Santiago and San Antonio

Hello Everyone,

I was starting to feel better yesterday morning but that all changed quickly and I was back to being sick. Yesterday afternoon and night, we went on a boat tour of Lake Atitlán and traveled to the pueblos of Santiago de Atitlán and San Antonio. It was cloudy when we left, but was down pouring by the time that we go to our first stop. Needless to say, everything that was dirty in the town changed into large puddles of mud. The sights were breathtaking from the lookout point in Santiago and I was happy to take some beautiful photos.

This is a view from the mountain side in San Antonio. The little town was so filled with mud and was by far the poorest town that I have visited here in Guatemala. The children were huddled all around us when we got there and tried to sell us a package of 12 bracelets for only 5 quetzales (roughly $0.75 USD). It is very humbling to see these children and how happy they are with the little that they have.
This is one of the pillars of the Cathedral of St. James. It was built by the Spanish in the mid 1500s and much of the original structure still remains. I found it very interesting because the rounded staircase in front of the church actually represents the Mayan calendar, not the Christian calendar.
I am not a fan of dolls and there were about 75 life-size dolls that represented different bible stories within this cathedral. I found this set of dolls to be the creepiest.
While we were in Santiago, we visited Park of the Peace. This park was created in 1990 to commemorate a state-sponsored massacre during the Guatemalan Civil War. The Guatemalan army shot into a crowd of innocent, unarmed civilians, killing 14 and wounding 21.
This is a shot from the lookout point in Santiago. The volcano San Pedro is so immense in person!

It was a beautiful experience, despite the mishaps and I recommend making a visit to Atitlán!

Love,

C