Up into the Montañas!

After our tour through the mangroves on Thursday morning, we packed and went to the beach one more time before checking out of our hotel. Our shuttle to the city of Antigua was scheduled to leave at one, so we decided to eat lunch in town at a place called the Taberna del Pelicano--little did we know that they had an actual pelican as a pet! Throughout our meal (which was delicious), we were entertained as the pelican, whose name was Pancho, attempted to enter the kitchen and was repeatedly rebuffed. His persistence was finally rewarded, though, when the señor who owned the place came out and fed him by hand out of a bucket of live fish. . . .

This was all so entertaining that we barely made our shuttle to Antigua--the oldest town in Guatemala. We found a very nice place to stay that night, but then spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying to secure a reservation for Good Thursday and Friday, which is the height of holy week celebrations here in Guatemala. Everyone says that the Antigueños do holy week in a way that is not to be missed! Finally, we found a spot--a little guest house run by a man who reminds us very much of our asylum clinic professor, which we took to be a good sign. Before dinner, we toured the largest church in town--La Merced, which is beautiful and different from most churches in the US in that it is painted a vibrant marigold shade.

Friday morning, we woke up and toured an old convent name La Capucina, and the San Francisco Cathedral, which dates from 1589--I was so surprised to find such old architecture here. Afterwards, we toured the market briefly, had lunch, and hopped on a chicken bus going even further up into the mountains to Xela (or Quetzaltenango), where Peter spent most of his time when he lived in Guatemala. Through a serendipitous turn of events, we found Peter´s host mom--La Doña Gloria--and her most recent homestay students had just left, so she had room for us to stay! So, now we are here with her until Thursday, when we will return to Antigua for the pre-Easter festivities. .

Monterrico--The Beach!

So, finally, Peter and I arrived in Guatemala City around noon on the 10th and had the good chance to almost immediately find a chicken bus that was going (almost!)directly to the beach town of Monterrico. We got into town and found a hotel, just as the sun was setting over the Pacific ocean. We spent three days in Monterrico--mostly just sunning ourselves, playing in the water, taking walks on the beach, swinging in hammocks, and eating well. As a result, we are somewhat tanner and much more relaxed than we were when we arrived!

Two highlights of the Monterrico part of the trip for me was the entirely coincidental chance we had to see the last sea turtle hatchlings (so tiny!) of the year be released into the ocean by a local environmental project. Second, we got to take a sunrise tour of the canals through the mangroves by canoe on our last morning in Monterrico. Unfortunately, I didn´t have my camera with me when we came upon the sea turtle release party, but I do have pictures of the mangroves, which I´m attaching here with some others. . . .