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| The view of Antigua from atop Cerro de la Cruz |
The main agenda for the Antigua portion of the Guatemala vacation is to have no agenda. This is the complete and total relaxation part of the vacation.
Rather than take some excursion out of town (which would have required getting up much earlier than I would have wanted), I hired a guide to do a walking tour of the city.
First stop: climb Cerro de la Cruz.
Cerro de la Cruz translates to "Hill of the Cross." "Cerro" means "hill." "Cruz," as you probably could figure out, means "cross." The cross might look a little fragile, but it was erected on this spot prior to the massive 1773 earthquake that otherwise destroyed the city.
You can take various means of transport to get up here, tuk-tuk por ejemplo, but why not walk? I need the exercise. And, besides, it was only 300 or so steps to get up here.
Next up: the one major church ruins of which I did not snap photos yesterday: Santuario San Francisco el Grande.
It's not very ruined. And it still functions as a church today.
There was a mass going on inside, but even if there wasn't, pictures are forbidden inside, even the non-flash kind.
This church is known for its shrine/museum dedicated to the Guatemalan saint, Hermano Pedro. (Full name: Hermano Pedro de San José Betancurt.) Saint Hermano Pedro was born in the Canary Islands of Spain, but spent much of his brief adult life in Antigua. He is the first Guatemalan saint.
He was canonized by Pope John Paul the Great in 2002. This is one of the many shrines to him on the grounds of the sanctuary.
This is an interesting structure:
It is a historic laundromat, Tanque La Unión. It was used as the main clothes-laundering facility in town during the colonial era. It still is used today for that purpose, mostly by indigenous woman and, mostly, at the crack of dawn.
It is set in a nice green park, too.
I should remember the name of this particular religious building, but there are so many in Antigua!
I can't keep them all straight, even with the aid of a professional guide showing me the city.
But this I can identify:
You can travel the world and still you see knock-offs of the awesome "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. I would've gone had been in serious need of haircut.
The next (and final) stop of the guided walking tour was the enormous, sprawling Central Market.
This is where to shop for local produce, fresh meats (can't pack those in my suitcase for the trip home), clothing and fabrics, shoes, whatever.
One thing that they had that shocked me -- shocked me to the core -- was this:
Among the bags of fruit that this woman was selling was the orange-colored fruit at, roughly, the two o'clock position if all her fruit were a clock. She had caju! The fruit of the cashew tree. I did not know that cashews grew outside of Brazil. The fruit certainly does not ship (although, thankfully, the nuts do). I've never actually eaten the caju fruit, but it is very commonly available in Brazil as the most delicious juice in the known universe.
When I said they had everything at the market, they even had a cart where a man was making homemade ceviche on the spot.
One of the available ingredients at this cevicheria? Bull testicle. Seriously, The old Rocky Mountain oysters. I passed.
It ended up that the only thing I bought at the market was a bottle of Gatorade. I was parched!
It soon was time for lunch. I decided to try the very popular local fastfood outlet, Pollo Campanero, the Guatemalan homegrown version of KFC. While I was inside the restaurant enjoying my "Buffalo" style chicken breast sandwich (the breast meat did not taste like rubber balls like in the USA), the skies opened up and it began pouring down rain. Hard.
This street dog took refuge inside the entrance to the Pollo Campanero. I eventually decided to walk back to the hotel in the downpour when it lightened up a little. Good call. Nine hours later, the rain still is coming down in buckets.
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