Antigua, Sweet Antigua

The trip to Antigua began on Friday at 645 a.m. They picked us up at the Santander Plaza Hotel and we loaded up and went...All of the new teachers for my school. I was very excited to begin the journey. I had heard so much about Antigua and read about it, but I never got to see it with my own eyes. A colonial city right in Guatemala...wow. We arrived at Villa Colonial, and this is the view that I saw as part of my hotel. I was taking the picture from the end where my room was at. I was amazed at the architecture, the colors, the flowers, the plants, and the view through the city. We traveled down cobblestone roads. We arrived at the center of town and waited for our tour by Elizabeth Bell to begin. We were bombarded with lovely Mayan women trying to sell us their goods. I met Ruth as she told me "Dustin, you have money, help me with your money, you take my picture, but you no good man cause you no give money...Business is business..I no lie." I didn't want to buy anything right at the beginning as I was sure that they would try to charge a higher price because I was a "tourist." Sure enough, I was right.

Here Chris, Lauri, and I enjoyed the sites and just loved interacting with the locals. This picture isn't Ruth, but just a picture of some of the people. We began our tour with all of our teachers and others...Shannon, Dexter, Chris, Lauri, Zoe (sp?), David, the kids, my new director and his wife, and a few others. We went through cathedrals, government buildings, saw volcanoes in distance, and learned about jade, Guatemalan government, schools, housing, industry, etc. It was an extremely interesting tour of which I got so many amazing pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

We had lunch and returned back to the hotel for rest then a meeting about the do's and don'ts in Guatemala. After that we left for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Frida's...Wow! The food was amazing and the margaritas were even better. I returned back to my room to relax and get ready for an early morning shopping extravaganza.

On Saturday, we all woke up and hit the markets of Antigua. I found myself bargaining for Mayan blankets, rugs, paintings, and other stuff along with my boss and his wife. It was fun and I came out with some really cool stuff. In a future blog I will show it all as I am going to put it in my house.

We returned to Guate City after an amazing Guatemalan lunch which consisted of cheese fondue and I ordered a dish known as Sabun iq which combined pork, beef, and chicken in a tomato sauce. I was also a fan of the miniature tamales known as tomalitos.

I'm back in the hotel in Guate City and ready to move into my house in the morning. I'm going to get a 9:30 am start. I'll post more when I have more to say. I will never forget the ride home where one of my coworkers, who is from England, first grade sons said "You speak English so well, aren't you from Mexico." hahahah Oh Kids!

Take it easy.

Dustin