December 27- Santo Tomas de Castillo

After dinner last evening both Ella and Christopher were exhausted, so Kathryn put them to bed and went to sleep herself. We had a great visit with Will as he recounted the day’s activities. He ordered room service and had his nightly snack and was off to bed.

Today we are in port in Santo de Tomás de Castillo on the east coast of Guatemala. Interesting that one information sheet has Castillo and the other has the spelling Castilla. Couldn't find out why- except maybe someone made a mistake....but which one?  We are in Amatique Bay. The area was settled in the 19^th Century by Belgian pioneers. The spectacular Mayan ruins of Tikal are nearby. The ancestors of the Maya gave up hunting, fishing and gathering at some point before 2000BC and began growing crops. Corn was the reliable staple that allowed the great civilizations of what is now Mexico and Central America to develop, and the Maya inhabited a large area. Their civilization was still in existence when the Europeans arrived in the early 1500’s. The Spanish conquered the weak and divided Maya and took control of present-day Guatemala in 1524. The country gained independence from Spain in the early 1820’s and became a republic in 1847.

This port was the primary base for the Guatemalan Navy in the 1960’s but has only been a cruise destination for about 8 years. It is a busy port with many small boats around the harbor.  We are the only cruise ship in port so the area is somewhat quiet. Our view is out to the water and a small jut out of land. The port side is a busy commercial port filled with lots of containers. 

We are enjoying our spacious suite. We are really glad that is how it finally turned out because it makes it much more comfortable for hanging out…of course it isn’t like the Penthouse we had this summer but doubt that ever happens again. The living area has a big sofa and two fairly comfortable chairs. There are lots of drawers and cabinets for storage. The bar area is nice and the dressing room is really a large with lots of closets.

The pool area of the ship is a very popular spot with ping pong, big sized chess game and hot tubs too. We went there was a burger for lunch- tasty time!

Naturally there are vendors at the pier selling the usual local crafts. Jim wandered out but returned with out a purchase.

This is definitely the lazy way to spend a week.