DAY 8 (10/30) -- Sometime during the night both wind and waves calmed down so
that when we woke this morning we could watch the ship tie up to the pier in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. The elaborate choreography of arriving and departing is a fascinating process, and both of us enjoy being railbirds as we watch it unfold.
This port has a history very much like that of Huatulco in that for many years it was a quiet fishing village, then about 15 years ago the Guatemalan government thought it would be a good idea to establish a commercial port, and today it’s very busy with both bulk and container shipping.

But there was no place to dock cruise ships, so the government did the necessary
dredging and pier work, and now several cruise ships a week stop here. I suspect,
based totally on a hunch, that it also serves as an alternative to Acapulco where so many cruise ships tie up there isn’t room for one more. But whatever the reason, Puerto Quetzal and Guatemala now welcome cruise ships.

Now that the port’s all set up, another problem has surfaced. When a cruise ship
calls here, with several thousand passengers anxious to explore the countryside,
there’s nothing for them to do. Not even a tourist trap!

So the system now is for the ship to be met by busses to whisk the visitor away to whatever excursion has caught their fancy. In our case, it was riding a comfortable bus inland to the ancient city of Antigua, established in 1543. Once the capital of Guatemala, Antigua is now a city of some 25,000 people who live in colorful houses located on cobblestone streets.

It’s a beautiful city, nestled on the shore with mountains and volcanoes surrounding it. One of the problems is that the three major volcanoes are still active and ready to explode, but obviously no one’s sure when. Earthquakes are another problem, but our Guatemalan guide said not to worry, they haven’t had one for several seeks. Small comfort that was. "Manyana" carried to the extreme. I tried to invoke some laws of probability, and again lost my nerve!

Our first several stops were to visit, coincidentally, several 16th century churches,
one of which had been almost totally destroyed by an earthquake. Only a shell remains. I stepped inside and offered a quick prayer to the Earthquake god or anyone else who might be listening. More than any other natural disaster, earthquakes terrify
me.

One of the less pleasant parts of this visit is having to deal with scores, hundreds,
of men, women and children trying to sell us jade bracelets and necklaces or flutes of every register or shawls or towels or aprons or just stuff. They just wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and while the little kids were cute for a while, they became a constant nuisance. I guess it comes with the territory.

After a delightful lunch we went to a nearby coffee farm to learn more about their
product, and picked up some gifts to take home with us. We got back to the ship
about 6:00 after a long but fascinating day in this old city, and began to make
preparations to leave for Costa Rica.