Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan

From Antigua we drove through the mountains to Chichicastenango, a town known for its huge Sunday market where anything and everything is on sale. It is a good place to buy hand-woven textiles, pottery and artwork. Bargains abound and it is expected that the price will be negotiated. The Maya hereabouts are famous for their adherence to pre-christian beliefs and their religion is an odd mix of Catholicism and shamanistic ceremonies derived from the ancient Mayans.
After our shopping fix, we moved on to Lake Atitlan. This is a beautiful volcanic lake nestled among three volcanoes. It was formed 85,000 year ago by the Los Chocoyos eruption which blew ash as far as present-day Florida.The amount of magma expelled was such that the surface terrain collapsed leaving a roughly circular 8x18 km circular hole which filled with water.
We stayed at La Casa del Mundo Hotel which is built into a hillside. There are breath-taking views of the volcanoes from each of its 18 rooms.The lake shore is dotted with small villages most of which are only accessible by boat. Most of the villagers are of Mayan descent and there are two distinct dialects spoken here ....I was told that there are even noticeable accents from one village to the next within a dialect which is remarkable since these places are only a few kilometers apart.
We enjoyed our stay here although Mary experienced a day of GI upset.
We will return to the boat to prepare to leave the river this week and then on to Roatan.

Antigua Guatemala

We left the boat last Sunday and traveled to Antigua which is about 25 miles southwest of Guatemala City. It was the original capital of Guatemala from 1543 until it was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1773. In 1776 the capital was moved to its present site in Guatemala City. Antigua is a beautiful colonial city situated amongst 3 volcanoes; Agua which is visible in this photo and Fuego and Acatenango. Fuego is still active as evidenced by frequent puffs of steam from its crater throughout the day.

Although the city was abandoned as the capital, many peopled stayed and today it is a tourist center with many fine hotels, museums and some of the best restaurants in the country.

We stayed at La Escuela del San Jose El Viejo which offers instruction in spanish and which is located next to an old convent. We took classes in the mornings and had the afternoons free. Instruction is one on one and the classrooms are in a beautiful garden setting.

We had a field trip to a village nearby with a large Mayan population and while there we learned about the Mayan culture including traditionnal weddings. Mary and I served as models for some traditional Mayan wedding attire.

Throughout Antigua are many examples of colonial architecture, some of which are in ruins but many others are in varying states of restoration. One of the highlights of our visit was the walking tour of the city conducted by Elizabeth Bell who has lived in Antigua for 35 years and who has been intimately involved in the preservation of some of the city's most important architectural sites.

The climate here is ideal mainly due to the town's elevation with nightime temps dipping into the low 50's and daytime temperatures in the mid-70's.

There are many fine restaurants and we sampled several of them. Our favorite was Meson Panza Verde. It is situated in the hotel of the same name and was quite close to the school. The food was wonderful and there was live entertainment by a Cuban jazz band.

We will definitely come back here, perhaps not to study, but to hang out and enjoy the great sights, culture and atmosphere.

Tomorrow we leave here to travel to Lake Atitlan.....more to come.

Life goes on......

We returned to Guatemala last Wednesday and spent the next day doing a little sightseeing around Guatemala City. We visited two museums: Museo Ixchel and Museo Popol Vuh. Ixchel is dedicated to the indigenous textiles of Guatemala and contains many beautiful examples of the richly colorful garments worn by the Mayan people. These are especially prevalent in the highlands and hopefully I can post some pictures of these when we visit Antigua and Lago Atitlan next week. The other museum contains many Mayan artifacts dating back more than 2000 years.

Last Friday we returned to the marina where will will stay until Sunday when we travel to Antigua for a week's stay at spanish school. Antigua is reported to be lovely and we are looking forward to our stay there. Then to the highland village of Chichicastenango for the Sunday market and then on to Lake Atitlan.

More to follow next week.

Thanks Mom

My mother died this past Saturday night. She was 89 years old. The end, mercifully, was quick and peaceful. As I write this, Mary and I are on a plane from Guatemala to Memphis to arrange her funeral.

I last saw Mom two weeks ago-just a few days before Christmas. There was no sign that she knew who I was but I told her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me and all her extended family....and I told her goodbye. I had a feeling that I would not see her again in this life. As I left that day she blew me a kiss.

She was a strong, independent woman who lived by herself for as long as she could after my Dad died 23 years ago and before her mind was slowly stolen from her. As a mother she was never critical, she was always encouraging and she was never intrusive. If she had a fault it was that she was blind to my faults.

Years ago she told me that I should follow my dream, go sailing with Mary, and enjoy our time together...time that she and Dad were robbed of. We did. We will.

Thanks Mom.

Rio Dulce, Guatemala

We are back in the Rio Dulce at Mario's Marina. We arrived last Friday, having flown into San Pdro Sula, Honduras and taking a 3 hour van ride across the border.We have quickly fallen into the rhythm of this beautiful part of Guatemala. The marina is about 17 miles inland from the Caribbean with the first few miles winding through a marvelous jungle canyon. The river then widens and the marina is located near the small town of Rio Dulce ( sometimes called Fronteras). The Rio is a natural "hurricane hole" and many cruisers from all over the world leave their boats here during the Atlantic hurricane season.

Mario's has a restaurant/bar and the food is very good and inexpensive.

We have been busy readying the boat after its long layup over the summer and fall. Mary has gotten the interior ship-shape and I have been busy with various maintenance and repair projects.

Next week we plan to travel inland to Antigua Guatemala where we will spend a week in language school in an attempt at improving our spanish. From there we go to Lago Atitlan for several days. After that we may travel to El Salvador and Nicaragua....or plans are not complete yet but we will travel a while before taking the boat out of the Rio sometime in February.

We have renewed our friendship with numerous cruisers we met last season and who also keep their boats here including Deja Vu ( George, Kathleen and Kate) John and Beth Talley on Upjinks.

Tonight we have Karaoke and a New Years Eve party but it is doubtful that this crew will actually be awake at mid-night.

Happy New Year to all! More later.

A beginning.......

This is the site that we will use to keep family and friends up-to-date on our travels aboard our sailboat Antares, a Valiant 42 cutter which was built for us in 1996-7 and launched in May 1997. We kept her in Biloxi, MS until just after Hurricane Katrina, when we shipped her back to the factory for repairs from damage sustained in the storm. In November of 2006 she was trucked to Pensacola and we took off from there just after Thanksgiving 2006 and sailed to Isla Mujeres, Mexico via Key West. From there we worked our way down the east coast of the Yucatan, ending our trip in May in the Rio Dulce Guatemala.

We are now poised to begin another phase of our trip and we will try to keep everyone informed of our whereabouts and our adventures through this blog.Check in here after the beginning of the year.