Antigua, Guatemala

After 30 hours of travel we are very safe and happy in Antigua. We had a minibus ride not to be matched by any of my previous experiences. It was really fun if you just went with it and didn't worry about dieing all the time. This guy took lessons from race car drivers, who don't have turn signals or lanes either.
He did drop us right at the door of a hotel we picked out of the guidebook and really like. With firm beds, clean rooms and banos, hot showers, free internet and purified water its a bargain at $14 a night. Not the cheapest digs in town, but a comfortable place to recoup, and we figure the $ we save on water and internet cafes will make it a wash.
Antigua is stunning, all cobblestone streets, architecture from the 1700's half of it in ruins from 1800's earthquakes, surrounded by jungle covered volcanoes. We watched a lightning storm behind the tallest o f the volcanoes tonight after an amazing misty sunset. The topography in this part of Guatemala is stunning, jagged and wild.

This morning we went to the marcado, which had hundreds upon hundreds of stalls selling everything you could want. We bought some avacados, tomatoes, watermelon, lime and oranges all for about 3 bucks. We have a kitchen at our casa so we made guacamole for lunch and ate on the small patio. In the morning, we saw several of the local churches. The one you see with no roof was destroyed by an earthquake in 1778 and they are slowly repairing it.

Antigua is an interesting town. In the vegetable market there were many native people who grow veggies out in the country, yet I saw one of them on a cell phone. You can also buy red delicious apples from washington there! There are several restaurants advertising free wireless and almost every place has an internet cafe. One of the biggest curiousities are the many gringo couples walking around with Guatemalan babies, I counted about 12 yesterday. I haven't seen any gringos with Guatemalan kids so I am assuming it is easy to adopt here.

The vendors in the central park are relentless. Many of them are small girls in beautiful native costumes. They are really fun to practice spanish with and most know english well. They have learned our names, so as I walk through the square I hear ''Christy! Buenos dias!'' They have some funny lines and amazing guilt tripping skills. They like to say, ''the husband will buy. the husband is the bank. and business is business'' So far I have resisted, but may have to buy a small token from Florie, the cutest and best guilt tripper of them all.