Fours Days in Antigua

The City of Antigua

Had a great dinner there at our hostel the first night.  I recommend the veggie baguette and a Gallo beer at the Black Cat www.blackcatantigua.com.  Then we took a stroll down the cobblestone streets.  It appears that our hostel is one of the few loud hot spots in town.  It was the party place until 10:30pm when everyone went to sleep.  We had hoped to meet up with TravBuddy DanChapman there, but missed each other. 

Another good recommendation is the Tipico breakfast at the Black Cat.  It is a buffet on a plate.  It includes cheese, beans, avocado, bread, eggs, and tomatoes.  While the Black Cat hostel had great food, we also ate on the street some.

  Had some great tostados made by a lady hanging out next to La Merced church.  Daily ice creams were had at various places, but we got excited whenever we found a Sarita which was just about everywhere.  Cafe Condessa is a great place to have local Cafe con Chocolate or Chai Tea Latte with a dessert.  Kinda pricey as it is in the main square where tourists hang out, but the atmosphere is great by the fountain in the courtyard.  Although we didn't eat there, the smell of cinnamon pan was great at Dona Luisa near the park.  Had to stop in there not only for the smell, but to take a peak at the location where the woman from my book Tales of Female Nomad (thanks TB World Citizen for the great recommendation!) met up with other ex-pats.

Antigua is a very cute colonial town.   I would tell you more about it, but stupid me accidentally left  my Lonely Planet on the shuttle.  There went our reference guide!  Luckily we ran into Bo Dancer on our evening stroll and he would become our information resource.  He pointed out to us that you can tell which crew laid the stones on different streets based on the patterns.  Bo is a hippie man living on the streets who Luis had  met a few months ago in San Cristobal de las Casas.  He is a crazy looking man who was doing a crazy thing when they met.  He rescued a bird that was having trouble flying.  He spent a few hours massaging this bird and twisting its head before it was able to eventually fly again.   Anyway, Bo told us that we should get up early to hike up to Cero de la Cruz (hill with a big cross on it)  for a great view of the city and volcano.   We did just this and it was a great start to our first morning in Guatemala.  We got lost quite a bit on our walks also.  It took me a few days to finally realize that the street sign that said Una Via was not the name of the street, but was telling me it was a one way street.  Everytime we were lost, I would say that we were heading the right way because we were on Una Via.  There are a lot of Una Vias here!  Luis is into learning by discovery, so he never clued me in...just laughed to himself.  I finally realized the problem when I got to Doble Via street!

There was a very good exhibit on Columbian and Argentine torture survivors in one of the museums there.  I am kinda into those things.  Not for everyone though.

  Luis hung out in the courtyard reading our newly purchased Lonely Planet.  Found an art gallery that had what appeared to be fake Botero paintings (my favorite artist from Colunbia.)  But, I soon learned that they were made by a famous Guatemalan who has a similar style.  They have a nice name for the style... expansionist or something like that.  I call it chubbyism.  They paint very round people.   Another great place to check out is Convento Santo Domingo.  What a beautiful place!  Silvia (Luis' friend we spent one morning with) took us there to see the interesting art, old ruins, beautiful flowers, and parrots everywhere.  You can stay there for just $599USD per night.  That is alright.  We will stick with our $7 rooms,  thanks.   Spent a lot of time hanging out in Central Park too.  A kid about 7 years old came up and asked me if I wanted my shoes shined.  I said no.  Then he asked me if I wanted to buy some weed.  7 years old!  Crazy!  One night it was a very cool scene in the park when the thunder and lightening storm put the  lights out temporarily. 

Another thing we noticed is that the men here have very big shoes.  Long shoes.  We were told it is because they are poor and get hand me down shoes.  I will take their word for it.

Language Barrier

I got very frustrated early on with my lack of ability to communicate in Spanish.  Although our shuttle bus friends are not all from Spanish speaking countries (Germany, France, Korea, Hawaii, Ohio), they had no trouble talking in Spanish.

  I understood about 60% of what they were saying, but I could not get myself to attempt to speak back because I take too long to find the right words to try to form a broken sentence.  What happened to that travellers code that you speak in the language that everyone in the group understands?  Well, not here.  This is the place where there is a Spanish language school on every corner.  People come here to learn and use their Spanish.  So, after a little encouragement I am slowly trying to speak a little.  But, I definitely need to come back for a longer period of time to immerse (as they say) by going to school 4 hours a day and live with a local family who won't let me speak English.

The World According to Bo Dancer

We spent a little time with Bo Dancer each day.

  He could either be found in El Parque Central or at Cafe 2000.   Central Park is a great spot to people watch.  Cafe Dos Mil is a great concept.  They have movies playing in there all day for free.  Nice cushy chairs.  You just pay if you want to by food or drink.   Good place for a homeless and cheap travellers to hang out.

We decided to invite Bo to lunch one day.  He took us to a great rooftop location off the tourist streets.  There we got to see photos of his past as a timeshare salesman from Sedona, Arizona.  He wore fancy suits.  Now he is a proud Rainbow Person surviving on the $600 a month check he gets from the US government.  He got on a roll about survival and how we need to all bury seeds in a location in the mountains instead of putting money in banks or we will all be sorry in a few years.

