We had breakfast with our host family before setting off to Chichistenango to check out the Sunday markets. Our host Father had warned us that they were very commercial and he was right. We found our way to the square and two of the Churches before heading to a coffee shop for coffee and hot chocolate with Sharon and Chris.
We arrived in Antigua in the afternoon and Smokey took us for an orientation walk through town, David stayed back in the room to rest. First stop was the La Merced church, then down the main street where we glimpsed our first ruin, Saint Catalina the result of the 1773 earthquake. They now store the huge life size stations of the cross that are carried around during their Easter celebrations. It was a slow journey down the street as there were many people out and about. We finished the tour in the central park and Chris, Sharon, Christiana and Catriona headed up to a rooftop cafe overlooking park. We Christiana, Joey and Chasta were leaving and we are gaining 3 new passengers for the last part of the journey.
We took it easy today as we new we had a big night coming up. We had breakfast at a coffee shop down the road from the hotel. They had a whole page with gluten free items which is the first gluten free things we have seen on our trip. After breakfast David rested at the hotel while Catriona had a massage. Then we wandered through the streets visiting the many churches and ruins of churches with Chris while Sharon had a massage. We met up with the rest of the group for our first meeting with the new people Claire, from London and Josh and Kate from Neutral Bay. Dinner was booked for 8:30pm so we set off to walk through the main street to check out what was going on. In the first part of the street there was a guy carrying a construction with fireworks taped to it and they were going off. Next we passed people carrying huge figures that they moved from side to side to make the arms swing to the music being played on xylophones. The mood was good and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We arrived at the restaurant a little early so decided to have a drink while we waited. One drink turned into 3 as they couldn't get us a table. We ended up eating at around 11pm! After dinner Chasta and Joey headed back to the hotel and Catriona and David followed not long after. The fireworks started just before midnight with many people in different locations around the town setting off fireworks and crackers, the noise went on for hours and we ended up sleeping with earplugs in.
We managed to wake up in time for our 8am breakfast despite the bad nights sleep. We ate breakfast with John and Lorna and got ready to walk up to Cerro la Cruz which is a cross on a hill overlooking the city. The guy on the desk at teh hotel said it was not safe for just the two of us to go together so we organised to go with Lorna, John and Chris. It was a very steep walk up and we did see warning signs and also a few police cars and individual police along the route. The site had great views over the city and because of the police presence we felt very safe. We spent the rest of the day wandering around again looking at the sites and trying to find somewhere to have lunch. We had a drink with Sharon and Chris at the sky bar overlooking the city and then dinner in a little soup restaurant not far from the hotel.
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