Waiting in Luxury For Our Plane... 3 km. From San Salvador's Airport

If you can find it on a map in El Salvador you can take a bus from there to here. We left Alegria after another great meal and strong cups of Java and headed toward El Salvador. Four buses later here we are at the Quality Inn less than two miles away from the airport.
Neither one of us wanted to go back into the huge, noisy, polluted, reportedly dangerous city of San Salvador so we splurged to a great room with a breakfast buffet and a shuttle ride to the airport for our early morning flight.


Yesterday after attending Mass we hiked about seven miles up, around and back down from the crater lake in Alegria.
It was a great day for a strenuous walk on cobblestones because it was cloudy and cooler.
At the lake families were gathered to picnic and watch soccer.
What a beautiful spot to enjoy an afternoon.


Shopping was also on the agenda because Shana Jan had admired a painting on the blog and asked us to pick it up for her. It was fun hanging with the artist, Jorge, again. He delivered the three paintings we had picked out after he removed them from their frames and secured packed them for our trip home.

El Salvador is a beautiful country with very helpful people. There isn't as much to do here for a casual tourist yet though we were well entertained speaking with people and people watching in the small towns where we stayed. I know that I will see everyday things through more open eyes after this trip. The life that we sometimes take for granted is vastly different from the lives of others around the world. Our choices are limitless, our wants so much more complicated. I hope to live more simply, enjoying and appreciate each day to the fullest!

A Cool Climate, Strong Coffee & Handmade Chocolates, This is What I'm Talking About

Saturday, 14 April 2012

Five bus rides later we find ourselves in the town at the highest elevation in El Salvador. Searching for a comfortable climate we also scored a delightful small town and a great room!
Again today people were very helpful to point us in the right direction as we made our way eastward along Central America's Highway #1. Our first destination, San Vicente,  proved disappointing, we took a couple of photos, visited the church (a safe spot to pull out the iPad to seek instructions on how & where to travel next) & boarded the next bus. 
The ride to Alegria brought us up higher & higher to another puebla beside a lake, another one in a crater of a volcano. The coffee grown here is outstanding and chocolate is another speciality so I know we will have a nice stay here.
Roberto, the innkeeper & chocolate maker, is full of smiles. He is eager to make sure all is well, and it is.

We purchased some art this afternoon, here is our new painting with the artist. He was born in Ataco from where I posted the colorful murals earlier this week, he painted some of the ones I photographed!

Our last day in Suchitoto was full of activities. We visited the Museum of Peace run by  a Catholic nun. She worked with local young people to create a small museum which highlights the First Peoples in the areas, the Pupiles. They grew the plant used for indigo colors and still that is a popular crop for the area which explains the many blue tiedye clothing options available for sale.
The history of the beginning of Suchitoto as the capitol city of El Salvador was also explained.
We watched a series of CNN video reports from the 1980's graphically showing the effects of war in the area which was heavily assaulted from planes firing indiscriminately, trained and armed by the US Government. It was very disturbing footage. So many people lost loved ones, and for what purpose? Civil War is horrific.

The magic of traveling happened to us again as we heard our names called in the main square. Jan & Laura were having their lunch on the plaza. We first met them on the shuttle from Hell ride from Guatemala to El Salvador. Our second unexpected reunion was in Juayua and then again in Suchitoto. We haven't seen many gringos on the road here in El Salvador but we have seen these young Belgians now in three separate locations!

The four of us took a quick bus ride to the lake where we sat and watched the world float by as birds of many kinds flew overhead. 

After returning back to our hostel to show off the great view we all went to a local theater production of The Imaginary Invalid  by Moliere. Suchitoto's sister city of Toronto works with volunteer from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to give local students from Suchitoto and nearby pueblas an dramatic experience. The play was great; the students had created all the scenery, costuming and they were very good actors. They had worked with the group from Canada  for the last eight months and it showed! Unfortunately as the first act ended, the rain began. Soon it was a major downpour and all of the scenery had to be pulled off the open air stage and the audience went for cover. We had fun talking with the director, her assistants, and some of the volunteers from Canada hoping for the rain to stop, but it didn't. When they decided to call "curtain" for the night we went out looking for a dry spot to have some dinner. 
Keith went frog catching as we tried to keep our feet dry on the flooded cobblestone roads. The frogs, which are huge~ double the size of my fist, hide in the waterspouts untill it rains and out they come with the water. How we laughed when Keith ran down the street after this big one!

