Antigua, Guatemala

Today was our big trip to Antigua! We have wanted to go there ever since we started our first adoption journey almost 2 years ago. Finally we got the chance to go. We met our guide Diana this morning and we were off.

Even the drive to Antigua was gorgeous with all the mountains that we had to go around and up and down. I knew we arrived when we hit the cobblestone streets.


Our first stop was a jade museum, a place that was being guarded by a Guatemalan policeman carrying a very large gun slung over his shoulder. We met a man at the museum who told us a bit about jade before we started our tour. We watched some people polishing and shaping the jade and got a lesson in the use of jade in different cultures.

This is part of the jade museum, a "blanket" made of colored sawdust that is laid down with stencils.

Antigua also had gardens all over. This little garden was in the jade museum.


Next stop was Casa de Santos Domingo. This was the most amazing place I have ever been. What is it? A hotel. From the street it is just a little doorway among many other little doorways through one of the hundreds of concrete walls that line the streets. Inside, it was beautiful. The place used to be a monastery. Greg said if ever we come to Guatemala for vacation, we are staying there. Our guide told us that there are weddings held there as well. I can't even imagine how beautiful this place would be at night with all the walls covered with candles.











This is a flower (and the bud of the flower) that our guide said that she has only seen at Casa de Santos Domingo. The flower and bud look like they are made out of wax.



Here are some of the inhabitants of the hotel.



Since we hadn't experienced enough beauty yet, we headed up a big hill to get a different view of Antigua. Our guide said that she hadn’t been to that overlook too many times because she heard that it was a dangerous place. However, in the weekends the area is watched over by a policeman so we were safe.






On the way to our next stop our guide pulled over so I could snap a picture. Here is some random church.


Our next stop was a market. We drove right down the street through the market. It was like something I could only imagine in a movie, with our car going right through a street filled with people. Our guide took us to an area of the market where the prices were better and we looked around. The market was so big that at one point we asked our guide to find something particular for us and she didn't know what direction to go. I didn’t take any photos in the market. It was just a busy busy place filled with amazing colors. I couldn't resist picking something up for myself. I bought this HUGE blanket. It is so big I couldn’t even unfold it in our room.


After the market we went to the town square. The square wasn’t all that exciting but there was a nice fountain in the middle.


This building was on one end of the square.

You could get rides from these horse drawn buggies too. The horses were equipped with these diaper-like apparatuses to keep the streets clean.

There were even several dogs enjoying the square. This dog was hoping to get some Pollo Campero. I can't blame her. That stuff is yummy!


Then we went for a little walk. We heard music along the way and ducked into another hotel to hear several men play that marimba.


The streets were all so beautiful with their bright colors and plants in the windows. There were shops up and down all the roads.





We saw a church ahead and decided to check it out. Our guide suggested that we go inside the church. It was then that Greg and I crashed our first wedding. We weren't the only wedding crashers though. There were several other tourists inside as well. I decided not to take any pictures of the inside of the church.



Our guide offered to take us anywhere else in Antigua that we wanted to go but since I had no clue what there was in Antigua we decided to head back to Guatemala City. We went on a little different route so we could see more of the city as well as get a view of the active volcano. It was cloudy though so we couldn’t see the top of the volcano or the lava river that constantly flows down its side.

I am so glad that we took this trip today. Our guide was just fabulous too. I would definitely recommend a trip with Diana. I know this blog entry doesn't do a very good job at portraying really how wonderful a time I had today. I am just too tired at this point to use very exciting language! Besides, I don't think I really need to say much. Just look at the pictures to see how amazing this place was.