We were up and at em for our Hop On Hop Off Antigua tour. I read blogs about cruisers who had come to this port. They advised one to take an excursion out of the port town of Puerto Quetzel as it is a commercial port and you won’t find anything interesting if you hang out here. The real sights to take advantage of our related to the cultural history of Guatemala and the Mayans. So after exploring the third party vendors we decided to just go with the ship as the price was comparable and we were guaranteed gettingbavk to the port on time for sail away!! Certain ports like Nicaragua and Guatemala aren’t really places you want to be left behind. We learned from our previous excursionwirh NCL that they herd you into the theater and then pretty much turn you loose to the exit where helpful folks direct you to your tour bus so we just got off the ship on our own and found a fellow who directed us to the locals that were loading 18 passenger vans. They eagerly took ya even though we were early because the sooner they fill a van the quicker they can exit and they always want a FULL van! The vans were pretty nice and clean with big windows and good AC. Our guide was a good looking middle aged fellow who spoke fairly good English. He gave all of us great maps and a particular map related to the historic city of Antigua not to be confused with the island of Antiga in the Caribbean. One fellow from another country was totally confused with where he was!!! He thought he was still in the Caribbean and going to this island!!! Our guide was Ramon and the driver Johnny. Johnny looked much younger and was not as fluent in English so we didn’t hear much from him. Our guide filled us with information about his country and welcomed questions. We sat in the front which was great for me as I take notes on my iPhone so I couldn’t hear him clearly and easily ask for clarification. Here are some of the intesting facts he shared:
Guatemala is about the size of Ohio
There are 37 volcanos and 3are active
Guatemala is the Heart of the Mayan civilization
More than 3000 archeological sites can be found here
Biggest Mayan tower in the world can be found here
The country has 25 ethnic groups of which 22 are from the Mayan people which include African, Latinos and South Americans
41% are if the people living here are indigenous. 49%are Latinos
54% of the country is in poverty. 24 % of the people live in extreme poverty at making mostly no more than $2 per day. They live in the highlands which has the highest percentage of indigenous people. The total
population is 17 million! Theirs is a rich country with an abundance of green due to lots of rain. There are two seasons; Rainy and dry.
Their culture is still very much alive and respected. A yypical family is relatively large consisting of 10 members which includes grandparents as they all live together. Our guide says despite poverty they are happy
because of close knit family and their religious beliefs.
Because their population is so large and their country is politically disorganized and often corrupt there is not enough education and poor health care. There are not enough hospitals and because if this most babies are born with midwifes present. They have 40,000 midwifes!
They call their country the “land of the eternal spring “ because temperatures average around 75.
Main exports are sugar cane with 11 processing plants. They are number 2 in Central America for exporting sugar and 4th in the world. Guatemala is number 1 country to export Cardamon, which is a spice, in the world. Bananas also are an important export and Chiquita has plantations here and processing plants. As you can imagine their are other fruits grown here for export such as
pineapple , watermelon , mangoes , avocado flowers and textiles.
I was surprised to hear that one of the largest suppliers of “ money” to their countries comes from people in the US that send funds to their country to help the poor and indigent. Tourism is their second largest form of revenue. People come to see their volcanoes, jungle, wildlife , rivers, castle, and world heritage site of Antigua,
The volcano we pass us is active and spewing smoke!! Ramon says it does this daily and they haven’t worried about it
Guatemala is democratic. The president and Vice President are currently in jail. They were jailed for corruption. The current president was actually a comedian!! The people felt he was more interested in really helping the people and the country to improve so they voted him into office. It is difficult for the poor people to get news and understand even who the candidates are!! Illiteracy is very high. Most children don’t go to school. Education is free but not always available. Parents need children to work to help support the family and bring in food. We saw many young children pushing wheelbarrels full of fruit or vegetables to sell. Sometimes they were selling trinkets and items their parents had made.
There are actually 20 registered political groups so knowing the facts and who to vote for is a challenge.
Spanish was their official language but now it is English.
All of the sudden our tire blows!!! The group is pretty concerned as getting to Antigua takes 1 1/2 hours. We slowly pull over and the driver gets out to inspect. Our guide says the driver will quickly take care of us. Both are very calm and get on their cell phones!! Another good reason to have booked this tour with NCL!! Ha ha. We have tandem tires in the back and the company says for ya to drive slowly to a tire repair shop five minutes away. Our driver eventually find a place to fix our tire and we never have to leave the van!! Although it has cost us some time they say we will hit the main locations of Antigua.
As we continue down a very rough road the guide tells us that 75% of the population is illiterate which is such a very sad situation.
There are gangs in the capital city and there are 13 homicides every day there related to drugs. He tells us that Antigua is very safe and we won’t have to worry there.
We ask questions about the volcano and Ramon tells us that the third of June was the most recent eruption. We pass the area of that eruption which killed over 100 people and displaced an entire town. The scene is horrifying. There is no real alarm system here and there was no warning.
The main food for the people here is red beans and corn tortillas. The recipe for the tortillas is from the Mayans. Corn is boiled with lime and was typically milled by stone into masa. Now they use grinders but they are made from hand in each families kitchen which is usually outside. They burn a lot of wood for their cooking or use bottled gas.
