Clowns, Irish pubs, Reggae house parties and failed quizzes

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Wow, time flies when you are unemployed and unencumbered by the details of normal everyday living. Cannot believe we have been in Guatemala for 5 days. Amazing.

Can't say it was love at first sight but definitely severe like. Not much to dislike about Antigua ( Blue skies, bright colors, friendly folks, yummy food, fountains with girls breasts shooting aqua, lots and lots of handsome pups looking happy and well fed and a even an Irish pub!) The biggest challenge is trying to unlearn 30 some years of the habit of flushing toliet paper. A big no no here with signs posted in all the bathrooms.

After a cushy few flts in 6F and an on time arrival( thx AA), I arrived in Guatemala City Friday afternoon and Zach later that evening. Our one and only night in the city was pretty mellow. The exception being the oddest casino I have ever stepped foot in and I have a pretty big point of reference when it comes to casinos. The blackjack tables were packed with men who did not look very inviting so we thought the video poker machines would be a harmless and amusing way to blow a few Q's and minutes as well. WRONG. The buttons were not numbered and I am a total rookie when it comes to any type of electronic game. We both somehow managed to hit the assistance button which resulted in flashing lights and swarms of workers descending upon us to turn them off. The noise and lights would lead an average bystander to believe we actually hit a jackpot but the net result was supreme embarassment and the loss of a couple hundred Q's.

The other memorable things about our 24 hrs in the city were :
1) the prom or local dance being held in our hotel. Pretty much the same as the US, fancy dresses, fancy cars and the girls all looked 5-10 years older then the boys.
2) The amt of adoptive parents and babies in the lobby. We felt out of place b/c we did not have a stroller and guatemalan baby.

And so began our trip.

Our first drinks in Antigua were at happy hour at Reilly's Irish Pub 2 for 1 happy hour...not a bad way to start out. A few Micheladas (beer with salt rim, limes, worschester sauce and hot sauce. Very, very yummy), a few gallo's, cuba libres and we ended up meeting a lot of folks. The bar's motto( a typical Irish one) is come as strangers and leave as friends or something of the like. Well, we meet some locals, some Americans, lots of Europeans, a clown named Yan and ending up leaving with our new mates and heading to a local reggae house party and then a disco...all with clown in tow. In fact, Zach has a souvenir in the form of clown makeup on one of his shirts and some pretty funny pics as well

Our 2nd trip to Reilly's resulted in us coming in last place in the Sunday night Quiz game. Embarassing but true... At least I got the Tom Kite question right but we fumbled badly on the director and classic author portions. They even do a music session somewhat like name that tune...we redeemed ourselves a bit in that portion.

Besides our nights of drinking, we did manage to walk the town a few times over, spend some quality time reading in parks, hit the mkt, check out 4 spanish schools, buy some trinkets( or precious little things as we so fondly call them) find a sim chip so Zach's phone works ( that was quite the mission. I will not bore you with the details but a bit more challenging then hitting the local verizon outlet...it took 2 full days and about 8 stops), see many churchs and stumble on the cobblestones. Walking is a bit of a challenge for me even in flats and sandals I am tripping, stumbling and nearly hitting my head on the concrete window boxes pretty much every block...and that is during the day completely sober!!

Another pleasant surprise and highlight is the fact that sopa (soup) is on every single menu in multiple varieties so no withdrawal like I had in Brazil which resulted in a $15 of soup after the samba parade.

Monday evening we headed to Lago de Atitlan which was quite the journey and another story I will save for tomorrow...

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Comments

[Kevin]

Viva Guatemala
I am jealous and laughing (Sheila has issues with the window boxes as well). And how could I have been to Antigua so many times without ever finding an Irish Bar or a clown for that matter! Have a gallo and some lonito for me...