Tikal. Everything works by vouchures. I had 5 vouchers to get to Tikal: 1 to Guatemala City via van; 1 to Flores (near Tikal) via tour bus; 1 for the hotel, and 2 to get back.

I saved about $200 by not taking the plane, but it meant sleeping all night on the bus (they call it a "pullman"). I chose to spend an extra $25 to get the "luxo" version which is supposed to include a meal, a blanket, and seats that recline more. On the way there, the bus didn't have blankets and I didn't think the seats were that comfortable.

Tikal is on the opposite side of Guatemala (the north). It takes 8 1/2 hours to get there and mostly because some of the roads are so bad the bus is moving 10 mph.