Historic Antigua

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

We went on an amazing walking tour of Antigua last Saturday. We began the 3 hour journey in Central Park at the big fountain. Chad and I have yet to see the fountain running, but that is another story. The park is surrounded by government buildings. We first went to the building where the mayor’s office and the office of property tax are located. There we had a tremendous view of one of Antigua’s three active volcanoes (you can see it smoking on the left in the picture above). We had not been able to see that volcano until the tour.

We left that building and walked across the park to look at the other government building. While the tour guide was talking, a procession came driving by. In front, there were men in the back of a pick-up truck all dressed in red and white robes. The next vehicle was a tractor trailer truck pulling a trailer. On the trailer were men in robes, tons of flowers, a statue of Jesus and a box that looked like a coffin. Then there were about 8-10 more cars behind that with lots more people dressed in robes. There was a big PA system they were using to announce that Jesus is alive and He does good things in our lives. They had a great message. (A picture is included above)

After we talked a while in the park, we went into the main cathedral. There was a first communion just getting started as we entered. It was really strange inside. There were all these real life figures in showcase boxes that people go to pray. There were candles lit on tables in front of each one. The tour guide told us that the majority of the Catholics are Mayans. They worship differently than the Catholics here in Antigua. They have a different language that they speak also.

We went in and sat down for just a few minutes, and then we walked down the side of the sanctuary to the back door. There we entered the ruins of the old cathedral. An earthquake came through Antigua in 1976 and knocked a lot of the building down. We went down into a crypt that was in there. It was a little creepy to me. Then we walked around and looked at all the restoration that they are doing to that building since the earthquake. You are going to see at the end of this journal that one of the main themes of our trip was “CRYPTS”.

From there we went by a place called the Popenoe House, which is a home that is a typical colonial Guatemalan casa (house). They were not open, so Chad and I are going to visit there Thursday or Friday. We then went to the Jade factory and listened to the history of Jade in Central America and had a tour of the workshop. We then got to shop in the Jade showroom. Of course, I found a ring that I really liked, but it was $500 so we passed on that. The website for the Jade factory is www.centramerica.com/jades.

Then, we went to Elizabeth Bell’s office. She was our tour guide for the day. At her office she gave us a lot of her personal recommendations of places to go in Antigua. Beside her office is the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo (a 5 star hotel). It was an Old Catholic Cathedral and a family bought it to excavate and build on. We visited 3 museums inside there. Then, before we left we visited 2 other crypts. Those were bigger than the first one we went in. They also had actual bones in them that the archeologists had found when doing their archaeological digs. The hotel is gorgeous also. We of course have not had the opportunity to stay there but just the aura of it is amazing. Their website is www.casasantodomingo.com.gt. This is a site you don’t want to pass up.

This was a neat experience and I am sure that we only brushed the surface on the history of Antigua. It was very informative.

Shelly