Terranova Expedition: Antigua Guatemala

Guatemala…

Has not been what we were expecting. Guatemala has a much more african feel (since I've never been to Africa… take this description with a grain of salt)

We came through the interior of Guatemala after leaving Tikal. It was some of the most beautiful motorcycling we have done, through twisty, winding roads with lush jungle and mountains all around us.

There are ladies clothed in colourful dresses walking with washing, or water jugs on their heads. The men are on the roadway, usually hauling something, somewhere, be it firewood or any number of things. Most of the work that goes on here is by hand.

The walls are all hand built stone. The roadways seem to be repaired by hand. The people here are poor, and manual labour is still the rule of the day.

It took us a couple days to ride the interior from Tikal. Our first night we stayed at a beautiful enclave, built on an island in the middle of a lake…. Flores.

The second night, we stayed at a hotel on the road. It wasn't that cheap… about $24 US per night, but it wasn't worth it.

We made it to Antigua Guatemala… Old Guatemala, which is a city rich in history.

From Wikipedia...

It was the third capital of Guatemala. The first capital of Guatemala was founded on the site of a Kakchikel-Maya city, now called Iximche, on Monday, July 25, 1524—the day of Saint James—and therefore named Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Goathemalan (City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala). Naturally, St. James became the patron saint of the city.

After several Cakchiquel uprisings, the capital was moved to a more suitable site in the Valley of Alotenango (Rio Guacalate) on November 22, 1527, and kept its original name. When this city, on the site of present-day San Miguel Escobar[2], was destroyed on September 11, 1541 by a devastating lahar from the Volcán de Agua,[3] the colonial authorities decided to move once more, this time to the Panchoy Valley. So, on March 10, 1543 the Spanish conquistadors founded present-day Antigua, and again, it was named Santiago de los Caballeros. For more than 200 years it served as the seat of the military governor of the Spanish colony of Guatemala, a large region that included almost all of present-day Central America and the southernmost State of Mexico: Chiapas. In 1566 King Felipe II of Spain gave it the title of "Muy Noble y Muy Leal" ("Very Noble and Very Loyal").
On September 29, 1717, an estimated 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Antigua Guatemala, and destroyed over 3,000 buildings. Much of the city's architecture was ruined. The damage the earthquake did to the city made authorities consider moving the capital to another city.
In 1773, the Santa Marta earthquakes destroyed much of the town, which led to the third change in location for the city. The Spanish Crown ordered (1776) the removal of the capital to a safer location, the Valley of the Shrine, where Guatemala City, the modern capital of Guatemala, now stands. This new city did not retain its old name and was christened Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción (New Guatemala of the Ascension) and its patron saint is Our Lady of Ascension. The badly damaged city of Santiago de los Caballeros was ordered abandoned, although not everyone left, and was thereafter referred to as la Antigua Guatemala (the Old Guatemala).

Our first night here, we stayed at a Hostel, which was very nice, an old converted house with towering vine covered stone walls surrounding the entire property. We were able to bring our bikes in through the Gate, and park them safely. We, and another couple were the only guests, so our Mama host kind of doted on us. She helped me make supper (rice and space food) and we went around the kitchen naming things in Spanish and English… (fork, spoon, bowl, plate etc.. )

We slept well until about 6:00 am, when what sounded like Shotgun blasts split the quite. This was followed by about 15 minutes of bell tolling from the 20 or 30 churches within 2 blocks, which set off all the car alarms, which started all the dogs barking….

Neither one of us got up, since we are used to being blasted awake at early hours by chainsaws, or trucks or dogs or bells of some kind.

We had to move for our second night (tonight), for some reason our Hostel wasn't open on Sunday, but we were (finally) going to be meeting up with Troy and Neal again after two weeks riding apart, and they were on their way to this address.

So we spent the next two hours sitting on the sidewalk outside the Hostel waiting. Finally, at about 3:00 pm, they rode around the corner, and we had the whole band back together! :)

We left in search of another place to stay, and on the way, Troy clipped a local (parked) motorcycle with his pannier, flipping it in the air into the path of Neal who was following, who proceeded to ride over it as well. We stopped, looked around, talked to a few locals, and nobody seemed to think there was any problem. We put it back onto it's stand, shrugged our shoulders and rode away.

We've found another Hostel, this one we've parked our bikes in the lobby again.