A Dying Cathedral! April 7

Today we hopped on another shuttle and headed back to Antigua. Our flight was leaving on Friday from Guatemala City and even the locals won't spent the night in the city, if they don't have to. Antigua was about 45 min from the airport and a natural choice to end the week.

We got into Antigua in the late afternoon. We checked into a beautiful hotel, Hotel Rustica.

It it one block from the main square. The hotel was wonderful. There's a cental courtyard that is a very nice way to relax in the afternoon. The hotel also had a pool table, kitchen, and four very sweet dogs. After checking into the room, we went to explore the city when there weren't a million people crammed into the streets.

We found a beautiful cathedral and paid 3 quezales (about 40 cents) each to get in. It was very deceptive. The facade of the cathedral was very ornate with lots of sculptures and paint. When we walked in, the roof was missing and it was heavily damaged. There were still remants of sculptures on the inside, but it gave it a really sad impression. The cathedral was being taken over by the outside world. Plants were growing up the side of the walls and the center of the cathedral had lots of grass growing in it. I think it made it even more beautiful than the facade. I could've stayed there forever. Apparently, a couple of hundred years ago, the church was heavily damaged by an earthquake and it was never rebuilt. It made me contemplate how short our human life really is.