Day 10 – Wednesday, March 27, 2019 Santo Thomas, Guatemala

When we woke we were still on our way to Guatemala.

We had breakfast in the Terrace Cafe. Jim had fruit, eggs and brioche. Patricia had muesli with strawberries and blueberries and a donut. We sat at the Terrace Cafe and the rain came down and we watched as we pulled into the Port of Santo Thomas in Guatemala.

Our tour today is a Trolley Town Tour. We rode in a unique trolley from the Port of Santo Thomas through the simple streets of Puerto Barrios which is the nearest town.

Our guide, Fernando, told us history and information about the area. He was also a history teach on the weekends. He talked for an hour which was the length of our tour.

Guatemala has the same area as Tennessee with over 16 million people. The main business is agriculture of which Starbucks buys as much coffee beans as they can produce and Walmart takes 80% of their bananas. The people were friendly but the country is still Third World with dilapidated buildings. Because we came in on a cruise ship Fernando told us that we are considered celebrities visiting their city.

We stopped at a local graveyard which Patricia loves to take pictures at although we didn’t get out of the trolley we were on a good side to take pictures. The graves were very colorful.

We got back to the port and shopped in the handicraft market.

Everyone was so nice and trying to sell their crafts. They would put them in your hand which I think they thought would make you buy them. They said their mothers and sisters worked to make weaving and jewelry. Beautiful work.

Jim found a group of girls that were dancers and charmed them.

We had lunch on the Waves Grill Patio table number 10. We ordered a hamburger and french fries and split it. They were so adamant that we know our table number so it could be delivered to us.

At 4:30 PM we went to an Enrichment Lecture with Donald Goldsmith: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

We tried to watch Thatcher’s baseball game and we were able to see him get hit by a ball and walk to first base and he got to third base and his team had scored 5 runs so the inning was over. The Dodgers lost 11-7.

At 6:30 PM we left the port. We had a band and dancers (The sane girls that had posed for a picture with Jim) saying goodbye. It was interesting how we backed out sideways from the pier.

We went to the Terrace Cafe for dinner. Jim had a Caesar salad, veal cutlets, crab legs and mashed potatoes. Patricia had spaghetti with garlic, onion and chili peppers. For dessert Jim had strawberry ice cream and Patricia had lemon meringue pie.