Day 4 - Antigua, Guatemala

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Great bed. Pretty good sleep... except that the noise on the street sounds like it's in our room. One of the girls I'm rooming with joked that it sounded like the cars were driving at the foot of her bed at 6am, and that 2 people talking sounds like 10. Also felt bad about one of the other girls I was rooming with. She cried herself to sleep. Didn't want to talk.

This morning I started with the free continental breakfast from the hotel. Fruit, bread, cereal, tea, cookies. Was good.

Spent my morning wandering the town. I tried to avoid the shops, as I knew that I'll be heading to the Chichi market on Sunday where I can most likely get better bargins. I mostly spent the morning going through churches, cathedrals, and convents. Antigua has many of them, many in ruins from earthquakes in the 1700s. My favourite was the Convent of Las Capuchinas Nuns. Could see their "cells" where they slept, and the church, and really pretty gardens... just like out of The Sound of Music. lol.

Had lunch at a great restaurant. I think it was called Cafe Flores. I met the owner. Nice guy from El Salvador. He actually studied in Canada for awhile, learning English. I said I was from near Toronto. He said "London?" Cool that he even knows there. Told him I was near there too. He'd never heard of Kitchener or Waterloo. GREAT food. I had Pad Thai (peanut curry sauce) with tofu. SO yummy.

In the afternoon, I booked a tour through a local travel agency, to ride through the mountains for a few hours on horseback. A bus picked me up from the travel agency and took me about a five minute drive to a coffee plantation. Very pretty. Travelled in the van with two women from Wisconsin who are doing a 5 week intense Spanish study... one on one teaching for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. You lodge with a local family. Anyways, these ladies were in their 40s and decided it was something they had always wanted to do.

So the ladies went on a coffee tour of the plantation while I got on a huge horse named Rosaline. The trip was cool. Definitely worth it. He asked if I wanted to go up into the mountains or through the outskirts of town. Of course I chose the mountains. Fairly scary though... SUPER steep, cobblestone walkways, which were not scary on the way up but scary on the way down when I just prayed that my horse didn't lose her footing.

We went super high. At the very top there was a lookout point. We tied up the horses and looked down over Antigua. Una buena vista! Took lots of pictures although it was afternoon and lots of clouds were forming. Looked like rain. Still awesome though. Sat on a bench at the top for about 10 minutes talking to my guide. Which is another thing. In reflecting back on not even being able to order Wendy's properly my first week in Honduras, I am so proud of my Spanish and how far it's come. Although my comversations with people are sometimes very thin, I can still have conversations in Spanish. When James and I were in Copan, I was even translating stuff for him. Did the same for another traveller in my room this morning. Feels great.

Anyways, my legs are now really sore from the 2 hour ride through the mountain. I was also soaking wet as it did in fact rain. When we got down to the bottom, I met back up with the ladies from Wisconsin, and their tour guide, and we all enjoyed a cup of coffee, which was included in our tickets. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but it was GOOD coffee. Good conversation too. Really nice people.

It's been raining now, all evening. Went out to grab some food and now am checking e-mail. Love having free internet at the hotel! Tomorrow morning I leave Antigua at 7:30am, heading for Panajachel. I hope to find a shuttle from Panajachel to Chichicastenango, but may have to wait for Sunday morning. Either way, Sunday morning is market day. HUGE market in Chichi. Totally excited.

Hasta Luego!

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