Sunday, September 28, 2008

00:44hrs 28/9/08 Domingo (Sunday for the non Spanish speakers)

Yes, that’s right we are wide awake at midnight after a 5 hrs sleep. We were both so tired at 1830hr.
Yesterday as in Saturday we woke up at 04:00hrs after a fabulous 11hr sleep (post 37hr to get to Guatemala with little sleep). So we were starving, the only food we had was instant coffee and no hot water so after reading the recommended cheap eating section of the lonely planet I realised I was even more hungry and we were heading for a place that had hot bread and coffee at 0700hr. As we translated the menu thinking what a cute place it was I heard only what I could describe as a tour group and then I realised it was the worst kind: loud, 40+, Americans. We ordered our breakfast and coffee and then we had to listen to the tour guide go through every thing on the menu only to stop at every dish to answer relevant questions. (“Yes you can have white bread. How about the banana pancakes?“ etc) How annoying. My food was good, coffee average.

So Antigua is a tourist town, cobble stones streets, most shops are for the cashed up tourist, but the city is so beautiful I understand why people want to come here. Even McDonalds and Burger King shop front blends with the traditional façade its really only the armed security guard that makes these places stand out. (What is the Hamburglar a problem here?).

After breakfast we still had an hour or so before the tourist information was open, so we headed for church (La Merced, built in 1694, destroyed by earthquake twice then rebuilt little of it remains from 1694, but it was pretty and had beautiful views from the roof of the convent of the volcanos). A service was on so we went to the convent and returned just after the service had finished. It was pretty and obviously a well used/love place of worship. But I did have to fight back the urge to laugh at the tacky manikins dressed up as baby Jesus and so on. The worst one was Jesus’ body fresh off the cross lying in a glass coffin with bright lights and mirrors. It was very odd.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around, we attempted to locate three museums, two we could not find and one was closed permanently. We located where we were going to catch the chicken bus (the bus the locals use) to take us to Xela (Much easier local name for Quetzaltenengo) on Sunday . In Guatemala they have tourist buses (called shuttle buses to give you the illusion that it is fast) which are well over priced and not guaranteed to be any faster or more comfortable so we just had a glance at how much the shuttle bus was to Xela and the travel agent woman asked Damian if he had change for USD100, Damian said “no” and says to me after that he does not want her counterfeit USD100 note.

So one of our main objectives was to get on line either WiFi or internet café. We went to “Café WiFi” which did have WiFi but we could not connect and neither could this other woman. Damian chatted to her and she said she was going to the “Bagel Barn” where the WiFi was free, she gave us direction and offered to walk with us. We had just bought a beer so we were going to stay and finish it of when Damian realised that she left her phone, weirdly enough there was a message saying SEE YOU SOON on the screen. So we went to the “Bagel Barn” and gave her her phone back which she was thankful for and had some lunch while updating the blog and sending emails etc. It was quite funny to be sitting in a café with all these people typing away and skyping on their laptops. So happy to have brought the Eee PC. It’s been really handy to have. If anyone does want to Skype us our username is “damian and sarah”. Hopefully we will be online a bit more in Xela.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'll get me some skype so I can talk to you guys, I just need to get the camera and mic and then i'm all set. We've got friends in prague who want us to get skype too.. so better get that organised soon.
So glad to hear you're having fun. I'm going to the ECHC today, so I better get off and brush my teeth and leave. First time I've been able to walk to work in forever! Mwah and big hugs
Ness xoxox (And matt said hi too)

Alex and Jill said...

Look - more photos. You're getting to be bits of experts at this. Was great to be able to talk to you on skype this morning - a bit delayed but when you consider that it is coming from the other side of the earth that's pretty impressive. Have fun with the Spanish.

Love a&j