Diary for Peter and Terry's Adventures


Catching Up

2012-01-18 to 2012-01-26

Time goes quickly and slowly when you are sick. Both Terry and I came down with something last week - cold, snuffles, coughing - and it is finally improving. But we have still been busy.

John and Peggy arrived Thursday night and have kept busy ever since then. First there was the walk about town to orient them, and find the Bodegona, which has become almost the daily stop for essentials. Then there was another extended trip to the market for fresh produce, fish and fruit. Sorry, still no pictures as all hands were necessary to carry the bounty. We did manage to find La Central, which is the centre of the market where the best vendors of meat and fish have their stalls. Bought some wonderful (but unidentified) firm white fish - it was less firm than swordfish, but more firm than haddock. It could have been a variety of wahoo or kingfish. It fried up in a couple of minutes and was tender and flavourful.

On Saturday, there was a 6.3 earthquake offshore of Chiapas Mexico that was felt all the way to El Salvador. I was sitting at the dining room table, and the floor started to shift sideways and up and down very gently. No glasses rattled, no windows or doors swung around. Peggy was lying in bed and thought some heavy footed person was tromping around. There was an aftershock of 4.3 an hour later but we didn't feel it. While we were talking, we should have been looking at Fuego, as apparently there were rockfalls and some dust rising from the top. There was another quake this morning (4.4) 39 miles SW of Guatemala City and about 50 miles beneath the surface of the earth. We felt the tremor for a few seconds only. These small quakes are good, as they let the earth's crust adjust slowly rather than catastrophically.

John and Peggy went on a birding tour with the neighbours on Sunday, and said the place was enchanting and a great hike, but there were more birds and activity in our yard outside. (I don't have John's pictures yet.) Tuesday there was a walking tour of Antigua's historical sites. I was not up for it, so cannot give a report - there are a few pictures here.

Yesterday, Marianne and Wyllys took us to La Reunion to meet Gary and Carlos and see the fantastic house they are building. La Reunion is a development that includes separate lots for building, a condo development, a hotel, and a golf course with club house. It is on the side of a volcano, and the top holes and greens are 1000 feet higher than the lowest ones. I understand it is quite a challenge to drive a ball up hill and have it stay put when it lands! We had a great lunch there as well sitting outside overlooking the first and last holes. The day was unfortunately very hazy, so we didn't get the full view, which includes the Pacific off in the distance at about 30 miles.

In our walks around town we also discovered McDonalds, but they are missing the golden arches. This is probably because Antigua is a Unesco World Heritage site and the architecture is very controlled. I seem to remember a Burger King as well!