You're Not From Around Here, Are You?

We woke up the next day to a perfect morning. The sun was out, flowers were in bloom ...and breakfast was included with our rooms. I should point out here that the Poway Unified School District did one hell of a job teaching me Spanish. I had no problems at all ... if the conversation was limited to ordering breakfast. 'Small talk' with the locals about tourist things to do, how to get a shuttle to Guatemala City, etc?... yeah, not so much. But overall, my Spanish is getting better ...if we were staying another few months, it might just work out.

It took everyone awhile to rally, but it was a good excuse to relax a little in the morning. Then Brandy, Matt, Becky, Brent, Whitney, Jason, Kate and myself went out to do some sightseeing around town. Antigua is known as a bit of a tourist place because there are a number of Spanish Schools where folks much like yourself will enroll to immerse themselves in the culture and... get this, learn Spanish. But Antigua is also know for its churches. Many of them are in complete disrepair due to earthquakes and lack of funding. But the government has recently started to realize that there is a great deal of culture here in Antigua, and the money has started to... well, trickle in.

Jason was smart enough to do some pre- planning, and he was able to map out a good route for us to take around town. We hit up no fewer than a ten different churches ... churches that are now used as schools ... churches that have been turned into jails (which also happens to have the local boyscout meeting hall attached to it... yeah, I thought that was a little peculiar too). We ended up at 'La Recoleccion'. Its is...er, was a church, convent, mission, school and meeting place all in one until the earthquake wiped the whole thing out. The church/locals started planning the building in the 1600s. Construction took place in the early 1700s (which I'm told is incredible turn around for back then). Construction was completed and the church was inaugurated in 1717...about nine months later, 'the big one' hit and the whole complex became a piles of ruins. It was never used again (except as a backdrop for our photo) ...and if that ain't a 'sign', then I don't know what is.

Later in the day we hit up the local ice cream parlor. We also caught up with "Los 'los's" (Carlos y Carlos) who were out on scooters. They offered a ride, but something about: scooter + broken signal + no street lanes + no helmets + picture in my head of my buddy Joe after wiping out on a scooter in Indonesia + leaving wife behind = not a chance in hell. Later that night we met up with Rudy and Brenda (friends of Suzanne y Carlos) and had a great dinner at a place called Las Palmas (that's 'The Palms' for all of you English-only speakers). Then Kate and I crashed at the hotel so we could be ready for our early van back to Guatemala City.