allow us to take you back a few days so we can recount to you our Antiguan adventures!
On saturday morning tom and I said good bye to our wonderful Guatemalan moms and headed out to find bus number 203. After watching two number 84 buses pass us by we figured that we must be standing at the wrong place and sought help from a man in a nearby tienda (store). After a few more sets of directions we ended up walking a good 25 minutes with very heavy back packs on to find out bus stop.
Eventually (after a bit of a crazy bus change) we ended up at Tikal Futura (A HUGE mall which SOD folk will all remember). We decided to grab some lunch there before embarking on our trip to Antigua (Guatemala's old capital city).
Getting on the chicken bus was also a bit hectic as i attempted to squash my huge back pack into the over head compartment (which was clearly too small to fit it). In the end the helpful money collector tossed our bags up onto the roof of the bus. While the bus was already close to full when tom and I got on it quickly enlarged its occupancy.
In less than 5 minutes tom and I found ourselves seriously squished onto a bus seat with another guatemalan man. (these buses are old school buses- who would have known that the seats were actually intended for 3- if not 4- people to sit on!)
It just goes to show that space is something we in North America are VERY picky about.
There appears to be no such thing as a personal bubble down here. Any inch of space is room for someone else to squeeze into- and if driving a bus is the way you make a living then you are going to squeeze just as many people as you can onto that bus!
On our ride we started chatting with a guy who is here in Guatemala working with the US peace corps. neat guy.
When we arrived in Antigua a man who works for the city's tourism agency came up and offered us free information (and it really was free!). He suggested that we stay at a hostel run by guatemalans so that we are supporting the local economy rather than staying at a place run by international people.
we found a great spot where we could stay for only $5 each per night with free water included.
it was a little muggy at times because there were no windows...and there was a cockroach incident one night...but the owners were great and there was a parrot named Arturo downstairs which was fun.
Antigua is a BEAUTIFUL city- and the pride of many guatemalans
It is an old colonial city with beautiful arcitecture, cobble stone roads, bright colours, and filled with ruins and incredible churches.
The very first thing we noticed when we walked into the city was the number of tourists
Antigua is DEFINITELY the tourist hot spot of Guatemala. While in Guatemala city i don't think we ran into another white person, here it was as if tourists out numbered the local population.
a very odd change.
(tom really liked the construction of the streets)
(this is the arch that Antigua is famous for- when people see photos of this arch they automatically know it's Antigua....or so i am told.)When i was in Bible school three years ago i spent almost every day for a month and a half in Antigua hanging out, checking e-mail, or wandering around
it was fun to take tom to the spots i had been before and to know good places to find banana bread or where to get cheap internet.
On our first night we went to a pretty hip restaurant for dinner
Tom says it was just like a place you would find on Commercial Drive- hippy folk, chalk board menu, live music, free internet, and a few yin-yang signs hanging here and there.
On our second morning tom and I went to one of the most lavish and exotic hotels we have ever seen. It is call the Casa Santo Domingo hotel and you can check out this link if you want to learn more about it. http://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt/
It is a five star hotel and one of it's claims to fame is that Bill Clinton stayed there a number of years back. It is a beautifully restored monastery still very ripe with history and culture. They have restored lots of the ruins and many tour groups stop here to take a tour of the property which includes a number of museums and art galleries, underground crypts, a candle making shop (the hotel uses over 5,000 candles a month!) and much more.
it was incredibly beautiful. wow.
Unfortunately the second day in Antigua was filled with less exciting activities which centered around nausea, upset stomachs, and frequent rest room stops. That night our "dinner" consisted of apple juice, chamomile tea and banana bread because both of us were feeling pretty under the weather.
The next morning David and Suzannah came to pick us up and whisk us away to El Salvador- but not before they went with tom to see Las Ruinas de las Capuchinas (a beautiful old convent). I was too ill to go so i hung out in the truck trying to contain my nausea.
Tom can write more about the ruins, but here are a few photos they took there. Suzannah thoughtfully carved "wish you were here" into a plant where lots of people had left messages.
I wish I had been there too.
unfortunately this computer is acting a little strange when i try and upload photos
so i am going to have to put all the photos of the ruins in a separate post....
so that is antigua
in a nutshell
we had more photos of our hostel and such but, alas, they are all on the memory card that is also acting up.
if we get it working we will put them on here too.
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