Life just got better here in the courtyard of Entre Piedras Hotel as Roberto's father offered me one of their palm-sized artisan chocolates, super yum! And did I mention the live music all over this tiny town...love it!

Our Second Lakeside Town, Suchitoto, El Salvador

Wednesday, 12 April 2012

I'm sitting on a great high covered porch overlooking Lake Suchitlan. The sun has gone down on a hot, but great day. The lake is surrounded by hills that are densely forested. Not 500 meters away someone has started a fire, probably  to burn their trash, but it seems to be growing larger though no one strolling by under where I am sitting seems too concerned.

It's not like the people with the flames would have any kind of hose with water to put out the fire. I just asked a local about this flame which is lighting up the night sky and he said "No problema". The people are just burning before planting. Somehow dangerous things are not as dangerous here. 

We scored a great hostel here in Suchitoto. Air conditioning in a very private room that lacks hot water but makes up for it in the view and breeze from the hammock on the porch. There is a comfortable living room and a modern kitchen where though we won't be cooking any meals we are using for cutting up fruit. We eat at least one watermelon & pineapple a day sometimes with cantaloupe, banana & mango on the side. Super tasty! I'm anxious to see the results of my fruitopian diet on the WW scales when I return~ I'm guessing that no point fruits & veggies has a limit!


Thursday, 13 April 2012

So far our stolls around this small town, quiet during the week, have yielded some great photo opportunities, the wrought-iron window grates and brightly colored flowers are especially nice.



The church in the town's main square was open this morning, it's nearly 500 years old and being restored.

We walked to Hotel Tejado where I may return for an afternoon swim, the heat is oppressive! 

On the corner of the main square here in Suchitoto we happened upon the local corn milling station. We have watched tortilla machines on many trips but never before seen the process of taking corn, that has been cut from the cob and soaked, through the mill to make fresh maza for the tortillas. Women were waiting to use the grinders with their plastic bowl of corn kernals on their laps. Rubber belts move the corn through a grinder with just a little water dripping to make the mix. 

Tortillas in El Salvador differ in thickness to those in Guatemala. Personally I prefer the thinner ones you can wrap your guacamole, rice & beans up in to these thicker tortillas. Pupusas are the street food of choice in El Salvador, tortillas with a filling of beans & sometimes white cheese and a pork mixture. We had one for supper last night covered in spicy, pickled cabbage & a refresco made from cashew fruit. $1.25 for both of us.

Breakfast this morning was taken at Hostel/Cafe Gringo where owner ex-pat Roberto offered lots of tourist information and promised to accompany us out on the lake for a bird-watching session. His coffee and food was great and his company interesting so I'm sure we will return during our time here. The restaurant Villa Balenza which is associated with this great hostel also has good daily specials ($2.50) with tasty options.


I'm not seeing us moving on anytime soon! It's summer here and the living is easy. Plus the town supposedly comes alive each weekend with  arts festivals. I changed our hotel reservations for the return from San Salvador. We were going to stay in the large, dangerous, polluted city for two nights giving us one day to tour and see the El Salvador's capital city's museums, but I realized the museums would most likely be closed on Monday and we had enough of the city when we went in to switch buses to come here. We felt we had a city tour riding the bus into one bus station (heavily guarded with armed military), busing to the station on the opposite end of town and finally bussing it out of town!
We are going to splurge on Monday night and stay right next to the airport at the Quality Inn.

Musings about El Salvador to this Point, More Photos Coming!!

Tuesday late afternoon, 10 April 2012
Some people go to Hawaii to vacation, what's up with that? The Brownings head to rougher parts of developing countries where they can truly appreciate all they have at home!
While we are seeing beautiful mountainsides and lush tropical waterfalls, I won't leave out the serious number of down-n-out street people and alcohol problems that we have witnessed in these first few days in El Salvador.  
Right across from the very nice lodging we secured in Juayua on the corner sat a wasted man finishing a small bottle of rubbing (wood) alcohol. Keith went over after the man precariously walked away to check the bottle he had tossed aside after the last swig, and yes, it had a skull and crossbones, pure poison!
We saw many drunk men and hunchbacked old women there which just helped us prepare for our next stop, El Congo, just down the hill from where we are staying lakeside. 
We went to El Congo to find some late afternoon dinner because our Hotel Nantal is in a very small pueblo with no real food choices. We had a nice meal, $6.00 for the two of us, walked around town, and stopped at the grocery store for water & some fruit. Keith also had his beard trimmed which you will notice in the newer photos. I told him, "Don't worry, it will grow back."
After these 'jobs'  we waited for a long while for a bus.   Many drunk men approached us for handouts and they were hard to get rid of. How happy we were when the bus finally picked us up!!

