Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Independence Day in Guatemala and I've finally learnt how to spell it properly (so much for spell-checkers, eh!). As usual the day dawned bright and sunny, and the view of the volcanoes surrounding Antigua Guatemala are beautiful, as we head out of the hotel to the main square to see what's going on. Unsurprisingly there's a big parade heading through town, with bands and people all dressed in their finery marching slowly round the square and down the narrow streets. What is surprising is that it's not as lavish and diverse as the parade in Chichicastenanga, but the noise is still pretty impressive, and the sight of the bands in front of the main church and with the backdrop of the volcano make for great photos...











When the parade had passed, we wandered round the old streets of Antigua Guatemala for a while, looking at the old churches, their façades still standing where the main body of the church has been destroyed in one of the many earthquakes to hit the town. There are some 30 churches like this one, scattered about the old city, amongst the brightly-painted terraced houses that line the old cobbled streets.





As we wandered around we came back to the scene of the “Dad dancing” last night, and there was another band playing under the archway, with a very lively beat and pretty girls with batons dancing away (much better than Nick's attempt!)...





The rest of the day was spent wandering round and relaxing, before meeting up with the group for our weekly group meal, in an old restaurant in the centre of town, that served a lovely local chicken dish, and excellent red wine, which we followed with some shots of the local liquor, a rather potent drink called Agua Diente which smelt like nail varnish and tasted like paint stripper...





Still, it was only $1 for a small bottle and $4 for the larger one, so several shots later we retired to the bar for a beer or two, and then on to the town's Irish bar (run by a Norwegian) before finally calling it a night...