Antigua, Guatemala

A lot of people have zero sympathy for us, and others like us, who are traveling the world, sharing photos of beaches and margaritas, so when we write home and complain about mosquito bites, montezuma's revenge, or anything really... They say, "I have zero sympathy for you."

I guess that was obvious.

But traveling is hard no matter where you are. Okay, maybe I wouldn't have much sympathy for someone staying in Johnny Depp's guest house on his private island.....but no I'm distracted. Point is... Traveling can really take it out of you, even if you aren't in a third world country.
Every day is kind of like a little test as to just how much you trust that bus driver to make it past this car before the oncoming traffic collides with us... Or how calm you can remain when a machete-clad man emerges from the jungle before the truck you're in... Is he security or isn't he? Daily suspense and tests to your deep breathing exercises you learned from Oprah one time.

(From -top- Left to Right: -Sleeping on the bus. - Siiiiiick!. -Ryan waiting for the broken down bus in the heat being eaten by bugs. -My leg and some strange horrifying reaction to bites..or something. -Ryan's hand and its lime burns. -The bus leaking water an rocking to Ometepe. -Sleeping on the bus AGAIN. -Giant tarantula. -Washing launry in the sink. -Long chicken bus rides. I cannot derscribe these.)

Having said all that, maybe it will make sense when I say what a relief it was to see Antigua, Guatemala. Which was ironic, considering the fact that we almost skipped Guatemala due to it being the "most dangerous" of the countries down here.
It was like finding an oasis in the desert. Like your first time at Disneyland. It was like a bundle of kittens (Canada kittens, not the feral ones on the streets here) sitting on a cloud made of cotton candy.

(One of the Cathedrals we went to in Antigua.)

I hate to say this because I feel like a broken record, and no one is ever going to read these again because you already know exactly what I'm about to say, but.... It is so so beautiful.
The cobblestone streets, dozens of detailed and imposing cathedrals, trendy shops and cafe's lining the streets... The best market I've seen in years....

(Inside the artisan market. Just one of the thousand aisles.)

(One of the many vendors of fresh fruit cups/bags.)

Our shuttle rolled in at about noon, about the same time I started squealing and bouncing in my seat like a child after 7 or 9 sodas. Our hostel turned out to be right across the street from both the huge maze of an artisan market, and the main mercado. The "posada" itself was more like a boutiquey little hotel.

(Our hotel courtyard and room. There is more to the room on the right of the door, but no way to photograph it.)

A small courtyard with two levels and only about 10 rooms, each one a little different. Local textiles were the bedspreads and curtains, and the windows where stained glass with cast iron details. I was hardly conscious from all the hyper-ventilating I had been doing. We set our stuff down and I was out the door. I could have spent all day every day in the market, but that wouldn't do, because I needed to be everywhere at once.

(On our way to a coffee shop we'd heard about, we got distracted by this taco shop and array of sauces and array of salsas and toppings.)

As hard as I tried, we only managed to be in one place at once, but I'm still working on that...

(Another distraction on our way to that same coffee shop. A Guatemalan sweets shop. This was a whipped honey/cinnamon sweet thing. No idea what it actually was, but it was delicious. And adorable.)

The market was chock full of beautiful hammocks, bags, scarves, wooden toys, leather bags and belts, dolls, traditional clothing, and everything made with color. Like.. COLOR. It was like a rainbow exploded in there. Not in a lame internet meme kind of way, but in a totally classy cool Guatemalan way.



We came away with a whole extra bag to carry our bought stuff, some of which we will be able to drop off in Melaque, but most of which is just worth the extra weight and will follow us all the way home.

(Walking towards the light.... Just kidding, there was some kind of acoustic room down there. It used to be a convent of some sort, now its ruins, but the acoustics are still GREAT!)

I pranced around the city, Ryan trailing slightly behind taking photos and remaining calm. We dashed in and out of cathedrals and their ruins. To my surprise (well...not THAT surprising, since Ryan is awesome) Ryan was almost as excited as I was. Obviously he skipped the prancing and squealing part, but we both walked around the entire city with giant touristy grins on our faces and a repeating line of, "This is such a beautiful city" or "This is so amazing". We found a few fantastic spots to eat, including a cafe with real cheeses, espressos, and foods that we haven't seen since Canada.

(Unidentifiable street food, and beverages. If you look close you can see Ryan in the background getting what will turn out to be a warm, sticky, slimy, chocolate and rice drink. Complete with chunks of rice. He describe it as 'chocolate oatmeal' to me it was like, warmed up and mushed cocoa puffs. Not bad aside from the slime factor.)

It was surreal, in a way, since we knew we were in Guatemala that morning, and suddenly had been teleported to some trendy little European city.

(Antigua street. Its colder in the mountains.)

We spent our entire 4 days in Antigua strolling the streets and trying different foods.

(We ate lunch at this place, which I'd read about. The prices had gone up since the reviews, but the food was great, and what a selection!)

Oh yeah. There was a bakery directly across from our hotel door also. Best.

After a couple days, while still in love with the city, we knew we couldn't do much else than we already had considering the time and money we had there. Maybe with some more time we would have taken some of those volcano tours or something, but there was a big part of us that was just enjoying being in the city. We just basked for a little while....

(Typical street)

When we finally said goodbye, it felt like the right timing, but there was still a little voice in my head reminding me to gear down for another border crossing, and who knows what else after that. Lucky for us, we're pretty good at picking places to go, but Antigua was something special that's for sure.