Visit to Antigua, etc.

All of the Senior Sister Missionaries in Guatemala City were invited to join together at a fancy place in a mall downtown for a quarterly birthday lunch this week.  Only three of us were able to get off and go because of some scheduling problems and even when we got there the tables were full and we first sat at a table all by ourselves.  Two other sisters left the big table and came to join us, which was nice, otherwise we might just have stayed by ourselves at the temple.  This picture is of a dish that one of the sisters ordered.  It is Parmesan cheese that has been toasted and made into a barrel shape.  You tear of pieces and dip them in guacamole or salsa type dips.  One of our group says that she does the same thing at home but cuts it into strips while flat and adds a few to salads.  I ordered an enchilada dish that was SO close to the taste of Mt Pleasant's Mexican place.

 It was a holiday one day this last week and so the temple closed early.  We were planning to go out of town but were not able to arrange transportation for everyone so John took two loads and we went to Applebee's.  Many of us had their "All you can eat ribs" although I barely ate my one plate. We have eaten out more since we have been here than we do in months at home. 

I'm just going to post different things that we saw and did in Antigua but not necessarily in the correct order (You won't know and I really don't care.)

One of the fascinating things in Thailand was the way the semi and other large trucks were painted so colorfully and they had beautiful chrome bumpers and grills.  Well in Guatemala it is not the trucks but the busses that are decorated.  Apparently they get old school busses for a few thousand dollars and then drive down through Mexico and decorate them and sell them for many times what they paid.  If a motor or something has a problem they just take that part from another of their busses.  There are hundreds and hundreds of these busses in Antigua in various stages but they are all over the streets in Guatemala city. They are referred to as chicken busses. I guess that people can put crates of almost anything on top to haul to their destinations including chickens.

All of the streets in Antigua are cobblestone.  The interesting feature is that they slant inward to the center so that when it rains the water runs down the center of the street rather than off to the edges and walkways.  This picture is one I took off the web that isn't too good but you can get the idea. Many of the streets felt like they were only one way but traffic would be coming both ways and people just pulled over and passed.  This one seems very wide but there are also no cars.  Most of the buildings were one story but I didn't see any over two. 

Antigua was the capital of the country until the 1500's when there was an earthquake and the city was basically destroyed and the capital was moved to Guatemala City.

We started our day in Antigua at the Chocolate museum and I'll post it in detail but we finished up in the central market which was blocks and blocks of stalls full of exciting things that everyone wanted to sell to you.  Here are a few pictures I caught off the web.  There were so many booths and so many items in each booth that it was just crazy trying to choose anything. 

This was at the chocolate museum.  I thought we should have one in Guatemala as well as Thailand. (I asked the couple we were with if my face was in the right place and she said "It's cute."  Oh well, no question how I feel about gathering chocolate.

 

We paid about $25 each for the 2 hour chocolate class.  We made chocolate candy and three chocolate drinks and although much of what we learned was available with displays and cards we enjoyed the experience and learned much.   Here is our instructor.  He has a 17-year-old daughter and and a younger son.  Many of the men, especially, look much younger than you would guess.

The tree in front of him is one year old.  His display has three different kinds of pods, an open pod, choc pods, choc seeds and some of the products made from the choc.

I only took pictures of two of the charts but they give a bit of information.

This is a part of a large mural across the back wall of the museum room.

This is a model of a full sized tree.  Notice how the pods grow down the stem.  There are apparently many kind and sizes of pods.

Here we had roasted beans, shelled them and taken out the seeds and how are crushing them to make the paste to begin making our drinks and candy.  Does anyone recognize that shirt or those hands?

Our instructor is using the traditional method for mixing a rather strong drink that had honey, pepper, cardamon and other spices. 

This tool was used to mix the more traditional hot chocolate (not sweet enough for me.)














 Our chocolate had to be refrigerated for 30 minutes and then we we were given it as we left.  I did small pieces but here is a picture of Mike's bar. Really it is just the size of a medium sized chocolate bar but we liked the impression.

 I'll include some snapshots of the items we bought at the market.  The treasures of value were the queen sized wool blanket and the long table runner.  I thought that the napkin rings would be fun with the table runner. 

I missed some amazing shots of women's loads on their heads but you will probably see a collection of them in my blog.  They fascinate me.  One looked like she had some type of hat fixed on top of her head and then the basked on that.  I liked this one with her hands tucked behind her.  I called it "No Hands" in my picture file. 

But how could I forget where we ate?????  Pappy's Texas BBQ!  I believe that they were the best ribs I have ever eaten.

A great trip!