The Wanderings of busman7

hasn’t changed much in my 13 month absence.

Bounded by the government offices to the north, the cathedral to the east, the magnificent Palico de Captaines y Generals on the south & banks , shops the cafe Condesa & El Portal (the best coffee in the world), Pargue Central is still as beautiful as ever or perhaps even more so as it’s the rainy season & everything is greener. Rain usually comes for a couple hours in the evening or overnight, in my week here have only had a couple short showers in the afternoon.

The park is the focal point of life in Antigua as it’s pretty much in the center of town & is traversed daily by students going to & returning from school, a place for locals to relax, shoe shine boys plying their trade, the carriages patiently awaiting tourists to tour the town & of course a center of commerce (illegal) for the indigenous vendors selling their trinkets to the multitude of tourists that flock there to take a picture of the famous fountain in the parks centre. It’s also the center for community events most every weekend.

Most importantly it’s the meeting place of the growing ex-pat community where every morning business is conducted, information exchanged & of course the worlds problems solved! The weekly ex-pat get together at the Cafe Condesa still takes place where those not frequenting the park on a daily basis plus any visitors meet.

There have been some subtle differences in town, with 4 of the ex-pat community having passed on, hotels, posidas, opening/closing or merely changing ownership & names. However the good teachers are still giving lessons in a different venue or privately. Seems to be more of a demand for English teachers, as is the case the world over, so job prospects look bright.

As I was walking around the south end of town the other day figured I would take a stroll past my old apartment, as one of my neighbors had mentioned that he was going to move out of his 2 bedroom into it when I left & I wondered if he might still be around. Low & behold, as I approached the building he came out with a big smile & a hola, after a bit of catching up we went to the corner cafe, for lunch & a cervaza, where the waiter recognized me. At that moment I realized I had truly come home & decided that (providing a job is available) I will make Antigua my home base & do my further travels from my little slice of paradise!

With that decision made it’s time to get serious about the job search so I have put my name on a couple sites, gotten a cell phone with an Antigua # & ordered business cards. CV was done in Bangkok so it’s merely adding my picture to it & that’s taken care of. The printer where I am getting my business cards done also gave me a lead on a local school employing English teachers what I gather does not now have any native English speakers on staff.

Hoping to get down to El Salvador for beach weekend the first of July with Darren, Seka & family at El Roble near Playa Diablo.

Then it’s North to Alaska on the 5th where I will get the train from Anchorage to Fairbanks followed by a bus & riverboat trip to Dawson City in the Yukon where another bus will take me through Whitehorse & Skagway to Juneau & the ferry to Bellingham Washington. Doing this part independently as cruise/tour prices are insane. Then bus or Amtrak to Portland for a meet with Chris from BootsNall.

While in Portland check on a cheap flight to Hawaii???

Then it’s on to Vancouver for a couple days then a cheap West Jet flight (all RTW segments used up) YVR-YYZ.

ps to my TEFL classmates in Bangkok I shall undoubtedly to my favorite city in the world & check in with you at some point!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 17:30 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.