The N. Amsterdam arrived early to the port of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala , and the first thing we noticed was that the old floating pier had been fixed. Good thing, because we really did not want to ride in those small crammed buses from the loading pier to the old pier complex. The ship was cleared after 8am, and from the Pinnacle Grill, we watched as the "sticky" people (tour guests with numbered stickers) fled off the gangway. We heard there were over 360 passengers on those tours today. They were given a send-off by a group of 10 officers and front desk staffers. By the way, there were only three excursions offered. One was a transfer to colonial Antigua, with the day on your own. Longer tours were a ride to a coffee plantation, and another a ride to see the Mayan ruins. These tours may have included a stop at Antigua on the way back. Prices ranged from $70 to $130. We did an HAL coffee plantation excursion several years ago, but due to traffic, by the time we hit Antigua, most everything was closed. We made it back to the ship by the skin of our teeth, although they did say the ship would not leave without us. That's not always the case.
There was a crew drill at 9:30am, which lasted an hour. We left the ship around 10:30am, walking into warm and muggy weather with a nice breeze. Here are a few tidbits of info about this country. The official name is Republic of Guatemala. Bordering countries are Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize. The Pacific Ocean borders the south coast, while the Caribbean Sea is near the Belize border.
It is a land of 33 volcanoes, three of which are active. The area is about 190 square kilometers with a population of 15,073,300 citizens (2013). The capital is Guatemala City and the currency is the Quetzel, same as their national bird. Guatemala is also called the Land of Eternal Spring, since the average temperature is 72 degrees year round. Hotter along the coast at 77 degrees, it is cooler in the mountains at 65 degrees. The language is Spanish with Mayan touches, and the religion is Christianity. Finally the name Guatemala means place of many trees.
OK, we entered the palapa, which is called the welcome lobby. At the side desk, we got some excellent maps and gifts of woven friendship bracelets and a pouch of worry dolls. The story with the dolls is that you tell each tiny doll your troubles, put them under your pillow, then your worries are gone by morning. Nice concept if it really works. Worth a try, right?
Once again, it's Easter Week as well as Good Friday, so this complex was busy today. The place was full of families from town that were going out to lunch at the restaurant. We walked around the souvenir tents, and did notice that many of them were missing. Some of the vendors were really aggressive. They do not take your "we are just looking right now" as an answer. We have to be careful with what we buy now, because of the weight of the suitcases. No wooden giraffes or horses will be in our possession today. One of us was looking for a tiny leather pill purse, small enough for the little pocket in the jeans. Only one lady had a variety of sizes including the one I wanted. Needing a new water bottle holder, we made a deal for the two items. $10. That was the extent of our shopping today. There was a really attractive multi-colored jade and silver choker that caught our eye, but the price was just too high. Of course the value of silver has gone up, so that's why the price hike. Or, it could be that as a group, we are a trapped audience. Decided I could live without it.
From here we made our way to the Pez Vela Restaurant, which was already getting full of customers…..mostly locals. And it was only 11:30am. In this humid heat, beer drinking starts early. Usually we do eat here, but not today….just too crowded for our comfort. By the way, we had to wear masks here, and most of the locals were masked as well. Obviously, the virus is not gone yet.
There are iguanas on the 60 slip marina side of this complex, so we went to see them. All we spotted were small ones, who were expert at hiding. There is a parking lot at this end, and many folks were arriving for lunch. They ended up scaring whatever was around. Actually, we have seen more of these iguanas on this trip than any other time. Having seen it all, we headed back to the pier, and back on the air conditioned ship. By now, it was around 12:30pm.
Our veranda had shade and a breeze….good place to cool down with sodas. Lunch in the Lido followed with a salad and a shared pizza. They had left more stations opened for the crowd of guests coming back from the tours. Even if they had eaten lunch on their tours, they still hit the Lido. Several more waiters recognized us from the Amsterdam, and they stopped to chat. They can't seem to do enough, which is greatly appreciated. When the timer went off for the pizza, a waiter insisted on getting it for us.
The ship left the pier around 6pm, with no toots of the horn. In fact, we have not heard any toots recently. Wonder if there are rules regarding that practice? Before dinner, we called the front desk to ask why our room TV was acting strange. Like cutting in and out or freeze-framing. The gal said she would summon our room steward to check it out, not mentioning if this was a shipwide problem. So Ronny knocked on the door, and we explained the problem. He came in and watched for a few minutes, and of course, nothing unusual happened. Figures. Did it fix itself? The TV has been acting up since we left the Panama Canal, and we assumed it was a satellite thing. He promised to report it.
Dinner was not what we expected as a rotation that repeats itself. Many items are different from what we had on the N. Statendam. Tonight they offered leg of lamb, and that sounded good to us. It was served on a bed of mashed potatoes, with what we thought was snow peas and carrots. The carrots were in a mash of sweet potatoes and garbanzo beans seasoned with a lot of ginger. Not really our cup of tea, we did leave most of it. Saved a little room for desserts of a pear strudel and apple crisp. Ice cream on the side. By the time we left the dining room at 9:10pm, the dining room was almost empty of customers.
The clocks went ahead an hour tonight, so tomorrow will be here quicker. The port of call for tomorrow will be Puerto Chiapas, Mexico.
Bill & Mary Ann
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Report #119 Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala 8am-6pm Friday April 15, 2022 Overcast With Some Sun 81 Degrees
