Guatemala - 2011

Day 06 - July 17 - Marathon, Church and Food

Half marathon Sunday in the center of town. Called the race of the roses.

Street dog. Poor thing has flies all over it and open sores.

One of the lucky dogs. Notice the hair.

One of the two girls at the starting line. I don't think they are that pretty. There are hundreds of local girls here that are prettier. Why do we think that making a girl completely unnatural makes her pretty. Crazy!

 

Warming up for the race.

Balloons released prior to the start.

The actual start.

The last "runner", who is partly paralyzed. The crowd gave him as big a applause as the leaders.

Manuel (at the left) and I then went to the other side of town (near the mercado) to watch the runners come back thru town.

The leader: always a Kenyan.

About 2 minutes later, the first group of Guatemalans.

Family members waiting to give drinks to a runner.

First Guatemalan female runner.

Drink received.

Heading back to Maria Elsa's I couldn't keep up with this chap.

Near Maria Elsa's (in front of San Francisco) the runners turn the corner to return to the center of town and the finish. At this point the Kenyan is only 30 seconds ahead, but isn't in any trouble. The Kenyans come here because there is price money in dollars.

The first female runner, also African.

I missed Maria Elsa, so I checked out San Franciso. I guess I will go to service here.

Puestos (stalls) inside the church walls.

The normal runners. Notice the girls going to church. They are at a boarding school and only are allowed to leave for church.

Notice this man who has his own hand bike. I expected he would cross at the end, but is the middle of the pack. Wow!

Look who I found when I went back to the house. Maria Elsa was not able to get to church because of the race. So we watched the runners straggle by for over an hour.

So we walked to a different church on the other side (north) of Antigua. Maria thought it was odd that I wanted a picture of this.

Only picture I got of the church, which is Seventh Day Adventist. I didn't want to be rude.

Actually, I quite enjoyed it. They had a short sermon, a couple of hymns, and the rest was an interactive Bible study. Most involved I've ever seen a church. The lesson was printed so I was able to follow along and translate the few words I needed. Maria was actually surprised that I understood everything.

The lesson was about temptation. One of the Bible stories was Jesus being asked to turn stones into bread by Satan. So when Maria asked me if I was hungry I said yes, but that we shouldn't be tempted. Again, she was shocked I followed along so well.

This resturant is near the Mercado and is comida tipico, typical Guatemalan food. The orchata (rice, milk, sugar) was way too sweet. Blah!