Antigua, Guatemala tour

Another day in Guatemala...

Ella presents our breakfast bread to us this morning:We were picked up this morning for our tour of Antigua by our guide, Reuben. It was so wonderful to see him- he was our guide 6 years ago! It was fun to visit with him again. We first drove out to Cuidad Vieja- the old city. This city was the original capital of Guatemala before it was destroyed by an explosion of the Agua Volcano (so called because it had a lake on top of the volcano. It overflowed and they believed it erupted water). The first cathedral built in Cental America is here, built in 1534. It is said that there were originally 13 steps leading up to the Cathedral, after the mud flow there are now only 1 and a half steps.

After Cuidad Vieja, we drove up to Carolina's in San Antonia de Aguas Calientes. Carolina is an accomplished and awarded weaver, and she dressed us all up in traditional Mayan clothing.




We watched some of the women weaving outside the shop. Although the patterns and weaves of the fabrics from various villages are centuries old and still woven on looms by hand, there is a modern touch here... yes, that's a cell phone in the basket of yarns. :-)
We ate lunch at Posado de Don Rodrigo where we enjoyed watching and listening to a marimba band.

Antigua Central Plaza, Palace of the Captain General

We visited two cathedral ruins- both built 400-500 years ago but destroyed in the earthquakes.

We finished off at the House of Jade. Guatemala is one of the few places in the world where jade is found, and it ranges in color from the pale moon jade, to blues and lavendar (discovered 8 years ago), to the traditional green, a vibrant emerald green (very expensive and rare), to black. 5 years ago they also discovered a vein of orange jade in Guatemala. Jade was very precious to the Mayans, and they have many masks, ornaments and jewelry carved from jade. Some even ornamented their teeth with jade! Nowadays, they use diamonds to cut jade as it is a very hard material, but of course, the Mayans didn't have diamonds (or metal). There are some theories as to how they must have cut and carved the jade, and all of them are very time consuming- from rubbing the stone with leather cords to cut it, or using the slightly harder black jade to carve the green jade, or even jade on jade. To see the detail of their designs and carvings, it's amazing to consider how they were made without the tools we have available today.
Our tour finished with a big rain storm, and we were back at our little villa.

The kids are so tired and "done." Patience with each other is wearing thin and the ability to listen and respond to mom and dad without a meltdown is diminishing. After our tour today, we got back to our villa, ordered Domino's Pizza delivery right away, got into PJ's and had a fun, noisy, rowdy night here where we can't disturb anyone. The best part... all the kids were in bed by 7 pm. :-)
Tomorrow we have a relaxed day to sleep in and do whatever we want. The only thing on the schedule is to make sure we get over to Casa Santo Domingo to see the grounds and museum, and eat lunch there. It's a former monestary with incredibly gorgeous grounds, and in all our visits, we have yet to eat there!
By the way- I added the photos to yesterday's post...

Here in Antigua

We arrived safely to Antigua, and this trip officially marked bringing car seats as completely useless! Not a single seat belt in sight, and this was our last big journey we planned to use them for. :-)
We went back to the Atitlan Nature Reserve this morning to see the butterfly garden, as we missed it due to the rain when we did the zip lines. I got some fun pics of the kids holding butterflies as they landed on them...Back to Hotel Atitlan, we wandered through some more of the gardens for one last time...
We checked out of the hotel and enjoyed one last lunch overlooking the lake, then were picked up by our driver for the drive to Antigua. We took a different road this time, apparently a "short cut." It was like being on a roller coaster in the rain for the first hour and a half. 90 minutes of driving up and down mountains/volcanoes on constant switchbacks (that really isn't an exaggeration, I don't think the road was straight at all for the first hour). The view was spectacular again, but also nauseating for some. :-) Yeah for Dramimine! So glad we brought it.
We feel like we have seen so much more of Guatemalathis time around- more of daily life, more villages and towns where people live, more rural areas. Our perspective has grown, and it was vey interesting driving into Antigua this time on another road. We watched the change happen from little mountain towns to a large central town, back to smaller towns and suddenly realizing the walls are painted a little more freshly, the streets are cobblestone, and now we're in Antigua. Coming previously from Gautemala City, Antigua felt charming and colonial (which it is). This time, we also saw it as a town a little more like what it must have been years ago... this is so hard to put into words. Aaron and I were discussing it and how to express the feeling we both had, and decided it was a perspective that grew over the 2 1/2 hour trip from all the sights we saw. The video would be too long, and probably make you feel sick :-), so we'll skip that and just let you know that we've appreciated being able to see so much more...
Our place here in Antigua is AMAZING!!! What a great place to finish out. We're staying in a villa at Palacio de Dona Beatriz, we means we have a real little Antigua house all to ourselves, complete with laundry room (YA-HOO!!! I'm so happy to not be washing underwear and socks in the sink!). The big front wooden doors open onto a small open air patio around which is the dining room, living room and kitchen. Four bedrooms upstairs, three with their own bathroom, all opening off the open air hallway/balcony overlooking that patio area. There are even stairs up to the roof top, where we have a little table and chairs. We're in more secure "gated" (really a chain across the road, let down by the security guard after he checks out who's in the vehicle) area, and it's been so nice to have some space to spread out.

