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Last stop: Antigua Guatemala


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Antigua was our last stop, at which I took a lot of deliberately artistic pictures of ruins.

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And coincidentally the location where we discovered that we had absolutely no desire to return to ‘western’ cuisine.

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This is the big church in the town square. We discovered that this is about 1/3 the size that it once was later.

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Main square…

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Antigua is just like Europe, but with more churches.

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The market.
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Musicians in the street.

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Deliberately artistic ruins photos start here.

Right, this is the main church in the central square, and they’re leaving the back half more or less like this.

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According to the guide, the little circles here are spirits of the people buried in the crypt wandering around. I think they kinda look like dandelions, but I can’t deny that there was a different feeling to this crypt versus the one in the Franciscan monastery. That one in there was really peaceful.

This one was kinda damp.

Deliberately artistic pictures resume.

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The Franciscan monastery, now a hotel. There’s a wedding being set up, hence the candles.

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I love this place because the new just kind of grows straight out of the old like a new shoot coming off of a stump.

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And here’s a very blurry picture of the Ossuary. Yes, that’s the floor. I counted about eight skulls, but a lot of femurs, and who knows how many people ended up in here.

The rest of the group was creeped out. I can’t say that I was, but the tour went on, and so shall we.

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Anyhow, nothing was planned for our last morning, and I didn’t want to go shopping, so I wandered off to take a tour of more ruins on my own.

Commentary, my mom: You what?

Anyhow, I was perfectly fine, because a) it’s Antigua b) I speak Spanish c) I kept my money in my shoe, and d) I had a rock in my purse.

I took far too many pictures.

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They’d made these ones into a garden of sorts.

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This set of ruins is also adjoined by a working church, and in this case a small museum. I followed their signs and took no pictures inside though.

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New set of ruins – this one was a convent.

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Yup. This is the only picture of me on the whole trip that doesn’t look fat (fatter than normal) and I actually lost three pounds while on this trip.

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No photos in this post were altered in any way except for cropping and resizing.

All right, so after all that, I made it back to the bus, had lunch, and we all headed out for the airport and came back to the US.

Since then, spring semester has resumed, and it’s back to the cold winter world for Scribbles.



TL;DR for the entire trip
When it rains in Guatemala, it’s because I’m awesome. It rains in Guatemala every day.
Boats get sick of me.
I can speak French… in Spanish.
When I bargain with street vendors, they try to give my friends discounts.
My majors are Life, the Universe, and Everything.
I not only speak dead languages, I bring them back to life.
Undertow carries me back to the beach and gives me a fruity drink with an umbrella.
All my shrimps are jumbo sized.
I am the most respected vintage worldwide for mosquito connoisseurs.
I will eat anything that holds still for long enough. However, my food is not always that patient, and attempts to jump into my mouth.
All stray dogs recognize me as their pack alpha.
Monuments photoshop themselves into my photographs.
Half-wild horses do not drag me away, they ask politely.
Volcanoes beg for me to climb them.
I have used a volcanic vent to light a torch. It was not overkill.
I do not need directions.
I can track down a museum by its smell.
I have the most awesome symbol of the Maya Zodiac.
Airport security lets me keep honey, which is definitely a liquid.
I am…
The Most Interesting Girl in the World.

Date: 2012-03-02 02:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] medleymisty.livejournal.com
I love the Most Interesting Girl in the World little poem thing!!!

And whatever. You are not even fat. I think you're lovely.

The pictures! OMG the pictures! I loves them! So much!

That was my first thought about the spots - I've hung out on the ghost-y bits of the internet quite a bit, as you can imagine, and it's a popular theory among those who believe in ghosts.

The church is very beautiful, and omg the gardens with the candles! I want to live there.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about your trip and looking at all the pictures. It made me all happy and also now I think I'm even more attached to you, so there! :)

Thank you for sharing all of this with us. I appreciate it. *hugs*
Edited Date: 2012-03-02 02:49 am (UTC)

Date: 2012-03-02 02:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scribal-goddess.livejournal.com
Yeah. As a scientist, until I understand what the spots are, I'm classifying them under "interesting and beautiful phenomenon." The ghost story is cool, though.

The first church is in rather good shape (despite the ceiling being gone) whereas they made a hotel out of the monastary, because several people want to live there too. Actually, our tour guide told us that the place used to be the city's garbage dump (at which point I was like 0.0) and that the reason some of the walls are so well preserved is because it was about 10 feet deep in garbage, which the current owners carted out in order to restore/build a hotel there. I kind of like this option better than some of the rebuild-type restorations, though what I really wanted to do was go back down there with a trowel and a toothbrush and do some archaeology. Of course, that's the environmental scientist and the archaeologist in me coming to an agreement which will probably shock some other classics majors. :)

Yeah, that "most interesting girl in the world," thing started as a family joke, because me and my brother both tend to do a lot of awesome things. I can't claim inspiration - it all started up after we saw the "most interesting man in the world" beer commercials and we started figuring out some of the awesome things that have happened to us as individuals or a family.

You're welcome. I really wanted to do the trip justice, and that meant pictures! I had over 900 after I cut out all the ones that got stuck to my lens cap or got blurry from humidity. Glad I could make your week better. :)

Date: 2012-03-02 03:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] medleymisty.livejournal.com
I found this on a quick google - http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/digital-discussion-q/22557-those-infamous-digital-camera-spots.html

I thought I remembered reading that it had something to do with dust.

Grace is taking a photography class this semester. I could ask her if she knows anything, although she'd probably be more into talking about how hard it is to develop pictures.

Oh wow - that's cool about it being a garbage dump. I would have never guessed. I'm glad it was cleaned up.

I wanted to be an archaeologist at one point.

It's awesome that you do awesome things! :)

I'm not much of a picture taking type person, so I probably wouldn't have had so many pictures. Still though - you've inspired me. Maybe next time I go out into the world and do something I'll take pictures and post them and tell a story about it. My mother is coming down here for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Hmm....

I think the week will end much better than it began. Looking forward to a great weekend. I might write something for the main Idol game's topic, because omg do you know what it is?

"bringing a knife to a gun fight"

Yep. Man, why couldn't I have made it into the top five last week and be in the main Idol game this week? *sadface*

Date: 2012-03-02 09:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scribal-goddess.livejournal.com
Oh yeah, that sounds like a good topic. Go ahead and write it, I'm sure that it'll be great, even if it hasn't made it into Idol this week.

Photography is fun. :) Photography class in high school was great, but it is hard to develop the film, especially before you have a lot of practice at it. Don't overexpose your enlargements is the best advice I can give Grace.

Being an Archaeologist is the eventual goal. That or environmental science... still semi undecided as to a career path, :lol:

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