Day 6 – Antigua Guatemala

This morning on the way to breakfast, I took another picture of our courtyard with the lap pool at the Porta Hotel Antigua.  There is still quite a bit of haze, but you can see the volcano in the background.  That mountain is called Volcan de Agua or The Water Volcano.

After breakfast, we still had about 45 minutes before meeting the group for our walking tour of Antigua, so I am taking a walk to an old church several blocks over from the hotel.  This is San Jose el Viejo and is fenced off, probably due to earthquake damage.

I have been seeing many different doorknockers and decided to get a picture of one of them.  This one looks like a jaguar doorknocker. 

Almost every roof has one or more cupolas on them.  It appears that Cupolas are a very popular architectural feature on homes and hotels.  The cupolas break the otherwise flat rooftop line of La Antigua Guatemala.  Besides that, white appears the favorite color for cupolas

Almost back to the hotel I look north along 5^th avenue north and an see the Arch of Santa Catalina and  Le Merced in the back ground.  We will be there during our guided walk later in the day.

A window on one of colorful walls of a nearby building.  Many of the buildings have windows with some sort of iron structure as decoration along with flowers. 

Speaking of flowers, these flowers were hanging down from the roofline in the hacienda courtyard where our room is located.

Before we even begin our walk around Antigua, we meet Clara.  During our walking tour of Antigua, we will have many like Clara trying to sell us stuff. 

We begin our walking tour by heading east on 8^th East Street heading towards the Church of San Francisco.  On the way, we see walls with some ornate windows.  I just love the look of this wall and window.

Here we are at the entrance arch to the Church courtyard. 

The Church of San Francisco; this is an active Catholic church. 

The courtyard around the back of the church along with a statue of whom I expect is San Francisco. 

In the courtyard were a number of nice flowers including this gorgeous Bird of Paradise.  The flower seems to be at its peak and with two flowers and I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

Between the arched gate and the church is a parking lot and while we were here visiting a farmers market was going on.  You could buy any number of fruits, vegetables, and nuts from many vendors. 

We move west along 7^th east street before heading north on 2^nd ave north and see this great architecture.  As you can see, the doorway is braced with wood studs.  The braces are for support after the previous earthquake damage.

Reaching the Monastery and Church of Santa Clara, we can see the remains of a large religious complex inaugurated in 1715, featuring a church with an ornate facade; nuns of the Second Franciscan Order or Poor Sisters of Santa Clara inhabited it.  There was much damage from the recent earthquake and the Convent was not open at this time.

The stuck molding on the min façade of the building is some of the best ornate and baroque architectural art in Antigua.

Across the street from Santa Clara is a plaza with this building, the Union Tank.  Carmen is sitting while she waits for the guide to complete his talk on Santa Clara.

This is the inside of the Union Tank building at the plaza.  This is apparently an old laundry area and each of these tubs is a laundry tub to clean your clothes.  Imagine cleaning your clothes at this public laundry, at least it did not cost a $1.00 for each load.

Here is the plaza next to Santa Clara.  You can see San Pedro in the background, our next destination.

Just beyond the Union Tank and Plaza is San Pedro.  This is a very nice looking building and is a hospital founded in 1663 by the Dominican friars.  In 1869, the Charity Sisters of San Vicente de Paul took charge of the building.

We are walking towards the Grand Square when I look inside an opened doorway and see this small courtyard inside what might be an hacienda building.  I thought it was nice.

Check out the sundial that was at the top of one of the buildings.  Now this was unusual, it shows the time at about 10:00 am, and that was pretty close to the correct time.

Next to the Grand Square is the Palace of the General Captains, which probably meant that it was the government building at the time.  Look at all of the arches, impressive.

The Cathedral is a Catholic Church Antigua Guatemala.  The original church was built around 1541, but suffered from several earthquakes throughout its history and the first church was demolished, rebuilt and consecrated in 1680.  Earthquakes seriously damaged it again in 1773.

Antigua’s Grand Square

I heard that the fountain at the center of the Park is the Fountain of the Mermaids or Sirens depending on whom you listen. It was built in 1737.  As you can see, the fountain is quite unusual. 

Carmen and I found this interesting, the national police patrolling from a pickup truck, but I feel safe here even without the police patrol.  They are even standing along the walls of the cathedral.

There are a number of vendors selling different merchandise; this is the first I have seen selling hats.

As we are leaving the Grande Plaza, these men were playing the xylophone.  They were across the street on our way to our next stop and playing for all of the people around this corner of the square.