Hotel Nantal sits high on the hill, Cerro Verde, overlooking Lago Coatepeque, a body of water six kilometers wide in a volcanic crater. It is really beautiful! An ex-president of El Salvador owns an island in the lake and the homes around the shoreline belong to the rich Salvadorians from the city.
The Hotel is an old private residence filled with antiques, a very impressive collection. It has nice sitting areas inside and out. Our room isn't fancy or very clean, but the beds are comfy and the air is fresh and cool.

Our last day in Juayua was super enjoyable. What a great place we had there! The people running the hostel were so nice and they made great typical breakfasts- eggs, black refried beans, avocado, bread, a big fruit salad and great coffee! We ate many mangoes , a watermelon and a sweet pineapple during our stay there.
We met a couple from British Columbia who are finishing six of their eight month tour of Central America, Karen & Wayne. We had dinner with them at the RR last night, the same incredible restaurant where we 'fine dined' on Easter Sunday.
Our day trip was to Ataco where I took these colorful pictures. Many of the buildings in the small town were painted with murals depicting life in this tiny village.
The church, Ave Marie, and the park were so pretty and quiet. We shared a tasty Caesar Salad at a little cafe across from the park. Some men sat down next to us just we were finishing, one was a pilot from SLC.

We were happy to run into a young couple from Belgium, Jan & Laura, with whom Keith had chatted on the shuttle ride from Antigua to our drop off point in El Salvador. They accompanied us on a hike with a guide to some waterfalls that were cold but very refreshing for a swim. The young girl who guided us through the forest to the series of waterfalls was so kind to help me over the dangerously slick rocks and scary metal bridges (more like a ladder laid on its side) over which we had to cross the waterfall as it plunged hundreds of feet straight down the mountain. If you to fall you would surely die!
My toe is healing nicely from my early January operation, but my balance is still not great and hiking was great exercise, though a bit painful. She was so kind to offer me a hand which increased my confidence and made the descent into the waterfalls possible. I loved floating under the falls, the water was fresh spring water! 
On the flip, and I'm sorry negative, and admittedly culturally biased, side of our hike and the rest of the beautiful natural scenery in Central America is the abundance of garbage strewn everywhere. Just like on our other trips south of the border every scrap of litter is tossed out the bus to the side of the road. The concept of packing your trash OUT is unknown. I've witnessed mothers, fathers and grandparents showing their little ones where to put their plastic bags and bottles, empty bag of chips, etc. after they have finished their treat. What a shame that such incredible natural beauty has man-made used products everywhere you look. Thank God and the US Dept. of Education  or Natural Resources for introducing us to Woodsy Owl (Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute) and his buddies who trained us to put trash in its place back when I was a kid! Introducing these concepts to these developing countries would be a huge task, it's hard to see how they can't see the filthy conditions they are creating each time they toss something aside.

I'd like to describe the bus rides we have taken. This is repeat for those of you who have followed our adventures in the past, but is worth revisiting because of its total weirdness.

