Mas Photos de Antigua y cerca (More photos from Antigua and vicinity)

Hola Amigos y Famila,

Here are more pictures and adventures from our time in La Antigua Guatemala.


This is the house where we are living. All the homes here are behind concrete walls and have big wooden doors. The door opens into a outdoor courtyard where the kitchen is. All the rooms have doors that open to the courtyard. Our family would probably be considered middle class here, as they have electricity, a tv, a stove, etc. The two sons share the job of driving a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle taxi) and the daughter goes to school.

Volcan de Agua (Water Volcano), called so because in the 1770´s, the crater filled with water, then overflowed, destroying most of old Antigua. This is the view from town .

These photos are from a parade on Mother´s Day, which turned out to be a big deal here. The man is carrying an inscense burner and the ladies are carrying a big wooden thing that has statues of the Virgin and Jesus Christ. They carried it around the plaza in the center of town to the beat of the drums for about 2 hours.

This is the oldest and first Catholic church in Guatemala. It was built in 1534 and has stood ever since. They paint the outside once a year and it´s still used for mass every day.

This is a photo of one of two churches in all of Guatemala that are not painted yellow or white. I asked why, but no one could explain it. This one is in a small village that we visited today just outside of Antigua called Ciudad Vieja. (New City). The Spainards moved the capitol from the Mayan capitol to here when they arrived, but it was destroyed by the water volcano. The capitol was then moved to Antigua, which was destroyed in an earthquake, but then rebuilt. That makes Guatemala City the 4th capitol.

We also visited a 100% organic macadamia nut finca (farm) today, (I got a facial massage with macadamia nut oil!) , as well as some smaller villages surrounding Antigua. Our classes are going very well, and we have homework every night! Tomorrow, we visit an active volcano! We´ve seen it smoking the last few days, so we´re definitely looking forward to getting up close and personal. We go in the afternoon and get to be there at night, when apparently, you can see real live lava. We are eating pretty well, as our Dona (polite name for an older woman of the house) is a great cook and piles the food high. We´ve also had some pretty fantastic coffee, tamales, tostadas, and homemade ice cream from vendors on the street.