El Castillo de San Felipe

While waiting for Guatemala to return to some semblance of normal (there were days when the bus companies didn't even bother opening, the roads and bridges were so out of commission), I decided to use one of the marina's free kayaks to check out El Castillo de San Felipe, a Spanish fort a mile or so upriver.

A pirates' eye view. A kayak pirate. Yarr.

Now, a word or two on kayaks. This was my first time using one, so I allow for the possibility that I'm just really bad at it and/or my particular kayak was lousy. That being said: WTF?! No keel? No rudder? Are these such complicated and mysterious technologies that kayaks can't make use of them? Whenever I started to build up a decent amount of speed, the kayak would begin to turn to the side. Not change direction, really, but rotate with regard to my direction of travel. Yaw, if you will. No matter how much I tried to correct by paddling on the same side as the yaw, it was impossible prevent the craft from eventually spinning out and losing all forward momentum.

What looked like it should have been a leisurely 10 minute paddle (I have plenty of experience in canoes, I know of what I speak) became a 45 minute slog under the boiling Central American sun.

On the bright side, the fort was pretty cool.

It's an imposing gate.

The main courtyard.

The kitchen/dining hall.  El Castillo would have been way cooler if there were more period furniture, explanatory material, etc.  Oddly enough, I didn't notice a box for complaints/suggestions.

Climbing up to the battlements.

The central courtyard from above.

The tower from which the pirates were spied and the guns used to reach out and touch them.

"Hold still for just a second.."

No pirates showed up that day, thankfully.

I was practically the only one there.  It was a ton of fun climbing all over the place, the sort of thing you could never get away with in a museum in the U.S.

Under the main gun battery was a "dungeon." It was mostly just dark and musty.  I think I've captured at least half of its essence here.

I guess your average soldier doesn't need much frippery to commune with God.

Must have sucked to man these guns when the pirates showed up. "Man, first platoon gets all the perks.. day shift, better food, walls to hide behind.  Lucky SOB's"