Day 9- Part II

First stop:  San Pedro de la Laguna.  A hippie town, lots of gringos who have come here and set up shop- massage and natural healing and all that kind of stuff.  We got lost in the town, which was great because we ended up far from the touristy strip of gringo jewelry makers selling woven and beaded bracelets.  Very quiet, slow feel to this place.  I can see why the gringos stay.  

   

 

 

 

Next stop, Santiago Atitlan. A larger village, tucked away in enclave in the lake (a bay?), between two volcanoes (San Pedro and Toliman). This was a little busier of a town, more vendors waiting for visitors, overall not as quaint and not as inviting. We went to the church, walked around, had a cup of coffee and ran into friends (!), but were ready to go.

  

   

On to the final stop- San Antonio Polopo. Precious place. Very small, completely empty of visitors- there was one other boat docked. And the people seemed to be living life there without completely focusing on the tourists. Up a steep hill to the church, which we could see from far off in the lake- bright and shining.

  

 It struck me here that there were people (and especially kids) enjoying themselves. There were people swimming off the dock. There were three little boys on the see-saws. And as we were walking down a steep hill, there were two little boys laughing and playing- they had a plastic banner from a bar (Gallo- the local beer), and one would sit on the banner while the other would pull him down the hill. A makeshift sled on a small hill- the entire trip took 5 seconds. And they would walk back up the hill with the banner. Over and over. And all the while giggling. It made me laugh just to see them enjoy themselves so much!

 

   

I loved this place. In Panajachel, I bought a little something from a girl who was selling handmade crafts. She looked so precious, and she was just 9! She spoke like the ladies- with a slight whine when they are trying to convince you to buy something to help them out. And she was a little mini-adult, telling me how she had worked so hard to make this or that. Anyway, in San Antonio I got to see kids playing! I loved it.

Day 5- las ruinas

More on the ruins. I am excited that I have the afternoon off to go visit more ruins. I was thinking of going to visit el volcan Pacaya, but for the first time, it has been cloudy all day with showers now and then. So, I am free to walk around the old churches and monestaries.

Yesterday I went to Las Capuchinas. Yes, of course, because of the name, I was destined to love it. But I cannot, not even with pictures, explain how stunned I was. It's an old monestary where nuns would live, never leaving the grounds of the monestary. It was a pretty large place to visit, but imagining myself there for more than a day or two is definitely suffocating.





Anyway, they are renovating the cathedral (again, pictures at some point). You can see the nuns' rooms, little cells off of a central, round courtyard (I ran out of batteries at this point.).




One more thing- they do not rebuild all of the things that come down in earthquakes. Just the front facade of La Cathedral de Santiago has been renovated, the back left as ruins that can be visited. Very cool!!

Day 5- things I like

Things I like about Guatemala:

- There are flowers everywhere- in the bathrooms, in the bedrooms, in the streets, in the cracks in the ruins. I see people walking down the street with cut flowers wrapped in newspaper to take home- it doesn't seem to matter what economic class the people are from.





- If people sit down at a table next to you at a restaurant, they greet you with Buenas Tardes or Buenas Dias.
- Because all the streets of Antigua are cobblestone, nobody can drive very fast. So, you aren't really scrambling and trying to get through traffic. Besides the fact that there are relatively few cars around here, people stop for cars and cars stop for people. Novel idea for us Arabs.
- The ruins. I'm not a huge fan of archeology or old ruins, etc., meaning that I like to see them, but I am often not moved by them. These ruins move me. I don't know why exactly. Maybe it's because the architecture is uncovered, the walls are removed, the coats and covers area pulled away, and the bones remain.

Day 4- wedding

Today I ended up a bride in a wedding ceremony during a demonstration in a nearby town named San Antonio de Aguas Calientes. I'll have to put up pictures, but they dressed us up in traditional clothes and explained the different designs on the clothes- all hand woven and embroidered- quite stunning.

      

  
The weather has been really great so far- El Pais de la Eterna Primavera (Land of Eternal Spring). Aside from an afternoon shower on Sunday, it has been sunny and pretty comfortable (even for me!). So far, so good.

Really, the pictures are the way to go here- I'll try to connect at some point and post them.

Had lunch with a new friend- from Denmark. A new buddy- yippee!!

Guatemala- Day 2

I've already settled pretty well into Antigua. I know my way around because it's set up in a grid with a big old volcano at the south, so you can't ever really lose your way!! Love that! And the streets are mostly numbered, so there's no real problem. It's a pretty small town (everything fits pretty much between 7 avenues and 7 streets, I think (some things on the outskirts), but it is very manageable.

Yesterday was Day One, and I was on my own. I am staying with a family, but Sundays are family days, and so they were on their own and I was left to my own

evices. So, I walked around, had breakfast at one garden cafe, had coffee and torta Chilena at another, and dinner at another! In between, I visited lots and lots of handicraft places and sat in Parque Central and just watched people go by.

A few things have struck me so far. One is guards at every store- the more valuable the wares, the bigger the guns. The second is that are a lot more American places here than I'd expected- not necessarily in Antigua, but coming from the airport we passed

hings like Little Caeser (I know everyone has Pizza Hut, but Little Caesar?)! And the electric outlets are not only shaped like those in the US, they are even 120 volts!! More US-influenced than expected.

But the people are definitely Guatemalan! More on that soon....