The Basics:
#1-  "Chicken Buses" are the antiquated school buses that are used to transport people and their goods anywhere they need to go for a very low fare. Today we paid $.80 each for one & 1/2 hour journey, then $.40 for another 45 minutes & finally $.20 for the last haul, a short, but steep journey of about 20 minutes though we could have gone another 20-30 minutes up the hill.
#2- These transport vehicles are never full! People sit three to a 2 person seat & two to a single person seat. That does not include children standing in front of their parents or sitting on their laps. The buses generally have people standing in the aisles pressing against each other and those seated. This over-capacity issue could be regarded dangerous, but seems to give me a safer feeling. I can't move, I'm wedged in my position. That means as we travel dangerously fast around the tight curves down the steep mountain roads I am held in place. When the bus isn't a human sardine can you have to use your arms  and legs to hold you in place, really straining your muscles! I figure each person on the bus is like an already inflated airbag, comforting in a sick way.
#3- Riding chicken buses can be a very overstimulating activity. Depending on the driver you may experience the booming sounds of Salsa, Bachata or Evangelic music with songs that never end. Regardless of the type of music it will be played loudly, distortedly so!
#4- You can buy anything while traveling on a chicken bus. At every bus stop one person to a dozen will hop on with cookies, chips, empanadas, ice creams, medicines, fresh drinks, fruit, candy, sad stories of family who need help and the Word of God itself, all for a small price usually less than $1.00. Even when a bus is filled to the brim with people squeezed in all possible spaces salespeople will press their way through the crowd to offer what they have to sell.
#5- On longer haul chicken buses there is a second man working the bus collecting the fares from each passenger. Somehow this person knows who has paid and who hasn't & the destination of each. He works the front and back door. In the front he watches for people walking along the road for their interest in a ride (any spot is a bus stop here). He helps people with heavy cargo load what they need on the bus. In the back of the bus he bangs the side of the bus to indicate when someone wants out the back and needs the bus to stop to drop them off. Sometimes the man jumps out the front door to check up and down the intersecting roads for business, the bus takes off and you think he has been left on the side of the road, but no, suddenly there he is again after running alongside the moving vehicle and jumping back on in the back or front! This is a job for someone looking for exercise during their workday.
#6-  Bus terminals in bigger towns will be located right inside the market which means the more people you have selling, the more buses will be trying to inch their way into the mass. It's unbelievable how the drivers maneuver around baskets of fruits, vegetables, bags of rice & beans, and assorted plastic goods avoiding the tarps that have been stretched over to provide shade. My guess is that the reason markets are located 
#7- The first Gringo in line will be the last person on board. People waiting for the bus do not care when they arrived to the queue. Tiny people can really push into any gap in order to get on the bus and secure a seat. Even when we are trying hard to be aggressive to board and avoid standing, we are beat out by frequent chicken bus passengers! 
#8- Warning- Do not attempt to ride buses the way we do here without having some intermediate command of the language. No one speaks English. You may know how to say where you want to go but you will never understand the response telling you how to get there! This is not a task for the faint at heart. You cannot be a chicken to ride a chicken bus, unless, of course, you really have feathers.

The sun is now setting over the crater lake, Lago Coatepeque, beautiful. The sounds of cicada bugs is building sounding like a loud siren. Keith is initiating a conversation with the woman of this grand house about the antiques filling the common areas. It's going to be an interesting evening. We will leave after breakfast for our next destination, Suchitoto, a colonial town on another lake in Northern El Salvador. 

Estamos en El Salvador

Monday morning, 9 April 2012
We left Antigua, Guatemala and our delightful traveling companions on Saturday morning bound for El Salvador. Sandra, Jane & Shana waiting outside with us anticipating the arrival of our shuttle. We were the first loaded so we had seats right behind the shuttle driver, a good thing for avoiding motion sickness, but not so great for staying calm with a crazy maniac driver. He couldn't stand to have any vehicle ahead of us and the road was overcrowded with people packed in the back of truck beds heading for the beach to spend Saturday. Speed limits and no passing signs are merely suggestions, we were passing on blind curves and approaching hills, nothing stopped this shuttle from being ahead of the pack.
The temperature rose as we decreased our altitude. The border crossing was easy and our last quetzales were turned over for US dollars, the currency used in El Salvador. It took a little over three hours to reach the border and a little under an hour to reach the crossroads where we were left on the side of the road to catch a bus bound for Sonsonate.
An older man from Sonsonate had come on board the shuttle and he insisted on helping us get on the right bus, even paying our bus fare of $.35! The ride was only about 30 minutes along many cattle farms and tended fields. Palm trees were among the path, it was green and scenic. It was nice to be on a nice, slow bus ride!
In Sonsonate the gentleman directed us to the correct gate for our next bus, he wouldn't leave us until he found out what the fare would be and asked a little family waiting there to help us! It was completely unnecessary, but he felt it his duty and repeatedly told us he had nowhere to be except back home relaxing. We were literally dripping from sweat, it was super hot and humid. There was very little breeze, no one else looked as miserable as the two gringoes in the crowd!!
The bus took us up a very steep narrow road into the Route of Flowers where you could see down the mountainside into the valleys and across to the coffee fields on the other mountains in the distance. It was pretty, but filled with litter, plastic bottles and plastic bags everywhere.
We arrived in Juayua in the early afternoon and walked through the famous weekend food festival to our hotel.
Our room here is very private, a little casita with interesting artwork & great hot water pressure, super comfortable! The gardens and sitting areas are inviting.
Keith immediately made friends with a young couple, lawyers from NYC, and off we went to sample food. Mangoes, spicy cabbage salad, root vegetables, chicken tacos, and nachos with black beans were our choices for our late lunch. For dinner we ate off the street, pupusas, little fried tortillas filled with beans. We chatted with a woman working there who was anxious to practice her English skills. She explained how the change of currency some ten years ago here adversely effected most people. We have found the prices of food equal to the prices in the states with gas prices higher. The average person makes $150. a week causing one to only imagine how they survive!
On Sunday we visited various churches though service are broadcasted on competing loudspeakers, impossible to avoid the Word of God! Being from SLC we were guests inside the LDS meeting house easy to spot by the fenced yard surrounding the church, basketball court & satellite receiver. We attended a Baptism in the Catholic cathedral which borders the main square and is the only building that you can see from anyway in this small town. Our favorite service of the day was at the Assembly of God, WOW, what a three piece rock band they have there! There service went on over three hours, we bowed out after about 20 minutes.
Our Easter dinner was very delicious, a work of art! I had a chicken breast, BBQ style, served with pesto, a tomato salsa, rice and pita-style bread. Keith's lasagna was put together just for him, loaded with giant mushrooms, beef & hot dogs, yes you read that right, hot dogs! He loved it!
After a power walk of the town we sat in the center and did some people watching. It was a relaxing day. We have one more night here in this super comfy Hotel Anahuac. Today, Monday, we will get some more money and then we are off for a day trip to some of the other Ruta de las Flores towns before we hike to the waterfalls for an afternoon dip.

