Guatemalan history

Day 7   Thursday, February 8, 2018    Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

We are in La Democracia to see the Olmec-inspired carved stones (our historian guide raved all day about the Olmec people, who preceded the Mayans, and he felt the Olmec were more important despite what the history books said). We also visited El Baúl to see a history museum and visit a ranch home. The guide talked non-stop about all things Guatemala!

On the bus ride to La Democracia we could see several active volcanos. We also passed by a professional time-trial bike race, going the other direction (toward the ship). Every quarter mile or so, another cyclist would be speeding down the road with his team car behind. Eventually we reached the town where the start was, and where all the cyclists were waiting to take their turn. I noticed many pro-team names, such as Sky and BMC. Later, I asked the guide if he knew what that race was, and he didn't.

No, this is NOT the bike race! When we departed the bus in La Democracia, I saw this form of transportation riding past us. The woman seemed pretty old riding back there.

This is one of about eight large head sculptures on display in the town square. They are from the Olmec Monte Alto culture, and are thought to have been carved in about 500 BC.

Janet is listening intently to our historian guide talk about the Olmec carvings, while another tour group in the background are ready to visit the church, which we did later.

Another one, which is not as rounded.

The locals didn't care about the tourists! Good for them. You can see an ear carving too.

Our guide, whose name was Dorian, loved telling us all the details of what we were seeing. We actually liked that, but it seemed others in our group were bored stiff.

Besides just head sculptures, there also were several "pot-bellied" body sculptures.

 Another full-body sculpture. This one has a rectangle on his upper chest. ??

Many of the Monte Alto sculptures are magnetic as well. Since certain distinctive patterns of magnetism recur with some frequency, they think that the sculptures were executed by artisans who were aware of these properties. If this is true, the Monte Alto sculptures deserve recognition as the oldest known magnetic artifacts in the world. Dorian was demonstrating this by hanging a pendant and letting it start swinging on its own. He kept saying it was magic!

Next to our central plaza was this marketplace. Just the daily merchants and their customers.

My photos inside the church were blurry, but I also liked this carved side door, with "Year of the Faith" written. While inside the church, we got to listen to about six choir members rehearsing a hymn.

 We then bused to our next town of El Baúl, and along the way we passed this meteor crater. It's on the other side of the rocky outer perimeter that you can see in the photo. 

This is inside the museum we visited in El Baúl. This area, at 1800-ft elevation, has more than 200 structures and 187 monuments dating from the late classic Mayan period, 700 to 900 AD. The museum had numerous pieces that Dorian the Historian (thinking of Marian the Librarian!) described in much detail. As expected, he attributed the greatness of the pieces to the Olmec, not Mayan, culture.

More examples from the museum.

Dorian is explaining the placement importance of these objects.

When we ended our museum tour, we walked a short distance to see a ranch house where people still live, but allow tours. Along the way, we passed other sculptures. I forget Dorian's explanation...

Across the street was this chapel, which we visited.

The interior had several ornate pieces.

Included in the chapel was this long carved platform, with carrying handles along each side. Nearby was a photo showing how it was used:

It is used as sort of a float in a parade would be, decorated with flowers and religious ornaments. Look at all the men carrying it! I see that the photo is dated Nov 28, 1992.

This is the only photo I took inside the ranch house. This part of our tour was just to show how a well-off family lived. We then bused back to the ship, with Dorian speaking the entire time in the mic about Guatemalan politics, culture, education, etc. Unfortunately, the people near us were talking about completely unrelated stuff, and it was difficult to hear.

As we were re-boarding the ship, this group entertained us. At most of our ports on this cruise, locals provided this kind of flavor of their country. Nice.

We had many hours before we departed, so we retrieved our computers from our stateroom and went back out to this area to get some wifi. We had to purchase something from the bar to get the password (for 30 minutes of connection), so we bought a Coke and Pringles. I had trouble with my connection, and had to go back to the desk twice to have them help me. Nevertheless, our connection died exactly 30 minutes from when they handed us the pieces of paper with the password!