Guatemala 3 - Flores, Antigua and swimming in the Pacific!

Alright, I have a couple of minutes before I get picked up to get to the airport, but I am uploading the last - promise! - batch of pics from Guatemala!


On our way from the pyramids to this fantastic little town called Flores, which was on a little island in a fabulous jungle lagoon.


I CAN WASH MY CLOTHES HERE .. IN NORWEGIAN!!! So weird to encounter that in the middle of the jungle..


Props to my Maya ancestry.


A typical Spanish colonial-style church.


Flores..


Means..


Flowers! As exemplified by this fruity tuk-tuk!


We then took a little boat around the little lagoon, with the most awesome-looking ferry-guy I have ever seen. He was all Maya, which is pretty cool.


A canoe, people.


Flores.


Flores.


And Flores.


Jungle fun!


It was like being on the amazon!


Because the amazon is amazin' (OK, blatantly I have no time to think of anything to write here.)


Jungle.


Sun.


Ramon.


So, I liked this poster. The English one is cryptic: Sorry for our temporary-ness. The Spanish one, however, means: "Sorry, this is being rebuilt while we molest." Like, wow!

Then, later in the evening, we went to this funky old town called Antigua, which was the first capital of Guatemala, but abandoned after a number of strong earthquakes.

As you can see, this is an area with some volcanic activity, to put it mildly. This is the view from outside our awesome hotel.


Then the little breakfast restaurant, shaped very colonially and awesome!


I, for once, enjoyed having breakfast after a late night.



A door in Antigua.


A church in Antigua.


A laundromat in Antigua. Seriously, this is where one traditionally cleaned one's clothes back in the day, which I thought was hugely awesome.


Funky buses were everywhere, spewing out volcanic amounts of black smoke.


This is what a Guatemalan license plate looks like.


The University of Antigua, the first university of the Americas.


The university's seal.


Oh yes! When I see a little kitschy exotica, I can't NOT take a sleazy picture! At least I'm not in a ladies' room at this point!


Ruins of a church, which was destryed during a great earthquake in the 1700s.


Details of the ruin.


This is what I'd look like with wings. So, Thor the condor, or something.

Funky dolls!


This is just MOMENTS before we take a swim in the Pacific ocean! It is my first swim in the ocean for almost 2 years! The water must have been in the 80s, it was absolutely phenomenal.

OK, NOW I am seriously off to the airport. Have a good week, everyone!