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Around Monkey Bay Marina
Guatemala City’s Historic District Park

May 14, 2006
Location: Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

Happy Mother’s Day!! Today I was in Guatemala City and decided to make a trip to the Historic District in zone 1. I had been to the park there before and really enjoyed the sights and sounds there as it’s very popular among the locals on the weekends. During my previous trip I didn’t have an opportunity to actually walk around the surrounding streets to the park so this time I asked my taxi driver to drop me off about 8 blocks from the park. As I walked the streets I met Josue, a local school teacher that spoke fluent English. He explained to me that the park area wouldn’t be busy for another couple hours since it was Mother’s Day and all the churches were celebrating with various parades. Josue was kind enough to take me to one procession where we watched the men in the Sunday best carry a huge wooden coffin through the streets. After watching the procession for a while Josue gave me a personal tour of zone 1 and took me to the oldest church in Guatemala, built in 1680. It was absolutely beautiful, too bad pictures weren’t allowed. After touring a couple churches we headed to a coffee shop and talked for an hour about the education system in Guatemala.

Josue had to leave to take care of some errands so I made my way to the park located across the street from the Presidential Palace. The park was full of local Guatemalans and Mayan, Ketchi and Mam Indians. This was definitely the place to be. Within the park there were a variety of preachers preaching through their megaspeakers, street performers including ventriloquists, snake charmers and clowns, lots of goods including textiles for sale and an abundance of food stalls. There was even a really good band performing on a stage. I spent about four hours here people watching, taking pictures and just enjoying the sights. Definitely a place worth visiting if you ever come to Guatemala City.

May 31, 2006
Location: Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

The pictures of my trip to Guatemala City’s Historic District were added today. Damon is still in California taking care of personal business at the VA and David is still on the Rio Dulce managing Monkey Bay Marina. 

Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006 S/V Bruadair. No reproduction without written consent.