Antigua - La Recoleccíon

Those were the last three pictures I took at these ruins. It was a very strange, beautiful day, weatherwise. We took the bus from Jocotenango into the Antigua terminal to run some random errands some drizzly, post-pouring morning. Though we had already passed them a dozen times by then, coming into the city we noticed these earthquake ravaged structures for the first time. We meandered around for a bit after disembarking from our bus...I wanted shots of the brilliantly painted U.S. school bus hand me downs, and there was some crazy blue patches of sky sticking out, making for nice backgrounds.

Mel's lip was swollen, because I accidentaly elbowed her in my sleep two nights prior. Oye...the domestic abuse jokes we got for that...

Then we finally paid our miniscule entry fee and squelched in. I love these pictures, but, as you usually have to tell people, they don't do the place justice. We spent about two hours walking/climbing around these ruins, every moment the view and sensation changing as the clouds alternately parted and returned, dispersed and regrouped.

This face was one of the first great things we saw

Pretty soon after walking through a grandiose, grassy courtyard we managed to scale one of the soggy walls and gain access to a new plethora of views.

Like this crying wall-face

And nearby Volcan Agua

All the colonial Catholic structures here show Mayan influence. One indicator is the Mayan arch, which unlike the baroque, Arab originated round arch, has sharp corners. Yay for syncretism.

This was the other half of La Recoleccion. I think part of what made these ruins so amazing was just how ruined they were. Somehow the outer walls stayed standing but the roof is now strewn in huge boulders all across the interior. It was huge, and however impressive cathedral interiors can be, the sky is far more awe inspiring, if you give it a minute of your time. So...we build a church and happen to knock off a few million insects in the process...no one notices...Mama Earth shifts about for a few seconds, re-decorates some roofs and destroys the capital city of a slave-based imperial power like an ant hill...so it goes.