Playing “Tourist”

Though I’ve lived here over a year, I have yet to see a number of the sights that tourists usually visit when they spend only a week here.  Since Katheryn and Katie are with me this week, I’m using them as a good excuse to do so.

I’ve been up to Cerro Santo Domingo before, and thought they would enjoy the view from there, so we headed up for Saturday breakfast.  While it’s a little bit “ritzier” than my usual haunts, I love the view from up there and because it is so far out of town, the prices are pretty reasonable. 


To get there we walked about a mile and a half to the Hotel Santo Domingo, a beautiful old monastery which has been converted into a luxury hotel and museum.  From there we took a open air shuttle, reminiscent of “Jurasic Park.”


While in the past it seemed like this was a place for rich Guatemalans to get away from the city, today it seemed like there were more local folks here just enjoying the beautiful Saturday morning.  We enjoyed our meals, and even had time to walk around to see the sculpture garden, aviary, and chapel.  It really was beautiful. Despite its elegance, this seems a good place to go to just get away with God
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Monday we set off to take a walking tour of the cathedral, which turned into a walking tour of Antigua.  Last year when I first moved down here, Donna and I met Oscar, a man who gives tours at the cathedral.  I’d promised to return one day to take his tour, and finally would keep that promise. 









 


While I’ve lived here a year, and seen most of the places we went, it was wonderful to have a guide with us knowledgeable of the history and lore that went with each place.  And while I had often passed these buildings, I never had stopped to admire the amazing detail in architecture of these churches, most of which were built between the 15th and 17th centuries.
 


My favorite stop on our tour had to be the church of San Francisco the Greater, and the museum of Hermano Pedro which is housed there.  Without getting into a discussion of the Catholic veneration of saints, I have to say that all I have heard about this monk who lived in the early 17th Century inspires me.  He was Guatemala’s Mother Teresa, taking the starving and dying into his home and caring for them.  The legacy he started lives on in the multitude of hospitals and social service agencies that bear his name.