Guatemala City

Monday morning November 23, 2015, finds our tour in Guatemala City.  This is the largest city in Central America but has a moderate climate due to its elevation, 4,900 ft.  It is in the highlands area of Guatemala.  Today the change of rain was noted at 30% at breakfast.  

We had a rather easy day today with our morning stop being Kaminaljuyu, City of the Death.  This name was given to this site in 1936 but has proven to be misnomer as this city has no direct relationship to death. Instead it was a sacred locale where rituals were practiced to communicate with the Lord of Creation.  Here ceremonies of thanks, petition and commemoration of special days of the Mayan calendar took place and still thanks place thanks to be Natural Park.  Shamans come here every day to do their rituals at one of the altars near one of the ceiba tree.  The cebu tree, according to Mayan teachings, represents distinct levels of the world.  It's branches represent the 13 levels of the heavens.  Its roots represent the 9 levels of the underworld and the surface represents the earthly level.

Kaminaljuyu’s location provided it significant prestige and power from its creation in 800 BC to 900 AD.  it was one of the earliest and most important Mayan sites.  Many technological advances were seen here such as the irrigation canals from Lake Miraflores.  Although this lake no longer exists, the Mayan marvelous irrigation and drainage systems are still not fully understood today but apparently worked flawlessly.  Alas, those systems are no longer and today the area floods during rains!  

In its latter years, Kaminaljuyu’s inhabitants suffered from the overuse and drying of the lake.  There also was some sort of a catastrophic event here which destroyed all their monuments.  It was during this time that an outside group took the opportunity to conquer the entire valley and Kaminaljuyu.

All the building and structures at Kaminaljuyu were created out of Adobe - so unearthing them is both tedious and complicated.  Only two structures have be excavated so far.  No one knows why the doors here are shaped like arrow heads.

Two of the best examples of the pottery found here.

Shamans still perform rituals at Kaminaljuyu most every day but they aren’t keen about having their picture taken.  Here is a colorfully dressed fellow performing some sort of ritual.  Our guide knows this fellow and ensures us he is a showman not a shaman!

Monday afternoon we did a very brief city tour.  Highlights are:

Private catholic church that is only used for paid events such weddings and christenings.  Church was build by a man who promised God he would do it if he survived a terrible volcano eruption in the early 1900s.  The man designed and built the church all between himself and his employees.  We are told by our guide that all the interior wood is all Mahoney.  Of course we couldn't see the insides for ourselves as none of us were getting married, etc.

The Torre del Reformador.  This structure is modeled after the Eiffel Tower but is less than a quarter its size.  Local legend has it being purchased from the San Francisco Golden Gate Exposition for $150K.  Trouble is that the tower was put up here in 1935 but the Exposition didn' occur until 1938 and 1939.

Downtown Guatemala City 

The main plaza in downtown Guatemala City.  Right now it is turned into a ice rink (foreground) and slide (background) for Christmas.

This was the Presidential Palace but now is a museum.  It borders the main plaza.  It had a light drizzle on and off during the day.  Still after we got back from city, I decided to take a walk.  This was a mistake as it started to rain harder and harder.  By the time I made it back to the hotel, I was pretty wet.  So much for the 30% chance of rain.

For dinner tonight we has a Guatemala Sampler Plate.  It was rather colorful but not overly to my liking.  I prefer Mexican food.