Semana Santa Tradition At Its Finest!!

Tuesday, 3 April 2012
This morning all of us, along with our three Spanish teachers visited a new sculpture garden on the top of a hill which is part of the fancy, and very expensive Casa Santo Domingo Hotel. The hotel provides a free shuttle bus to the beautiful gardens which offer great sites of Antigua and surrounding villages. The architecture and artwork  throughout the complex was modern and the gardens exquisitely cared for. It was a treat for both students and teachers leisurely walking around. 
Shana and I went with my teacher, Aracely Lilian, to visit her village, Pedro Las Huertas to see the Velacion in her church. We took the chicken bus from in front of San Francisco Church and returned before lunch.


Wednesday, 4 April 2012
I took a real Spanish lesson while Jane & Shana visited Santa Clara ruins, a monastery just around the corner from the school. We had planned to get together with Caroline after lunch but she didn't show. 
Keith and Brian spent the afternoon at the park while Jane, Shana & I went to take a Salsa lesson. Jane 'chickened' out, but Shana & I had a great time and got a little exercise too! Jane has video that I'm hoping she'll keep to herself!
After supper, we spent time with Sandra's daughter & son-in-law. Sandra II works restoring antiquities in Antigua; she shared a lot of interesting history about Antigua, how it became the third capital city of Central America. The current capital city of Guatemala was designed with the churches in the same places they are in Antigua, though built in a different style the churches retain the same names. It was a good Spanish lesson & history lesson for me!

Thursday, 6 April 2012
After breakfast (yummy oatmeal, scrambled eggs, mango & watermelon) we dropped off the laundry and went to school. 
Shana,  Jane, Aracely & I walked to Church of Calavario. It is a shaded walk along a field of coffee with ruins along the way, very pretty. We were a bit early to see the day's main events, decorations in each of the many ancient churches honoring the Last Supper, but we enjoyed the walk seeing the alfombras along the way of the procession from San Jose De Bajo. 
Aracely and I returned to the school to spend our last hour together conversing in Spanish, though that was the only language I used with her she enjoyed practicing her Spanish with Shana & Jane. 
Our time after lunch was spent touring Las Capichinas ruins, another monastery. What a lovely place, we took many pictures! We discovered a quiet refuge from the increasingly large and noisy crowds on a covered second floor patio just off the main pedestrian walkway for a cold one, or maybe two.

Sandra had prepared two soups for our 'last supper' together. One was a homemade ramen noodle soup with fresh vegetables and the other a thick soup made from some of the plantains brought from high in the hills around Lake Atitlan by Candido's wife.

Friday, 7 April 2012
We were up before the sun and out the door as it became light outside for the biggest day of Semana Santa. Though the procession left La Merced at 4:00 am and had destroyed many beautiful alfombras before we were even aware, there was much to see in Antigua on Good Friday.
We spent hours walking the narrow stone streets blocked off to the traffic. There wasn't a procession in town that we didn't see. And we had breakfast at Dona Luisa's, a real treat!!
As we ran out of steam we headed home for a short rest and then we hit the alfombra trail again.
The crowds of people were polite and calm though Shana and I did get a bit worried as we waiting in front of the Cathedral for the beginning of their procession because of the mob in front of us that we knew had to move out of the way somehow. We planned an escape route which didn't have to be used luckily.
Rain started in the late afternoon and Jane & Brian waited it out under the shelter of a small roof over the doorway of our adopted Antigua home. The Images were covered with plastic as the procession continued, rain or shine. It did clear up before we headed out to supper only to start up again around midnight before the last processions had headed back into their churches. It's hard to imagine that some of these processions continue for over 14 hours. The people who carry the intensely heavy cargo change, but the bank plays on, front start to finish!