They buy older school buses from the US and they refurbish them and use as public transportation. I will include some of the fabulous photos of these buses!! Individuals buy them and then refurbish them and charge for the daily transportation. They were everywhere so it must be a good business. It is not a government run public transportation system.
Hospitals are few and far between. There are 1075 people for one dr and 600 people to one policeman. Some hospitals are charity run and staffed by US doctors and nurses or staff from other countries coming out of charity for a few weeks or a month.
Land of many trees is what Guatemala means
As we leave most of the port area we see McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Panera, Dominoes pizza, Caterpillar the company , Shell gas, Taco Bell, and Little Caesar’s.
Our guide tells us he has his own small business. He has a house and apartment he rents to foreigners and he said about twice a week a ship comes in with about 100 coming a season so he also has this work as a tour guide. He is 47 with two children ages 21 and 14. Both are boys. The oldest one was born with a variety of issues so for years they were inand our if hospitals with him. He is fine now and had a good job with the port inspecting fruits and vegetables that come in for import.
Almost 75% of Mayans were killed when they were conquered through guns and diseases as pirates and conquistadors were looking for gold. They used slavery as a way to make money. Those invaders had the slaves plant coffee or sugar and dyes for clothes. They exploited the people and still are. 1% of the population keeps 85% of the wealth.
Currency is 1 US dollar is 7 Quetzel of which the Quetzel is their national bird. This bird can not live in captivity. Feathers are iridescent. He gave us each a coin, it has a bird and tree , the word peace on it for the peace treaty that was signed in 1996. The Mayans treasured this bird and knew that us was critical to their survival.
Antigua is surrounded by three volcanoes.
Power for this country consists of 33% hydro, 32% is fuel oil, 17 is biomass, 1% is geothermal with some wind turbines. We passed some signs advertising solar for individuals. It was surprising that the country isn’t going to this more because the smog from the processing plants, people cooking with wood and the power plants was difficult to breathe!
There are 7 different types of coffee grown here and they sell it in Starbucks if you look for it. Antigua is much higher in elevation and is better for higher quality coffee. The harvest is December to March. It is all done by hand. The plants are cutback every 5 years and every 15 years they are torn out and replanted. Coffee grows better with a tree canopy that provides them with shade and filtered sunlight so you see large coffee plantations with the beautiful trees shading them.
When we get to Antigua the traffic is horrible and the roads a disaster. It is a Saturday and day 9 of our cruise. Ramon says it is also a time of paying tribute to a patron saint so we find hundreds of locals; families, vendors and tourists or those coming to pay tribute. I was very surprised at the area. The streets are narrow of course due to the fact this was all developed by the Mayans. It was burned at one point and also suffered injury from erupting volcanoes but had been rebuilt but never really changed. The guide tells us that it would cost millions of our dollars to live in the old city. There are policemen at road intersections monitoring traffic and all throughout the city. Many with large rifles. They make their presence known. To make matters worse there are probably 50 tour buses there also. So really going out on your own won’t happen. What we thought was a hop on hop off isn’t. We get off at five different sites but you never want to leave the group. The town is mostly one story buildings with no higher than two story. You can’t see out much and one street looks like another. Our first stop is the Jade Store!! The only good thing there was free WiFi. Most folks wanted that and it was just good enough to talk to our kids and maybe get some email. That was the only place we saw Wi-Fi that day. Of course this was about a 45 minute stop. A few folks did but jade but the rest would have ditched this site to see more of the historical sites. Vendors were everywhere and as most sites now they ruin it for the true experience. Ramon said the governor had tried to stop the vendors but the backlash was so severe she almost lost her job over it. We tried to eat lunch at the location our guide recommended. In fact he came along. But after waiting 20 minutes for our meal they brought us the wrong items!! Our guide was embarrassed. We wouldn’t take the items and they said they couldn’t make what we ordered in time for us so we had some cooked beans and tortillas with some guacamole. When we prepared to pay they wouldn’t take a $20 bill or any turn bills!!! We had to borrow some from a lady in our group and pool our money together. No tip here!! Ha ha
We saw several old churches, a wedding taking place and a few other buildings and then it was time to go. I wouldn’t say this would be a place I would return to. It’s too commercial now and overrun with vendors. I think there would be other sites in Guatemala that would be more interesting. We take offfir the port and our guide gives us a few souvenirs and has a fun quiz for us. Bathrooms on the highway are hard to find. Most gas stations don’t have them and if they do they are pretty dirty. The land is strewn with garbage as in most third world countries. It smells of human sewage and there is such disparity.
We get back on time and we watch buseslarge and small dropping off tired passengers. We head up to our room for a shower and an early dinner in the Lido. We have a favorite piano player we enjoy listening to in the atrium. He show doesn’t interest tonight so we opt for the movie I Feel Pretty in our cabin after a few card games by the piano.
Our next day is a sea day before Acapulco where we have a river cruise and lunch scheduled. The days are getting warmer and the seas a little tougher but all in all
everything is good.
At Puerto Quetzel and the buses start lining up off our balcony for the tours today.
A spewing volcano is in the background. It happens almost daily but the winds blow it north. They say it isn’t a threat to them.
A little better shot
Photos of the destruction from the volcano that erupted this June taking out the highway and a whole village.
The ground was scorched. People burned in their cars trying to get away.
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