We've been reporting all this week from the 43rd General Assembly in Antigua, Guatemala. The meeting finished last night at midnight with a press conference – and the final outcome is the passage of a number of resolutions and the Declaration of Antigua.
And, Belize will have to remain focused on Antigua going into next week – that's because Belize's national football team, the Jaguars are playing an international friendly in that venerable city. Jules Vasquez was there most of this week – and here are his reflections on the city and the meeting it hosted.
Jules Vasquez reporting
From Belize City to Antigua, Guatemala, really it's just a straight southwesterly line spanning 250 miles. But only birds get to fly that route, for the earthbound, it's 400 miles and a 9-hour drive by road.
We opted instead to go by air, first via Tropic Air from Belize to Flores, Peten, a 45 minute flight which took us across the broad expanse of the Lago Peten Itza,. In Flores at the Mundo Maya International Airport we hopped unto a Guatemalan carrier, TAG for another 45 minute flight which flew us via turboprop into Guatemala City where we landed at night in a city that looked to be lit by fireflies.
From there we traveled by taxi the 23 miles to Antigua Guatemala. It's one of the oldest cities in Central America, the name Antigua itself is Spanish for 'ancient'. And indeed, every street looks like it's been lifted from some 16th Century European painting.
In the early 1500's, the Spanish Empire designed Antigua as the Capital of what was then called the Kingdom of Guatemala -an administrative division that covered much of Central America, including, notionally at least, Belize.
Ruinous earthquakes undermined the city, and eventually it had to be abandoned as a capital. Today it is a mecca for tourists and a monument to antiquity, in fact the entire city has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
And even as the imperious Vulcan de Agua watches ominously over it, Antigua seems in no hurry to lose its identity again, it's stone streets and saint soaked cathedrals made the city a suitable setting for a gathering of the Leaders of the America's this week. The colonial past set in sharp contrast against the modern leaders trying to shake things up for the current empire and its so called war on drugs.
Big matters, but one gets the sense that it didn't matter too much in this ancient city, where, after centuries, they've learned to move the beat of their own drum.
Belize's national selection plays in Antigua on Tuesday.