"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #14 Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala January 13, 2017 Friday Sunny & 90 degrees Part #1 Of 2 76 Pictures

Guatemala is the last Central American country we will visit on this grand voyage. The Spanish –speaking population is about 13,27,000, and the capital is Guatemala City. The best time to visit is between November and May, when it is the dry season. There is a lot to see here, such as the Mayan ruins at Tikal, a pricey all day tour, or Antigua, closer to the port, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Volcanoes and coffee plantations dot the mountainsides.

Docked by 9am in the working port of Puerto Quetzal, many tours were offered to the guests. This port, as charming as it is small, is limited to souvenir shopping and one nice restaurant. Some folks took the Tikal tour, but only a small amount at $650 per person. There were five tour options to colonial Antigua, and a day trip to visit a coffee plantation. Several years ago, we took the plantation tour, and learned everything we ever wanted to know about the cultivation of coffee. As hobbyist gardeners, we appreciated the work behind that cup of coffee we have come to love every morning. On the way back, we stopped at Antigua for a quick tour of the highlights of the city.

Since then, we always opt to stay in the port area, enjoying an afternoon of leisurely shopping and a nice lunch with beer at the local restaurant, Pez Vela.

The day was going to be warm, but not as hot as 92 degrees. Tablemates Maureen and Jim stayed onboard and said the ship's thermometer never exceeded 82 degrees. Near the water, a nice breeze was blowing most of the day. We ended up leaving the ship after 11am, and walked through the maze of stalls at the Artisan's Market. It is interesting what the locals have done here. They created an enclosed oasis with palm trees, grassy knolls, and a meandering market full of souvenir stalls. Surrounding this property, is just about desert-looking. It is a typical dock area with port equipment, a crane or two, and piles of what appeared to be coal. If you did not go outside the gate, you would never notice you are in the middle of nowhere.

With many folks away on the tours, there were few people in the market. That could be good or bad. The vendors simply do not take "we are just looking" for no thanks. Each and every one of them fights for your business, although they may all belong to one owner. Obviously, we like to take photos. One of the lady vendors demanded one dollar because we took a picture of her table of souvenirs. Really? That was a first, since every other vendor here welcomed photos, especially the couple that were selling quilts. Don't they know that we would recommend a good shop to our friends? To demand money was a mistake. All those around us who heard her, avoided that table.

That reminded us of our first trip to the Amazon River back in the 90's. We still chuckle when we recall the little kids that posed with a monkey, a chameleon, or a parrot, then asked for one dollar. In that case, we gladly handed them one.

We had not intended to buy anything, except if we saw a pair of beaded earrings to match a necklace we bought a couple of years ago. Styles change, so there were few of these items left. No luck, one of us ended up finding the perfect beaded necklace to match the recently bought sequined jacket from Florida. Part of the fun is the bargaining. Must have hit the right amount, because the vendor walked away as happy as we did.

One other item caught our eye…….a figurine that we have seen mostly in Mexico. It is a wooden skeleton painted white, covered with multi-colored flowers. This one is holding a guitar. We know there is a story behind these figures, and we will research it when we get to Mexico. The creator that made this was asking $150, but in the long run, he was happy to take $30. Where we are going to put it, well, that is another matter. Will worry about it later. In the meantime, we hope our new addition will not scare our room stewards too much. And now that we think about it, we bought it on Friday the 13^th.

Surrounding the harbor, is a rock wall that houses many different sizes of iguanas. It's always fun to search for them under the rocks, and catch a photo when they peek out. By the way, we use two different cameras. One is a waterproof pocket camera, 16 megapixels. The other is the good camera with a 28 – 300 mm. lens. Anyway, there seemed to be fewer of these creatures today, but enough to keep us interested.

We did want to have lunch here, so we made our way to Pez Vela Restaurant, with an open-air patio overlooking the floating pier. They served decent food and cold beer. We ordered cheese nachos with grilled chicken, along with the local beer, Gallo. Perfect. Then we shared a slice of cheesecake, which we remembered to be really good last year. The waiter even cut it into two slices. Nice.

We strolled back to the ship with Barb and Aart, who also spent some time with more friends at the restaurant. They took notice of the side of the ship, where there are obvious scrapes from the canal, we think. Funny, it was not painted over when we were in the last two ports. Hide the evidence, so to speak.

Going up to the aft deck around 5pm, we waited for the sunset around 6pm. It did not disappoint. There was smoke in the sky here like yesterday, so the colors were intense as the sun went down. Sail away began at 6:30pm, although we did not leave the pier until 7pm. The last of the buses came in at the all aboard time of 6pm, then the gangway was lifted back to the bow.

We have two days at sea as we sail towards Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.

At dinner, we found three empty seats, as Martha, Bob, and Ruud joined Aart upstairs. Ellen will be joining in San Diego, having spent some time with family in California and Washington. The seven of us shared stories of the day. Nice, because we all did something different. Bob and Martha should have some good reports on their tour to Tikal.

The entrees continue to be quite good. One of us had the parmesan-crusted veal, and the other ordered oxtails. Both were good. The quality of the food has been consistently good so far. And our waiters have come to know how we all like our food now. Soups are hot-hot-hot. And the ice cream has been firm and way too good.

Bill & Mary Ann

Colorful items of Guatemala