Antigua, the former capital of Guatemala, has frequently been hit by earthquakes, but especially the earthquake in 1773 left severe damages, and up to today, dozens of ruins of churches and convents can be seen throughout the city.
Antigua’s Central Park is home to a quite unusual fountain – four mermaids on each side of the fountain are spraying streams of water out of their breasts. The fountain, ‘Fuente de las Sirenas’ in Spanish, was built by Diego de Porres in 1738, who took his inspiration for the fountain from the Neptune Fountain in Bologna, Italy.
Semuc Champey is a series of natural ponds 300m (985ft) above the Cahabon river in the region of Verapaz in Guatemala. The natural limestone bridge above the rushing rapids below houses cascading pools connected by several mini-waterfalls.
Our Polaroid of the Week this week: The long way up – the climb up Cerro Negro volcano outside of Leon, Nicaragua before we lava-boarded down.
On our way to the canals of Xochimilco where we took a ride in one of the beautiful trajineras (wooden boats), we strolled through the main square where these three Mexicans were sitting on a bench watching the world go by.
The Zocalo in Merida is home to several shoe shine men and boys, as are most central parks or squares throughout Mexico and Central America. We stopped to talk to him because of that adorable (and very pregant!) black cat.