Antigua

On Friday, January 15th, our group from CSB|SJU left Xela for the city of Antigua, a city renowned for it's history, architecture, ruins, and tourism. I've heard it referred to as "Gringo Central," the "Capitol of Tourism," and more of the like.

But the city is by no means inauthentic. It has a rich culture of its own, as well as several natural attractions (e.g. a volcano with lava you can roast marshmellows on) that make it a natural draw to travelers. This has the added benefit of enhanced security in the city, which has its own "Tourist Police Force."

We arrived in Antigua on Friday night. Before settling in at our hotel, we stopped by Common Hope, an organization dedicated to children's education. Started by Minnesotan natives,

Common Hope has proven to be a capable organization with the flexibility to add to and reduce its mission and adapt to new challenging situations.

The organization learned in its early stages that putting a kid in school won't do much if they have no home/home life. Thus, a new component was added: Common Hope builds homes for the families of the children it supports. There are no handouts, however. Families are required to earn what they receive--typically through working at Common Hope for individual family-specified hours. For example (don't quote me on this), a single mother with a young child might have to log 40 hours of service to receive a house, and an extended family of 10 may have to log nearly 500. Learn more about Common Hope and how you can contribute here: http://www.commonhope.org/ourwork/index.htm. Having toured their Antigua headquarters and critically analyzed their work, I have faith that the organization is doing good things.

Icaro Tours, the tour agency at Celas Maya (our language school), hooked us up with transport and excellent accommo- dations. After throwing our bags in our rooms, we had a delicious dinner at Las Palmas. But after another day-and-a-half in Antigua, I learned that coming across delicious food is not a challenge.

After dinner, we hit the town. There's a main drag running north and south in Antigua (if you're ever there, you can use the volcano to the south of the city as a reference) that passes by Parque Central and hosts a number of bars and shops.

Geno, Becky, Billie and I went to an Israeli bar named Gaia and relaxed over drinks and a hookah (strawberry flavor) in our own private "tent." Afterwards, the other 3 hit the discoteca and I ran into a group of young El Salvadorians that have their own drum corps. I accompanied them to a bar a few blocks off the main drag and watched them perform 3 sets. They're definitely one of the coolest live acts I've seen. The bar was full of ex-pats and backpackers from all over the world, but primarily Europe. I had some nice conversations with a few Germans. I went to the Parque Central around 1:00 A.M. to meet up with Geno, Becky and Billie and go back to the hotel. Before they got there, though, I met a large group of locals who taught me some good slang terms. We all agreed we'd meet in the park again the next night.

Then we went to bed.

We woke up for a group breakfast the next morning around 9:00. The bulk of the rest of the day was spent running around Antigua trying to see all the churches and ruins on the list given to us by our trip leader, Brother Dennis. It was truly a quantity over quality endeavor, which was a bummer. But we did get to see some cool sights.

Back in the day, Antigua was essentially the focal point of Central America. It was home to the Church, and therefore lots of churches and "residences" (palaces). Then, in 1872, the city got rocked by an earthquake and most everyone just took off, leaving ruins in the wake. The open air cathedrals were especially cool in relation to the closed cathedrals we saw on the same day. The girls I was touring with and I had lunch at a small cafe on their terrace that had a great view into the cathedral in the photo on the left.

I spent the whole day exploring the city, opting out of a nap to get more out of the city. It was

fun to walk around, and when not walking, to watch and meet other people. I met an ex-pat from Tennessee who owns a small trade-in bookstore, and he gave me the name of a good, affordable place to eat dinner. Of course, for us Americans, almost nothing is un-affordable in Guatemala. Everything's super cheap. Anyway, I took his suggestion of a place to eat, and was glad I did, as were the other people who joined me there. I'm spacing the name of the place, but it was something lame like "Travel Menu," and it specializes in western (Asian) food. It's owned by some Dutch guys. The food is great, and comes in large portions at a good price, which was great after a full day's worth of walking.

We went out again after dinner, I caught some more of the El Salvadorians and then joined the rest of the group at a discoteca. A large number of us (about 10) finished the night at Gaia, again with the hookah.

Sunday was our last day in Antigua. We took the day easy, lounging around, hitting up the

market and taking a slow lunch. Geno and I ate at a cool place called Sky Cafe, which has three levels (including a rooftop terrace with a decent view of the city) and good food. And delicious mojitos. Over lunch, I told Geno about a guitar I spied in a store the day before for 350

Quetzales (about $40). We decided it was a good investment. So after lunch, before jumping on the bus back to Xela, we made the purchase.

And, as you may know from the last post, we sold the same guitar a week later (for a 10Q profit, no less!).