We went into town for dinner and were immediately escorted to a back private room. The reason become apparent soon- they thought our kids might appreciate the TV behind the folding doors and one of the movies from their big selection! What a treat! Although Aaron and I missed the charming ambiance of the restaurant (one of the reasons we chose this place), it was a perfect relaxed night for the kids which they really needed. We watched the entire movie of Hook (they'd never seen it- and it's been a long time for us!)... yes, dinner is much slower and more relaxed here. :-)
Tomorrow, we tour Antigua for the day- visiting cathedrals and ruins, the town square and Jade Factory, and driving out to 2 other villages- one where we see them weave the fabric that is so prominent here, and the other with a coffee plantation and roaster. Hopefully, we'll also be able to find another extra large hammock like the one we had stolen from us a few weeks ago. :-( So far, we've seen "big" but not "BIG" hammocks. We need the triple width!
All the kids are asleep, two loads of laundry are done, the candles are lit in our little villa, and we're off to bed.
Good night! :-)

leaving El Lago Atitlan is lame

It's hard to find a more picturesque place to hang out. Hey kids how do you feel about leaving the lake? (Kyler ) sad, (Beth) sorrow, (Maria) sad and glad. I know we have volcanoes at home but I'll miss San Pedro, Toliman and Atitlan. The kids are exploring the last few bugs in the garden and the fruit salad served in half a pineapple is coming soon for me. The rain clouds now dominate the horizon and the thunder begins. Our shuttle to Antigua Guatemala comes in 45 minutes.

It has been great to share these memories with the kids. We now buy artisan work knowing that it will be a shared memory producer and not just an artifact to explain. We'll take weeks to unpack the memories and I'll take joy in that. The kids are tired and Heather and I are moving pretty slow too. I'm praying for an open brain to take in more sights, sounds, smells and time with the fam.

Village Lake Atitlan Tour

We took our boat tour of three villages around Lake Atitlan today. These villages are traditional Mayan villages, most retaining their original unique dress costumes and fabric patterns. We're ready to go! It was a beautiful morning!


Our first stop was Santa Catarina, where the kids played in the hot springs:
Santa Catarina:

Next we visited San Antonio, where Elizabeth and Maria had their hair done in a traditional Mayan style, and then of course, had to buy the fabric and wraps from the woman who tied up their hair!The village of San Antonio

Max in the ceramic shop on San Antonio Polopa, where most of our Guatemalan pottery was made.

Kyler and EllaOur family on the steps of the church in San AntonioThe boat ride back to Panahachel (where Hotel Atitlan is)

Back at Hotel Atitlan, we've been amazed that it hasn't yet rained this afternoon or evening! We've heard thunder and seen the lightening, and the clouds moved in and the wind picked up early this afternoon, but still no rain. It's our first day recently that we haven't spent drenched in some form! :-)
We're off to bed- the kids are already asleep and Aaron and I feel so tired. I think all the activity, emotion and intensity of the last week and a half caught up to us in full today. We're hoping getting to bed early will help a bit as we all wake up early with the sun here!
Tomorrow, we're off to Antigua after lunch and our last hotel- Palacio de Dona Beatriz. We're trying not to think about how our time here is coming to a close, as we want to thoroughly enjoy every moment. However, that reality is coming close and we're sad to be leaving this beautiful country soon.

