Day 10 : Guatemala - Mayan Ruins, Volcanoes and Trash ..

Day 10 World Cruise. Today, we visited Guatemala, another new country for both of us. The quick summary is Volcanos, Mayans, Coffee, trash, and unfinished concrete buildings. We arrived at Puerto Quetzal on the southern Pacific side of the country. It's a large and impressive port. There are thousands of containers waiting to be loaded and unloaded, including a few hundred Chiquita Banana containers.

Guatemala is right in the middle of Central America, bordering Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Pacific coastline is fairly extensive, and it has just a sliver on the Caribbean side. It's split by two sizable mountain ranges, one continuing as the start of the Andes through the Southern American continent. There are 33 volcanoes, 3 of which are currently active. Fun. Even now, some 400+ years after the fall of the Mayan culture, over 45% of the population identify themselves as Mayan, and there is a strong sense of national pride about that. The schools teach children in Spanish and at least one of the 22 Mayan dialects.

We separated on the excursions today. Allison visited the old capital of Antigua, a really picturesque town about 90 minutes north of the port founded by the Spanish in 1543. It is surrounded by three volcanoes, and the reason it’s the old capital was a major earthquake and subsequent flood in 1773. Ironically it became the capital after the previous capital city was whacked by an earthquake 200 years earlier. It's a truly beautiful old city, with many churches and stores. also a tourist destination judging by the number of small boutique-style hotels. 

I visited the ancient Mayan ruins at Iximche, about 2.5 hours north of the port,

taking us past the very active volcano of Acatenango. Our trip started on a very bumpy road and ended on some incredibly narrow roads through the village of Tecpan, and some pretty amazing driving to get a large bus through those streets. The town has one main street full of clothing stores, mobile phone outlets, and replacement car parts. The whole area has a cottage industry of importing bust-up cars from the US and then either refurbishing them or cutting them up for parts. On some streets there are dozens of auto part shops. 

Iximche was an old Mayan settlement of about 300 people, situated on a narrow plateau at an altitude of 7,500 feet surrounded by cliffs. It was a defensive fortified city with nearly 170 buildings covering temples, pyramids, altars, palaces, houses, and general admin structures. Iximche was finally abandoned during the 16^th Century after the Spanish Conquest. All that remains are the bases/floors of the larger buildings and the bottom 2/3 of some temples and pyramids. 

The temple at the far end of the city is still in use. Villagers from Tecpan and surrounding areas are able to conduct sacrifices (chickens and roosters only) and hold prayer services for births, deaths, marriages etc. This altar is decorated with flowers, ribbons, flags and assorted trinkets - plus remnant chicken feathers!

My overall social commentary on the country is that there is a lot of poverty. Many homes are either converted garages or built out of corrugated iron strips. There are also a huge number of unfinished buildings, especially where the ground floor is inhabited and the second floor is just a shell. Although many homeowners say they build an extra room in their house every year or two! The other thing that stood out was the tremendous amount of litter on the sides of the roads and in the fields.