I simply love some of the entrances to homes and businesses here in Antigua.  Finding this entry way was lucky.  Being colorblind, the shades of the color on the walls for some reason fascinate me.  Also, look at the sizes of the exposed beams in the ceiling. 

Not far from the entryway above, we stop at a Jade jewelry store for a bathroom break and while you are here and see something you would like to bring home, buy it.  We stopped and Carmen bought a ring while I was taking pictures of the men working on the jade.  Teach me to take my eyes off her while in a jewelry store.  LOL!

Leaving the Jade jewelry store we turn left (west) on 3^rd east street and then right on 5^th avenue north.  From here we have a really good view of the Santa Catarina arch which dates back to the 1600’s.  The clock you see at the top of the arch was added later in the 1800’s.  Througn the arch you can see the dome for the Church of La Merced.

As we were walking to the Church, we look left inside what looks like a destroyed building with the roof gone.  Inside we can see a number of floats depicting the 12 Stations of the Cross. 

We are nearly at the church and looking back, we can see Volcano Agua towering over the City and the tower arch.  Quite an impressive sight, just wish it was a clearer day.

Making our way around to La Merced we find these effigies on the side facing the Arch.  They stand out against the yellow building in the background.

Looking towards the front of the church we can see the large bell tower towering on the front of the church.  You can also see another of the people selling merchandise in the foreground.

A bust of a Franciscan monk sits high over the side of the church looking out over the courtyard.

This is the front of La Merced, the iconic church of Antigua, which dates back to around 1767.  You can clearly see the ornate yellow façade and the white filigree.  The Convent of La Merced entrance is on the left.

As we were walking to our next destination, I looked north at the roof and see this hill with the cross.  This is Cerro de la Cruz, translated as Cross on the hill.  The wooded cross was originally build around 1930, but since an earthquake, it was rebuilt in concrete.  It is a scenic outlook overlooking Antigua and Volcano Agua. 

We pass by the Monastery and Church of Santa Teresa of Jesus and I take a quick look inside.  I just love the open Spanish styled courtyards of the buildings here in Antigua.  The building was completed in 1687 and later damaged in the earthquakes. 

From our easterly walk along 1^st east street, we turn south on 2^nd avenue north.  The road is much wider than many others of those we have been on.  It also has trees and flowers, like this group.

We come to Iglesia y Convento de las Capuchinas or Church and Convent of the Capuchins.  These ruins are of an 18^th century nunnery, church, courtyards, tower, and some nun’s cells.

Inside las Capuchinas is a great courtyard with a fountain. 

We pass by the laundry area for the nunnery.  I find these fascinating.

We find these great looking stairs and decide to head up them to the upper floors overlooking the courtyard. 

From the second floor, we find that we are on a balcony that surrounds the entire courtyard.  There is a fantastic view from up here. 

From upstairs, we come to a balcony overlooking the empty church section of the ruins.  You can see where several sections of the roof domes are bright; this is from the heavy plastic coverings placed to protect the inside of the church from rain.  The plastic replaces the domes destroyed during one of the earthquakes that occur around the Antigua area.

Check out the dome over the balcony area.  Imagine what it would take to build this around the 1700’s. 

We rejoin the group as they begin to tour the facility and as we pass though one of the arches I get a picture looking back into the courtyard towards Carmen.

Back with the group, we pass through small labyrinth and end up on the ground floor of the church.  From here, we can see one dome still intact and another near the dais that is not.

There are many rooms, small courtyards, and open areas within this complex.  On these walls several windows look out to the space beyond. 

Passing through archways, rooms, and courtyards, we reach the Nuns residence.  Each one of the arches leads to a room each equipped a toilet.  The rooms are small having only enough room for a bed, dresser, and a place to kneel and pray.

We finish our tour of las Capuchinas and back on the street we now head to our lunch spot.  On the way to the restaurant, we pass this great shot of the old building roof-line in front of the volcano. 

After our late lunch, Carmen and I continued to walk around the streets of Antigua.  During our stroll, we came across these Domino Pizza delivery motorcycles.  I still cannot get over the motorbikes carrying delivery for fast food; brings a new dimension to fast food.

We walked around Antigua for about another hour before going back to the hotel, for little needed rest from walking all day.  On our way, I get one more picture of the old buildings some mostly destroyed by earthquakes.  Tomorrow we leave Antigua and head to Lake Atitlan for a couple of nights.