Antigua

This is an image of one of the churches seen on the side of the road. There's no sign explaining the history, but it is quite an understated beauty. It's just one of many such sites in Antigua.

When Luis came to visit I figured it was cruel to make him do too much traveling on his only "vacation" of his semester, so I had us stop for a couple of days in Antigua, the colonial city in Guatemala. I wrote briefly about Antigua when I went with Jean. Luis and I spent a little more time relaxing there, and went into some more historical sites (and did less shopping). It seems like every street corner has an old broken down church, or some interesting ruin. Most things are religious in nature (convents, churches, etc.).

One of my favorite places was the Colegio de San Geronimo, which was once used as a religious school, then attacked by indigenous protestors, taken away due to lack of authorization by the Spanish crown, and then used as a royal customs house. It was gorgeous, and reasonably well-taken care of, with grass and gardens and public trash cans, all available for a small fee, just off the side of the road and market. You can climb up and see the volcanoes, though we went on a rather cloudy day.


Another famous site in the area is the Merced church. One cool thing about it is that there are some images of the gods prominent in the local religion, mixing the indigenous with the colonial. After being destroyed in 2 earthquakes it has been restored to this pale yellow beauty.