Monday, February 28, 2011

Santiago Atitlán and my kind of Saint.

The rest of Sunday was taken up with going to the BBQ at the local swimming pool where we ate far too much of their yummy food and after, with the help of Mike and Jason moved the sick Nancy into my room for safety. Jill has always said that I wanted to sleep with my motorbikes and that I finally got my wish. I must admit I do look a bit like a 'pig in shit'. Monday morning broke and at 0715 local time I was on the Skype phone to Motorworks in England and speaking to Yvonne, who has a G/S and has always been very helpful in the past. She proved her worth again and by the next day the parts were at our home address in Plymouth where my daughter-in-law to be Eunice, did a wonderful job and got DHL to pick them up and deliver them to Antigua Guatemala (I hope as they haven't arrived yet). Having got all that sorted as best we could we got in a boat and headed across the lake to Santiago Atitlán to see what it had to offer. Only the year before they had finished redoing there waterfront, creating a park area. That was before the lake rose over 2 meters and now the park was underwater along with building that once sold there wears to the passengers off the ferries. The market was as bustling as they all seem to be here with stalls selling much the same stuff as other markets. The Church was very interesting having 2 sets of 18 steps leading up to it. The interior was quite plain having been hit by many an earthquake with figures lining the walls covered in what looked like Great Aunt Ethyl’s best piny material. There were plaques at the back of the church giving the history and acknowledgement of the terrible abuses that went on during the civil war. We then move on and paying a tuc-tuc driver Q10 we went in search of Maximón the saint of gamblers and drunkards who has to be hidden away for most of the year in fear that his famed sexual desires may run amok, only being brought out on his feast day of the 28th October. We paid our respects but forgot to bring the usual offering of cigarettes and rum but instead paid Q10 for the privilege of taking pictures.
Arriving back in San Pedro we prepared for setting off for Antigua the next day by tourist bus.

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