Volcan Agua on a clear morning.Everyone who travels to Guatemala visits Antigua. It's the default destination after arriving in Guatemala City, where most folks dash to instead of staying in the filthy, murder bus-infested capital. Packed with colonial charm, it has the usual mixed history, chosen as the capital of a much larger Central American region when folks decided that the previous capital parked on the slopes of the Volcan Agua might best be farther from the risk of raining lava.
Like many colonial cities, the center is a plaza or in this case Central Park, with a mermaid (or siren) fountain in the center, decorated here as part of ongoing beautification efforts by the city and its citizens. The city had been abandoned numerous times and only really began a full restoration process in the 1960s.
Cathedral of Santiago
Even the Cathedral of Santiago gets a couple sirens.
I defied my usual conventions and took a paid walking tour of the city, learning much about the history, particularly about the way Catholicism was forced on the so-called pagan Mayans by the invading Spanish. Forced to attend church or be killed, the Mayans complied, staring up at symbols they didn't understand, made no clearer by the priests reading Latin at them. So, they adopted the pretty imagery and kept praying to their spirits, permitting them some new faces.
Ruins of old cathedral, behind the other facade.
Getting past the censers.
The "eyes that look directly at you" started in 1850.
The tour included the expansive Santo Domingo Monastery, the richest and most successful one in Antigua's history. It was bought by the archaeologist best known for digging up the phenomenal Mayan ruins of Tikal who used it as a home before selling it to a family in the construction business who tastefully turned it into a hotel, as well as restoring it partially and installing galleries with Christian and Mayan art.
Altar amidst ruins, prepped for wedding.
"I think it's going to be fine." "Man, you have some serious faith."
"You call this fine?"
Mayan monkey vessel!
In a one room pharmacy museum, I discovered the container for "black animal,", oddly with "black" in French.
Like many colonial cities, the center is a plaza or in this case Central Park, with a mermaid (or siren) fountain in the center, decorated here as part of ongoing beautification efforts by the city and its citizens. The city had been abandoned numerous times and only really began a full restoration process in the 1960s.
Cathedral of Santiago
Even the Cathedral of Santiago gets a couple sirens.I defied my usual conventions and took a paid walking tour of the city, learning much about the history, particularly about the way Catholicism was forced on the so-called pagan Mayans by the invading Spanish. Forced to attend church or be killed, the Mayans complied, staring up at symbols they didn't understand, made no clearer by the priests reading Latin at them. So, they adopted the pretty imagery and kept praying to their spirits, permitting them some new faces.
Ruins of old cathedral, behind the other facade.
Getting past the censers.
The "eyes that look directly at you" started in 1850.The tour included the expansive Santo Domingo Monastery, the richest and most successful one in Antigua's history. It was bought by the archaeologist best known for digging up the phenomenal Mayan ruins of Tikal who used it as a home before selling it to a family in the construction business who tastefully turned it into a hotel, as well as restoring it partially and installing galleries with Christian and Mayan art.
Altar amidst ruins, prepped for wedding.
"I think it's going to be fine." "Man, you have some serious faith."
"You call this fine?"
Mayan monkey vessel!
In a one room pharmacy museum, I discovered the container for "black animal,", oddly with "black" in French.
I also learned that my Mayan horoscope is I'x which means Jaguar, making me the medicine man, the symbol of the night sky, the storehouse of female energy, secretive, enchanting, timeless, intelligent, sensitive, spiritual, and allergic to myself.
Antigua is both charming and tiresome, a real living city with lots of native bustle but also jammed with tourists and too many shops and services peddling to them. While I found a couple terrifically atmospheric hangout joints with good food, booze, and live music, my budget kept me a little too close to the backpacker fray of drunken frat boy types who pontificate loudly about which girls wouldn't screw them while other folks are trying to sleep just a thin wall away. After two days, I felt a bit like the sad clown above, ready to collect my unsold Bugs Bunny balloon and move on. So I did.
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