Saturday, 8 April 2012
Keith & I left Antigua around 8:15 am in the craziest shuttle we'd ever taken! While we were bound for El Salvador, Shana, Jane & Brian prepared to shuttle off to the Aurora Airport for their journey back to SLC. We loved the time together in Antigua for Semana Santa! It was an experience none of us will ever forget!!

My first blog created on iPad! Hours in the making!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
We had a lovely lunch with Cousin Rhonda and Barry during our layover in Dallas. Rhonda picked us up at the airport and took us to their new home which is very nice with a beautiful pool. Barry & Rhonda were wonderful hosts whipping up a authentic Texas BBQ on their party back porch, we had our first hamburger of the season in warm weather...awwww, it felt like spring/summer, love it!


On the flight from Dallas to Guatemala City we were both lucky enough to sit next to beautiful Spanish speaking women from Guatemala. One had been living in Germany for many years and was traveling with her three children and husband back to visit her family. The other had been in Germany for five days on a business trip with the Merck chemical company. The three-hour trip went quickly because they were willing to chat with us.
We arrived in the newly remodeled airport in Guatemala City where we were met by a shuttle driver carrying a sign with our names, it couldn't have been easier
!

Hotel Casa Cristina was very comfortable, though the hours of hot water were limited. It was only a block or so away from the bright yellow Iglesia Merced, one of Antigua's most beautiful and historic churches. The church bells and the crowing roosters made sleeping late impossible but who would want to miss out on the perfect spring weather anyway!

Shana Jan, Jane & Brian arrived on a later flight. I thought I would stay up late worrying about them being picked up and delivered at the hotel's doorstep, but amazingly their knock on our door woke me from a deep slumber. 

Thursday, 29 March 2012
We first met Caroline Carton in Mexico this past December in Merida, a fellow traveler on a free city tour. Originally from Massachusetts, she has lived in a small village just outside of Antigua for several months each of the last six years. Caroline was excited to hear that we hoped to take my mom to Guatemala for Semana Santa and emailed often to see if our plans had fallen in place. 
Our first meeting was at a coffee shop near Antigua's center close to the hotel where we discussed some potential activities for our visit. We walked to a great local restaurant where we enjoyed eggs and chile rellanos for breakfast for less than $3.00 each while we sat outside in the shade of the garden. Instead of drinking coffee we had a watery hot oatmeal drink with lots of cinnamon, very nutritious and delicious. Afterwards we walked to Iglesia San Francisco, home of the tomb of Hermano Pedro, the first saint from Central America. Caroline is full of information about local happenings and places to visit.
We checked into the Spanish school, Academia Sevilla, where I had reserved lessons for Brian, Keith & I and homestays beginning Saturday for all. When we visited La Union, one of our previous schools, teachers not only recognized Keith but remembered his name! He is famous, no, possibly infamous!!
Antigua is a perfect place to stroll, many shops and art galleries to visit. One new addition is a Chocolate Factory where the history of chocolate in Central America is told while you breathe in delicious smells and resist buying all kinds of fancy chocolates. At this shop you can make your own chocolate bar from scratch, literally grinding the Cacoa bean with a stone pestle and mortar.
Edgar, Caroline's Guatemalan boyfriend, joined us for dinner, we all had a very typical dinner for the area, chicken, avocado, tortillas, rice, beans, lettuce and tomatoes. We stopped by the grocery before returning to sit on the terrace overlooking La Merced and admiring the moon which appears to sit on its side in this latitude.


Friday, 30 March 2012

Jane joined the three students for breakfast at the Antigua institution, Dona Luisa, while Shana Jan slept in. 
Our teachers were introduced just after 8 am and we spent three hours using our second language to get to know them as they each assessed our individual spanish skills and made lists of the mistakes they would like to correct during the next week of instruction.
I asked my teacher if instead of reviewing grammar we could walk through the city of Antigua and neighborhoods just a little further out to view the Velaciones in the various churches for my lessons. I told her I wanted to listen to the history and significance of every special place in the city and translate for Jane & Shana to improve those listening, speaking and translation skills that I use in my work. She thought that serving as a tour guide while correcting my Spanish was a great plan and so that will be the direction of my studies this trip.


