After several days of gloomy threatening weather, the day started out bright and sunny. We visited the Hill of the Cross and then traveled to the Sunday market at Santa Maria de Jesus before busing back to Guatemala City for our flight to Flores in northern Guatemala and our gateway to Tikal.
The Hill of the Cross overlooks Antigua and several volcanoes. While we were there, Volcan de Fuego started smoking impressively and kept it up most of the morning.
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| The Hill of the Cross from Antigua, zoomed way in. |
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| The view from above |
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| View with cross |
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| Above and below: Volcan de Fuego getting active. |
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As we walked back up to the bus, this woman
passed us with a curious contraption we saw
again in the market: a fruit juicer. |
Santa Maria de Jesus is a village built by the Spaniards for their workers. The women mostly dress in traditional styles, while the men, who usually work in Antigua have mostly adopted more modern dress. Many times, modern clothing is available very cheaply because it is shipped here from donations made in the US. Jeans and a shirt in decent condition may cost as little as $1 each.
This market was very active -- the primary shopping day for the locals -- and included all types of food (including crocodile) as well as clothes, shoes, housewares, and electronics. The only bad thing for us was the presence of a guy on the church steps where we met playing loud amplified music and yelling about something political.
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| Overview of the market |
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| Fresh veggies |
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| Crocodile |
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| Corn and other grains in various stages of grinding. |
From there we went back to the hotel to pack up before lunch and our bus trip to the airport. We flew from fairly pleasant weather in the highlands, to the lowlands of northern Guatemala which was considerably warmer and muggier.
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