Mayan Madness: Last Day in Antigua

There is always stuff to work out the last day. We decide to spend the day in the city of Antigua just doing our own thing. I spent the morning having coffee on the patio. The connection is not up to speed this morning. I will write up some posts for when the service is up. Bill is reading away.

We decide it is time to walk for lunch. I found us an authentic Guatemala restaurant near where else the center of the town square/park. We ate some arroz & frijoles with fried plantains. Wonderfully, fulling and healthy that is if you minus the alcohol.

I did not have much to drink as I need to keep my head about me as we went to the bus travel agency and got our tickets to Honduras. I am glad I carried our passports because it is easy to forget not to bring them, however, anytime you are leaving the country you have to show your passport. We have no problem getting our two tickets to Copan Honduras. We will be picked up at out hotel at 6:30 am. There we two young college girls who helped us with some translations. They are teachers in Honduras. We chat a bit while waiting for the tickets to print and say our goodbyes.

I wanted to visit a close by church ruins so we header north from the ticket office, passing through a number of buildings that were part of an old convent. The church was only about a 10 minute walk away as pretty much everything is closed. Yet, it was closed but the ruins of the convent were open. As we walk in we notice how stripped down everything is, bare walls, some doors like it was either looted or things remove and relocated. There is no information or guide around so we wander in what was once a gorgeous, large Renaissance courtyard perfect in proportion with expose brick, and in the center a fountain. This is a large fountain but one in never seen before, not the size but the way it was designed. The large working fountain had the usual moat around it where the water cascades down and recycles but this had stone walkways that led directly to the main larger fountain where you could walk around the entire fountain.
Bill was curious about the design. We walked the stone stairway to the second floor and enjoy and nice view of the town although there is nothing much of interest to see and stay.
I tell Bill that we have to see this guy who will hook us up with a way to San Salvador when we get back. His name is Alfredo who actually worked in Boston and has a wife and two daughters in New Hampshire. We make arrangements to catch him when we come back in two days.

On our way back to the hotel, we see another old church with ruins. We tried going in the front door but were told due to construction it was closed. Bill and I wander abound the outside of the courtyard seeing if we can catch a glimpse of anything. We come up and entrance that say do not enter. We can see restoration construction going on so I tell Bill just follow my lead and nod, shake your hear, point up every so often. I put together together a few papers into a makeshift clipboard and sticks something out of my shirt pocket take looks like a badge. We then enter and see various cubicles working on the restoration, ca effete, plu mbers, frame restorers, masons etc. I walk over to each department, say a few words in Spanish complimenting them on their job, we get ready to leave and I made an announcement el Presidante says bueno trabajo.

Bill still smiling says he like to got rest in the room. I say, ok, I think I will get a massage my hands are hurting me and my feet could use one. I bring him back to the hotel and I take off to find the massage lady I met from the other night.

Our favorite lunch spot..