A weekend in Antigua

This morning I changed families. I liked the family where I was and will be returning to stay with them when I come back to Antigua for Semana Santa, but I wanted to have another experience with a different family in another part of town for this coming week. The new family is composed of Lucky Morales and her husband Jose and their three grown children who still live at home. I met one of the daughters at lunch; she is a forest engineer. The other one is a dentist, and the son is still at university studying to be a lawyer. They obviously believe in education in the family! Jose told me he's always wanted to go to France because he loves Alexandre Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo". My room is simple but clean and I love the views from the rooftop terrace. The other lodgers (German, Dutch and Belgian girls all in their 20s!) are away for the weekend.

Yesterday afternoon, I visited the "Cerro de la Cruz", which is a hill above town with a cross and a lovely overall view of Antigua. This afternoon, I visited the Santa Clara ruins, where there was an exhibit of some of the floats that will be used in the Semana Santa procession and also the Santo Domingo five-star hotel, which was originally a convent. Also took some nice photos of some indigneous women selling their textiles. Tomorrow, I'm off by mini-van to "Chichi" (Chichcicastenango), which is at the foot of some lovely mountains and has supposedly the biggest indigenous market in the country.

Have any of my readers every been to Tikal, the Mayan ruins in the north of the country? Apparently, they're really beautiful but they're very far away (12 hours by bus) and expensive (esp. if you take a plane--you can do it for just a day) to get to, and I'm wondering what you think. I've already been to see the Mayan ruins of Chichi Itzen (sp?) on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Also, do any of you feel there are "must" sees in Costa Rica? Will try to post some photos. Will write one more time before leaving Guatemala.

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