Trying to post...

Really, I'm trying to get these photos posted but we only have 7 minutes of battery power remaining on the laptop and I'm not going to make it. Aaargh! We need a converter here because their outlets can't accept the three pronged cords at this hotel, which is of course what we need to recharge the lap top! We had borrowed a converter earlier, but they needed it back now for the wedding happening here... I guess that takes precedent over our blogging... :-)
I'll post them as soon as I can!

Breathtaking...exhilarating!

I've got a few more minutes of battery power, so here are the pics. I've got some more video to hopefully come, but that will have to wait until I have access to longer power again... :-)

Aaron leads the way to the nature reserve...This waterfall was our eventual desitination today....
Max: Today we got to go on the zip lines and even Alex got to go and all of us too. It was so AWESOME. It was like the best thing in Guatemala besides seeing my birth mother. The food is great too. We got to see Spider Monkeys right in front of us. They were eating bananas that the guides gave them.
Kyler: I liked the zip line because all of us got to go. It was cool because it wasn't that fast and that's all I want to say, BYE!Elizabeth: Well, I got to tell you, the zip lines were amazing. What I liked about it was when you finally got going you get to see all the trees below and you can also feel the zip line vibrate.
At the start of our hike, we got to spend some time with a few spider monkeys. Our guides brought some bananas to tempt them down near us, and it was so fun to watch them!This funny monkey grabbed a banana in each hand and one in his tail before climbing back up into his tree!The hike up to the top of the zip lines was beautiful. We hiked our way up along a waterfall, and the zip lines zig-zagged their way back down over the valley below the waterfall with an incredible clear view of Lake Atitlan and the volcanoes. Absolutely stunning.

Maria: We got to go on the zip lines and we went so fast and we got to feel the wind blowing in our face. It was awesome cuz we got to look down and see all of the trees below us and seeing how high we were up. We went with a buddy and got to do it six times. I felt really brave.


bElla: We got to go on the zip lines. We had a little line on and then we got to go with one of the men or all by yourself and it was fun! I liked it! We were super duper high! We got to see the trees below us and we got to do a million of them! We got to do 6 of them. It was fun and I liked it- that was the funnest part!

Alex: I loved the monkeys. [crazy, silly, monkey like gestures] I was very brave.
Note from mom: Alex was awesome!!! He loved the whole thing and thought it was amazing. He went first- the guide just hooked him up to himself and they took off. Alex was excited, but probably not really aware of what this was all going to be like.... :-) After they took off, the guide swung around back toward us a bit and we were able to watch Alex's face. It was so priceless! He just looked astounded and amazed- his mouth got that big "O" look and he was so impressed with it all. Oh, he just giggled when it was time to take off again- he loved it.
He did tell me later that it was scary at first, but you sure wouldn't have known from his big smiles!

Aaron: My wife is amazing. She actually provided the encouragement for everybody to do the zip line canopy tour (cables extremos) together. A few days ago she was trembling at stairs and today she was letting her baby head out first over the forest canopy at 50 fps. Then we all packed into a Tuc Tuc (tricycle taxi) and headed back to the hotel. She is an amazing adventure companion. :)
Heather: It really was amazing,awe-inspiring and breathtaking. I really was there, but of course, I'm holding the camera.... :-)

The view from our second to last landing pad on our way down the mountain (6 zip lines total):
Literally, the very moment we stepped out of our gear at the bottom of the zip lines,we heard the thunder and the rain started. We stepped up to the covered area and watched as the rain began to pour down. Although the Nature Reserve is only a few minutes walk from Hotel Atitlan, we decided to take a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. They are the funniest little taxis, and the kids have been dying to ride in one. It seemed impractical, though, as a mode of transportation for our family considering that they are built to transport two people in back, three if you squish....
We fit eight. :-)
We arrived back to the hotel dry and slightly compressed, but able to enjoy lunch and the beautiful grounds during moments when the rain let up.
Oh, how I wish you fellow garden lovers could be here! You would delight so much in wandering the grounds, discovering all the charming little details and touches, marveling at the gorgeous exotic flowers and plants, and having your heart just feel like it's so full you can't possibly absorb any more! It would be so fun to explore and enjoy with you!


Our rooms are at the right end on the second floor here....