Clear Volcano Views

Tuesday, Apr. 12, and Wednesday, April 13, 2011—Antigua

Antigua is a nice city for a person just wanting to be lazy. It’s a small town making it possible to walk anywhere in just a few minutes. There is the main plaza and there are also small plazas at the fronts of many churches for relaxing and watching people. The air is fresh. Everyone is friendly. And it is such a beautiful city with the cobblestone streets, colonial buildings with their domed chimneys, and the volcanoes that surround it. I’ve spent the last two days just walking the streets and relaxing and watching people. Occasionally, I get a glimpse into a wonderful courtyard.

One thing that amazes me is the number of bakeries in this town. They must have more bakeries per capita than any other city in the world. And the best part is that they do not all offer the same products. The emphasis is on quality at many of them. It’s a bakery paradise!

They also have an over-abundance of atmospheric restaurants. I wonder if some of them must not go days without a single customer because there are so many of them. Someone living here has a nice choice of places to eat, although they also need a deep pocketbook for many of the restaurants.

Today there was no haze. It was possible to look out my window right at a clear view of the volcano to the south of the city. Usually, I have seen its outline though a haze. Another guest said it was the first time the volcano view had been clear since she had been there. There are three volcanoes around the city.

There are very few franchises here. That’s good to see. Three is a Burger King, a McDonalds, a Subway, a Dominoes, an Alamo-National, and a Century 21 that I have seen. Most people seem to go to local places for business. A supermarket in the center of the city that is very popular looks as if it hasn't been remodeled since the 1940s.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time sitting at the Main Plaza in town. It is very peaceful there, and there seem to be enough benches to accommodate everyone which is not usually the case in most cities. Occasionally a woman will come by trying to sell something, but they don’t hassle anyone. There are far too many shoeshine boys (and many are literally boys of only 9-10 years old which is sad to see). Even these, however, pass by if discouraged.

Today, I visited with a man who has two children in school here. He owns a ranch about an hour south of here. His wife is American, and his children were born in the US. They moved to here because his father needed him to manage the ranch. We talked about his 16-year-old son who is finishing school and wants to go to college in the US. He is worried that he is too young. I told him about the importance of residency (lower in-state tuition vs. higher out-of-state tuition) and suggested that his son might spend a year doing volunteer work establishing residency before enrolling in school. We also talked about the crime problems here in Guatemala and his thoughts about selling their ranch and returning to the US to live with the entire family. He said he just hates to give up the good, easy life here. He has a home here in Antigua, however, so I suggested he could return for a month or two at a time anytime he wanted and that he could rent it out to tourists otherwise.

Tonight, I went to an Easter festival at a local church/school. It was a local crowd only, and they smiled when they saw the tourist with his camera! Inside the church, there was an elaborate example of the special carpets they make of sawdust, flowers, fruits, etc., and there was a huge mural fronted by sculptures of angels. People attending went inside the church to see these, then they stood outside visiting and eating foods from the many booths set up along the streets. Unfortunately, I had eaten a late lunch at 16:30 and wasn't hungry, but I saw so many delicious looking things: pupusas, empanadas, tostadas, grilled sausages and beef, fried bananas, candied apples, hot dogs, tortas, etc.

Tomorrow I will take a bus to Guatemala City. I’ll travel again on a “chicken bus." These are all old Blue Bird buses that have been used in schools in the US. They bring them here, do a little refurbishing, and continue to operate them. This morning I saw one that was still yellow and said “Atlanta I.S.D.” on the side. I did a search thinking that Texas was the only state that uses the I.S.D. designation for school districts, and the only Atlanta I.S.D. was the one in Texas!

I also finally finished reading the novel today that I started when I left. It is 900 pages long, and reading it became a bit tedious because the same story is told three different times from different viewpoints. It was well written, however, and won the National Book Award in 2008. It was Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen. I gave it 3 stars out of 4.