Day 36 Antigua

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Yesterday we did nothing, so its not really worth mentioning..except our first nightbus journey...10 hours!! It was exhausting, even if we did sleep our way through it! Left Flores at 9pm last night and arrived in Guatemala city at 6 this morning. Quickly had to change bus, almost DIED driving through the City as the bus driver was a nutcase and swerved cars, jumped red lights, slid round corners etc! On the bus we got to know the 2 couples even better and they are lovelyyyyy. Will definately be spending a bit more time with them!

Arrived at the black cat hostel but it wasnt open until 8.30 so we were turned into the rain and sent to find a cafe 'madonnas' to sit in. After much searching it dawned on us that the little spanish nightguard may have meant 'mcdonalds' instead of madonnas!! Ended up eating breakfast elsewhere however... when we arrived at the hostel we were told our rooms wernt cleaned until 12.30. by now we would have slept anywhere!!!! We had a bit of a wander round the town which was gorgeous and very colonial. nothing seemed to have two storeys from the outside so it seemed like a really low city surrounded by 2 volcanoes and mountains on the other side. We found an amazing indoor warehouse which we knew EVERYONE would love from home.... it was filled with artefacts, masks, furniture, boxes, candle holders, material, clothes...everything was hand made and really Guatemalan. (Most things were from their 'day of the dead' festival they hold just after halloween to celebrate the lives of those who've died.) Interestingly there was a chair shaped like a body with Jesus' head on the top... a 10ft tall giraffe (for all those 10ft rooms you might have), a wall of animal masks which amused us for a while, and a terrifying corner of life size puppet/manequin things sitting on chairs looking creepy.

Had some dinner in a mexican restaurant after much deliberation, Tasha was VERY kindly presented with a napkin rose by the 16 year old, 4 ft waitor who'd taken a liking to her... (Em took this as the perfect photo opportunity to gain her revenge on tasha after the creepy north carolina guy incident on caye caulker hahaaaa). We had our first try of 'Mole' (pronounced Molay) which was a chocolate sauce you have over tortillas?! weird...quite glad we only tried it and didnt have it for our meal!!!

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