Written on Monday but this is Sunday's Adventure
Monday Feb. 22, 2010
Volcano Thunder!
Feeling refreshed this morning I am ready to tell you all about our Sunday. By the time I returned to the apartment last night I was not in the mood to tell my tale. Today however, is a new day.
One thing I have to write about happened about 10 pm last night. If you have been looking at Don’s blog then you have seen the pictures of the Volcano Fuego smoking. Fuego is a active volcano and last night we heard a rumble like there was a factory going up in smoke but was actually Fuego. Our neighbor told us that when Fuego overflows it sounds like thunder. She also said it was the loudest incident she has heard from the volcano. There was another rumble about 1:15am which Don slept through but it was very minor.
Now before anyone gets concerned --- While we can see Fuego in the distance it is not as close as it looks and we are UPHILL from the volcano. That may not be much help if lava really starts spewing toward Antigua but from what we can tell it did not impact the local folks since we could find no mention of Fuego on the early morning news.
Okay now back to Sunday. We slept in late and lounged around thinking we would try to get to church at 10 am but as usual when you do that we left it a little late to start. So change of plans, check out the Cathedral in Ciudad Vieja which is the little village we live outside of and is said to be very poor. We walked. Why not - it just down the road. Well it is a very long road to this white church on the hill. As we walked we did see a small and very poor village. The people were friendly and greeted us with Buenos Dias when we greeted them. We found the church and were just in time for the 11 am Mass.
The church is beautiful on the inside. It has long rows of wooden pews and plastic chairs available for use as needed. We sat closer to the front so we can see and understand as much as possible. The altar was beautifully decorated for the first Sunday in Lent. With the improvement of our Spanish we are understanding more each time. The language of the church is different than the language you use outside of the church, there are unique words we have to learn. The priest was still wet behind the ears, in other words, a really young priest, but he had a presence and personality. He spoke clearly and engaged the people following the gospel reading. The people in the church were welcoming and we think we shall make the trip to this church each Sunday from now on.
After church we did not return to the apartment to rest and relax because that would just be silly. We headed off to find a bus to Antigua to hunt down the Mariposa garden. We found our bus and rode into town and got off in the general area that we saw the signage for the Mariposa garden. You might be guessing that we had yet another long walk and you would be right. We followed the signs and actually found the garden. Our improve Spanish made it possible to understand the Guide’s explanation of the stages of life for the butterfly. He had samples of two species in various stages. We understood that life is very short for the butterfly but that it lays a ton of eggs to allow the species to survive. After the presentation we entered the garden to view and try to photograph the butterflies which was extremely difficult. We spent well over an hour walking around in the enclosure of butterfly garden but we did not see a Monarch.
When we were ready to return to Antigua we waited on the street with other travelers for a bus to come our way. There is always a bus nearby if you wait. Don had planned for us not to cook anything at the apartment but we returned to early for dinner. Let’s take a hike! We walked to the Spanish courtyard were we put in a little time reading Spanish and enjoying the day. We could hear music but on a weekend in Antigua that is not out of the ordinary. As we left to hunt down dinner the “guard” at the door mentioned that there was a parade happening. We never caught up with the parade. We saw the crowds on the streets but did not see anything other than young folks in purple robes. After we ate we went to catch our bus and that’s when we saw the band and a part of the parade but we were behind it and the street was packed with people. It turns out that it was the first parade marking the beginning of Lent. We caught our bus and were dropped off in Ciudad Vieja to walk home. Not sure why we were let out there but the bus turned itself around and headed the other way. My guess is that there was money to be made as a result of the parade.
Once home we took our showers and Don tried to do his blog but our Internet connection was flaky. I just crashed---done for the day.
