Ruins and colonial city of Antigua

Upon our arrival in Antigua, Saira, our minibus driver, helped us to set up our trip the next day to Panajachel by reserving our seats on the bus and then also getting us our minibus tickets back to GC on Saturday at 4AM. The Yellow House hostel was great, we got a private room for $10, dropped off our bags and went to breakfast, needing food and coffee. Also went searching for a bank to cash our Traveller's Checks, which Cathleen says she will never bring again -- hotels don't take them, nor do restaurants or stores or hotels or even most banks.

This is Cathleen taking over for Rhonda -- we found a place to have breakfast and it was the worst food I've ever had in my life. We ate enough for basic sustenance, then trekked out again to try to get some money. We finally found a bank that would take our damn Traveller's Checks.

So, then we traipsed around Antigua -- it's an interesting city -- it's been destroyed by earthquakes many times, and eventually abandoned. Then it was re-populated and now the people live among all of these ruins of these huge Catholic churches, monastaries and cathederals. There is a massive ruin every couple of blocks. Some of them have been partially restored and they hold services in them. We walked and walked and walked the cobblestone streets of Antigua, exploring ruin after ruin and now Rhonda is thoroughly saturated with Catholicism. She says she's had her fill for a long time.

During our exploration, we found the "gringo" part of down - Avenida 1. There are many foreigners living here from all over the world and we found a little cafe Y Tu Pina Tambien that was run by a French guy, Benito, which had wonderful food -- carrot/coconut/ginger soup, Chicken Chutney sandwich, delicious coffee and a nutella and banana crepe... mmmm mmmmm mmmmm.

We continued to explore -- you'll have to see the pictures. And then we were soooooo exhausted. We went back to the hostel and had hot (yeah! hot!) showers then headed out to dinner at a wonderful little place that had Italian food and wine. We met an interesting local, Ignacio, who told us a bit of history about the city. Apparently, La Sirena, another restaurant, was opened by two gay guys from the U.S. and when they passed away, it was left to one of their Guatemalan lovers.

After dinner, we took a Tuc Tuc (awesome little scooter cabs) to Sky Bar, which is owned by someone from Holland and has an awesome view from the roof. He said that sometimes you can see Fuego, one of the volcanos, spewing smoke and flames, but that he's been quiet for a few weeks now.

We debated going out to another bar, but then decided we had best get some rest as we were to head off again in the morning -- destination: San Marcos.