We met Caroline & Edgar for our first adventure of the trip outside the little town of Antigua. For lunch, Caroline & Edgar led us through a little corner market to a table in a room steaming hot stacked high with dishes, pots and pans waiting to be washed. In a room out of sight plates piled high with food were brought out and served to the people waiting at the two other long tables in smaller rooms beside us. There were flies swarming around and our table was covered with crumbs but the food was typical and tasty. We ate as many avocados as our stomachs could hold. It was an experience that helped me to be aware that I think we can now handle traveling in India!

Riding in the back of Edgar's old truck we traveled to a Velacion nearby, beautiful but spooky, the theme was the transformation of Jesus. Our next stop was to the home of 'the guerilla' a natural healer infamous in the area. He used Bengay scented creme and a lotion of marijuana leaves distilled in alcohol to massage Keith's pinched nerve from his foot to his shoulder. He worked on Keith's back in his very dark, stuffy room while the rest of the six of us looked on. It was quite an event and seemed to relieve Keith's pain and numb arm for a couple of hours. 

On to Caroline & Edgar's town where we toured a beautiful monastery in the first town settled in Latin America nestled against the volcano outside Antigua.

Afterwards we were treated to coffee prepared from the beans collected from Caroline & Edgar's garden. I helped Caroline roast beans on the stove for their next pot of coffee. It took over ten minutes to get it started, we had to shake the pan (like Jiffy Popcorn) while stirring it to keep it from burning. As the beans turned oily and brown they started to smoke driving the rest of our crew out of the one-room home to the attached front porch. It had started to sprinkle while we brewed and drank our coffee, but luckily cleared as we loaded ourselves back into the truck bed for our short ride to another village for yet another velacion.

As the evening progressed more people appeared. It was a festive atmosphere complete with many food vendors. We enjoyed sampling some of the street food while we waited for a theatrical presentation on a biblical passage, the curing of an young boy and a visit of spiritual leaders, Moses & another old dude, to Jesus. Again, the references were not readily apparent to any of us. Edgar & Caroline took us back to our hotel where we collapsed into bed after an exciting, full day!

Saturday, 31 March 2012
Each Saturday morning there is a wholesale market behind Antigua's main market which we couldn't miss for buying some of the beautiful hand woven and embroidered cloth goods. With Caroline's guidance, we also purchased some beaded jewelry and a very cool beaded lizard along with Keith's favorite wooded snakes & lizards. By the time we reached our desired breakfast place it was lunch followed by a quick walk back to the hotel to check out. 



The school sent a shuttle to help us relocate to the home of Sandra where we will spend the rest of the week. We have three rooms and two bathrooms between the five of us, it is simple, but very comfortable. Sandra had prepared a lunch of spaghetti which we had her save for our supper because our tummies were stuffed.

Edgar joined us at Sandra's and kindly took us to San Felipe to experience their Velacion and the accompanying excitement and food sampling.

The treat of the day for Keith & me was mangos which are in season right now and absolutely delicious sprinkled with crushed pumpkin seed and lime juice.  Edgar & Caroline dropped us off near the Merced and we enjoyed a beer in the garden of the Mayan Collective Store, an massive and interesting collection of the artwork and handiwork from all over Guatemala.
We returned home to dine with Sandra which was a nice opportunity to get to practice Spanish as we got to know her better.

Sunday, 1 April 2012~Palm Sunday
We were up early with the sun, off to breakfast at Dona Luisa's and out to see the preparation for the first procession of Semana Santa originating from La Merced. The crowds this morning were much larger than earlier in the week and as it got closer to the time when the procession was to leave the church the crowd became impassable!
Our plan had been to meet Caroline and Edgar in the park at 10 am. It was decided that Jane, Brian and Shana wait at La Merced while Keith and I walked back to the park to gather the other two. We had been trying to contact Candido's family to plan a time to see them and deliver the gifts their father had sent with us. The Internet has been difficult to use and slow when it is available, Skype is out of the question until we find another WiFi spot. We did receive a message from one of Candido's sons with a phone number which we asked Edgar to call as soon as we met them in the park, which he kindly did. However there was no response so we didn't have a good plan for meeting them. 
Caroline had no interest in watching any of the processions in Antigua or seeing anymore Alfombras, the original creations placed in the cobblestone roads where the processions will travel, so we made another meeting date with them for lunch, in the park at 1:30. 
Keith & I headed back to La Merced to gather up the troops before the 11 am departure of the procession because I wanted to get ahead of the procession to see the Alfombras before their incredible beauty was destroyed. The crowd in the square around La Merced was so large that the sea of people had come to a halt. It was too much for Keith and he vowed that if he could squeeze out of mass of humans he would return to the park to meet E & C, which he did.
Brian, Jane, Shana Jan and I loved our stroll through the streets of Antiqua. Their smiles were wide as they experienced the magic of Semana Santa's beautifully created carpets of flowers, colored sawdust and wood chips exquisitely laid out on beds of pine needles in patterns of which no two are alike. The cooperation of the families and  businesses to organize these very temporal works of art is amazing! We must have taken thousands of pictures between us today which we can hardly wait to download and share! 

