3 days in Guatemala City

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After such an amazing first night in the country I could´t wait to see what was in store for the next couple of days. As I wrote in my last post, I spend Thursday night chilling with Lis and friends. Well on Friday we went to Antigua. WE got there in the Late afternoon so we meandered down the old coblestone streets looking at different markets and shops along the way. Oh I discovered my new favorite food! It is called a rellineto (sp?) it is fried platain stuffed with balck beans, and man is it yummy!!! Any who back to topic, we meandered around town. Antigua is at the base of a couple vlocanoes wich I hope to climb one day but we arrived way to late for that. But they sure were pretty to look up at! We walked round the ruins of an old church ( Pictures to come soon) it was realy pretty. We walked into another church that belongs to St Pedro who is simular in many ways to St. Francis. He was one of the first priests to arrive here in Guatemala. He had a deep respect for animals and nature as well as people. He was the first one to say the MAyans were people not savages. For this the church called him a heritic and was tried and I believe killed for this so called herrisy of saying Mayans were people. We ended the eveniong at a bar where I lost track of how many languages were being spoken by patrons and workers alike, such a great sound to hear. Lis and I shared a table with a Guatemalan and a French guy. French dude spoke french, english and was quite good at spanish as well. Guatemalan dude spoke spanish and a little english, Lis speaks spanish and english and of course I speak english, french an a little spanish. And that was just at our table! I heard german, italain and who knows what else spoken. Truely is was a travelers bar!
The next day we had a BBQ on the beach! We went to a beach called Monterico, a couple hours drive south of Guatemala City. Beer, friends, 420, food, music , the beach.... only thing missing was my hoola hoop. One of the guys with us had never been to the beach before, never seen the ocean! He has lived here his entire life ( I´m guessing her was about 18 or 19 years old) and never been to the beach. IT was so great to see him jumping in and out of the waves having the time of his life.
So here I am now in Xella waiting for the school to open so I can check in and meet my host family. After 3 days of trying to speak with Lis´s friends in my pittiful spanish, I am looking forward to learning how to really speak it.
Something bizzare that I have noticed is an unexpected simualrity between Guatemala City and Abidjan (captital of Cote d'Ivoire) The buildings seem to build in the same style including many of the houses. Much of the fruit is the same as well ( I can finaly eat coroso again only here it is called janamana (sp?) which I have only dreamed about for the last 7 years) I even see women carring things on there head in large plastic containers.
Well thats about it for now. I will add pictures as soon as I am able.

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