  This got another American runaway at another table in on the converstaion.  He is from Long Beach, CA but is now living in the jungle about 45 minutes from Antigua.  We believe that he grows drugs out there based on his reaction to our question about how he survives.

Bo later introduced us to one of his disciples.  A nice 15 year old kid named Chris.  His parents retired in Antigua about 6 years ago from New Orleans.  The kid walks around barefoot and with many anklets as Bo does.  They smoke pot together in the park, but not when we are around out of courtesy.  

Throughout our stay Bo gives us advice on what to see and do for very little skittlebirds (what he calls the local money named after a bird.

)  He doesn't just direct us, but he takes us there and introduces us. This guy would be a good hotel worker or tour guide.   More about Bo Dancer can be found at www.MeetingOfTheWays.com or look for Rainbow Family of Light on UTube.  He says that is where you will find all his juicy friends.

Volcan Pacaya

Although there is no public transportation to the volcano, that didn't stop us from trying to find an alternative way there.  After warnings of bandits if you go it alone, we decide to pay the going rate for a tour.  50 skittlebirds for the shuttle ride plus 40 for entry and a guide plus 2.5 for a walking stick purchased from a local kid plus 25 for the flashlight that really isn't necessary.

  Everyone told us the the afternoon hike is better.  We left at 2pm, drove for 1.5 hours, hiked 5 kilometers total, and returned by 8:30pm. 

We were followed up the trail by kids on horses hoping we would get tired and finally take up their offer for a taxi or tuk tuk ride.  ha ha  There were some nice people in our group including a couple from New Orleans and the trying to get over a divorse Marco from Florida.  We were all amazed when after crunching on lava for a while we came across actual hot flowing lava.  I have never seen or felt the heat like this.  There is no way in the US they would let you get this close to something like this.  Very cool and sometimes scary!  Some guys actually brought some marshmellows and roasted them over a lava hole.

Chicken Bus to Dirty Pool

We had heard that there were some thermal hot springs about 8 km from Antigua.  So, we jumped on one of the very fancy hot rod looking chicken buses for 50 cents to San Antonio after purchasing 5 mangos at the local market for $1.50.  The chicken bus was way more comfortable than the shuttle bus. 

I really liked San Antonio and San Andres where the hot springs supposedly were.  They are no longer there since the earthquake.  We walked through this sleepy puebla and were greeted by everyone we passed.  There were no tourists in site.  I thought this might be a nice place to live for a month of so to really learn the language.  We eventually were directed to a home with a park in the backyard.

  We paid 15 Q to use the pool.  But, when we saw how dirty it was we decided just to lounge under a tree, eat our mangoes, and play on the swingset.    That is until we got attacked by a dog with vampire eyes.  This was a very smart dog.  Luis tried to trick it into following him to the other side of the gate and then he slammed the gate shut quickly.  The dog showed him though.  He immediately ran around to the other side of the fence and through another gate and made a beeline for me.  I was so scared I screamed.  Then the dog just veered off and laughed at us.   

We decided to sit in different seats on the way back so I could have a chance to speak with a local in my broken Spanish.  Lucky for me it ended up being a 10 year old girl rather than some adult who might get annoyed with my attempts.  Faviola gets to go to Antigua once a week with her uncle's girlfriend.  This trip was to buy towels.  She was a sweet girl who liked the mariposa I made for her out of pipecleaners.  We are making our way through Guatemala giving out pipecleaners to kids.  Well, I am giving them out.  Luis is actually making me laugh non stop when he wears them in different ways... like cat whiskers or devil horns on the bus.   Faviolas almost aunt Lesbia is a room attendant at a hotel.  She makes 1600 Q per month.  Divide that by 7 for what it would be in USD. 

For a moment we thought we were being banditized when we heard a loud bang from the back of the bus.  It was just some guys getting on through the back door with a big bag of rocks.

The Salsa King

Tired of listening to an Isreali girl outside our window loudly explaining to a group of guys from various countries how to solve the world's problems, we decided to get out one night.  We heard that Club 35 near the arch had a salsa band on Wednesday nights.  So, we hit the town at 11pm to check it out.  This town gets out a lot earlier though.  There was still some diehard salseros when we showed up though.  We enjoyed the live music and watched several couples dance.  Just as I am embarrassed by my Spanish, I was not ready to show my lack of salsa skills right away either.  So, after we critiqued each dancer Luis' partner was selected.  I had never seen Luis actually dance, so I was looking forward to it.  I had teased him before about how I imagined the whole room stopping as in a scene from Saturday Night Fever.  So, I was laughing my arse off when that is pretty much what happened.  He and his partner (also a salsa dance instructor) had the whole place watching, cheering, and applauding.  I could not believe it.  He was embarrassed.  I was so proud to be strolling back down the cobblestone streets home to the Black Cat with the King of Salsa.  LOL