This morning we set out at 8:00 for a visit to the city of Antigua in Norm's vehicle accompanied by the two children from the water park and the hair dresser lady mentioned in the previous entry.

Antigua, founded in 1543, was the capital of Guatemala until 1776 when it was destroyed by an earthquake.

In more recent years it has gained World Heritage listing and is somewhat of a tourist destination. It's quite a departure from what we have seen elsewhere in Guatemala. As the guide book said this is fantasy land, what the country would look like if the Scandinavians came in and took over for a couple of years. It's a place where power lines run underground, building codes are adhered to, rubbish is collected, traffic diverted and stray dogs disappeared during the middle of the night.. We might also add where armed guards are not in evidence.

However the city is attractive, with old well preserved or restored buildings everywhere, cobbled streets, and set in a valley between three volcanoes. We had a scrumptious breakfast at one of the better hotels after squeezing Norms large ford SUV into the hotel parking lot. We spent some hours wandering the streets visiting some of the local cathedrals as well as some souvenir shops. The volume of people in the streets increased markedly throughout the morning and by lunch time the place was quite busy. Lots of tourists many of them Spanish speaking with a sprinkling of Americans, Canadians, and English.

Back at camp we spent the afternoon reading, brushing up on Spanish and talking to and playing computer games with the two children that live at the water park.

All in all a very pleasant touristy type of day