We caught the procession a couple of times during the day and again after the sun had set and saw dozens of magic carpets from one end of town to the other, one can only imagine the number of steps taken today!
We returned to the park to look for Keith, Caroline & Edgar only to find Edgar and Caroline, they hadn't seen Keith since he bailed from sea of people. But Edgar did share the news that Candido's family had returned his call and was there in Antigua waiting for us. Realize that 100,000 people were anticipated in this small town today for the Palm Sunday events so finding the family was a bit hard to imagine, but as I looked across the park I saw Keith and surrounding Keith were the couple of dozen relatives of our dear Candido. We organized a parade of our own to fetch the giant suitcase of gifts from our home in Antigua but quickly became separated  in the crowd again, Keith going one way with most of the men in Candido's clan with Jane, Shana & I going another with the women with hopes to reunite with Candido's wife, Flor, who was waiting in the truck.

As the womenfolk waited by the truck for one of the cousins to come drive it over to the house we are staying in, the plan unfolded. Candido's family had come to 'take us away'. They planned to take the five of us, including Shana Jan, in the open back of the truck to the Pacific coast town of Montenegro for an afternoon on the beach. Afterwards we were to go back to their village high in the mountains some four hours away from Antigua. We would be brought back to Antigua tomorrow. I was shocked and they were so disappointed when I tried to kindly explain that this plan would not be possible.
Finally we reconnected with whole family and passed on the gifts from Candido and the art supplies that we had brought for the grandchildren, plus our monthly financial contribution for the children's education. We returned to our planned lunch spot, La Rincon, to find it closed, so sad for us! We found Brian, Caroline & Edgar, tummies full from La Rincon. 
E & C had a family obligation and so they needed to split from the group and we went off to Rikki's  for dinner, just for old time's sake. It didn't meet our expections, but did fill our bellies 
Our fivesome had been invited to help create an alfombra at Edgar's brother's house in the Candeleria so we made our way that way stopped along the way to chat with an extended family making one of their own. The padre of the household had American connections including a grandfather of his grandfather who had served as Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury. The man himself had lived for a short while as a child in LA and told a story of the end of WWI listening to a speech in the grand stadium in LA, the Coliseum by a young politican no other than Ronald Reagan!


As we helped place thousands of flowers on the cobbled street in front of Edgar's childhood home a light storm started so we headed back. We were stopped along the alfombra lined way by the Procession again, now in its 10th hour! It was beautifully lit with electricity created along the way by a noisy generator pulled by young men through the streets of a now dark Antigua.

Monday, 2 April 2012
After a delicious breakfast of pancakes with our lovely host Sandra off we went to Spanish School. My teacher, Acacely, was gracious enough to include Shana Jan & Jane in our walk around town.

She took us to San Francisco where we learned about Hermano Pedro, a Spaniard who came to Antigua in mid 1600's. He was 'sainted' in the 1980's by Juan Pablo II. He walked through town with a bell calling people out for medical attention and food. Hermano Pedro planted trees around the area which are still living monuments, the flowers are collected by the people as sacred items (the petals smell beautiful!) There was an interesting museum with items that belonged to Hermano Pedro including his clothing, bell, and a skull which he held close while he contemplated his own passing. Most of the monastery was ruined by the earthquake in the 1970's, very scenic and we had a delightful time together.
We walked over to La Merced for the Velacion there as well and ended our 'lesson' with coffee and carrot cake at my favorite bakery in its pretty new location.

Lunch with Sandra was delicious as were all the meals at our home stay with her. Sandra makes helados (popsicles) made from fresh fruit and sugar, perfect treat on a hot afternoon. Jane was her helper as the procession passed in front of our house.