Antigua *16 Dec 05
We headed towards the main square, which in all honesty was very similar to all the other squares we’ve seen throughout central and south America. The only difference was that it’s a bit quieter here than other places and nuisances such as begging and street selling didn’t appear to be as rife. Typically, the whole place appeared immaculately clean.
As usual, we’d headed out at midday and it was just a touch too hot. Unusually, we’d remembered to apply suncream before we left so had a few minutes grace before the lobster effect settled.
We found a nice little Italian for lunch – as you do in Central America! The name appealed – Queso et vino – cheese and wine – two of our favourite things! We perched on the table looking into the street so we could get a good look at our new surroundings. This also made us a target for passing street vendors.
The little shoe shine boys tried but saw it was unlikely to get anywhere with our trainers. A lot of brightly coloured textiles passed by. Two little girls came into the cafe with the Christmas decorations they made – their hands green and red from the crepe paper. We gave them a couple of the Woolworths plastic finger monsters we’d brought with us for these incidences – so worth it for the smiles on their faces.
After a filling lunch, one little lady made her way into the cafe and headed in our direction. She must have been all of 7 years old. One by one, she unwrapped all of her cloths onto Eugene’s lap. The final one amused us as it was half finished! But she won Eugene’s heart over and we ended up buying one. She also got a bit of extra cash due to a shortage of change, a Woolworths finger monster and a sparkly pencil into the bargain. She shook Eugene’s hand in a very business-like manner and disappeared.
But of course it wasn’t the last we’d seen of her, as she was waiting outside for us – with a new selection of cloths for us to look through. Full marks for persistance! She followed us all the way to the church and then disappeared again – holy ground was a little off her patch although she was a little angel!
The church was a bit disappointing – nice enough but nothing out of the ordinary for this neck of the woods. Still a wealth of lifelike statues and dolls to stare you into guilt.
So we thought we’d try the old monastery next door which sounded quite interesting. Twenty five pence each later and we were through the wooden carved door. The monastery is based around an old square again with a large fountain in the middle that actually wouldn’t look out of place in Milton Keynes. It was supposed to be in the shape of a water lily but we couldn’t see it ourselves. The interesting thing about this place is that it’s been around for centuries and parts have survived and been rebuilt after several earthquakes over time. Unfortunately, that’s the only interesting thing about it! The whole place was covered in grafitti – and this wasn’t the monks reeling off chunks of the bible but more your “I woz ere” lark. A bit unexpected. You can walk around on the roof which was quite pleasant but the views weren’t great.
We headed back to the hotel to get through a bit more reading in the sunny flowery courtyard and then went out for the evening.
The main square was lit up for Christmas and the lights in the trees looked really pretty. Someone was dressed up as Santa Claus – lucky for him it gets quite cool in the evenings. The kids seemed to be loving it.
We found a nice place for dinner and the food was good. We had our first argument of this holiday over Eugene giving up smoking and when he reads this he will understand that it’s another unsubtle nag – sorry dear! We managed to leave our Lonely Planet guide to Guatemala in the restaurant which was rather annoying. Fortunately, we brought back-up books so we’re not stranded!
Tags: Guatemala
mihai