Guatemala: Round 1

Honduras was supposed to be my next destination after Cuba but Guatemala would turn out to be the 2nd of many alterations in my itinerary. According to my original plan, Guatemala was supposed to be on the "NO list". It is supposed to be a dangerous country, especially Guatemala City. 45 people get killed in Guatemala City every week and I wasn't planning on being one of them. After many recommendations I bought a ticket to Guatemala anyway. Antigua, 2 hours away from the Guatemala city, was recommended by all the travelers I met. This was a decision I shared With David, a decision that would turn out to be the most rewarding of all. I obviously am absolutely crap at judging and choosing traveling destinations. The country that I wanted to leave out of the 13 odd that I was going to visit turns out to be my favorite for adventure, experience and culture.

I arrived in Guatemala city late Friday night with Cuba still on my mind. With no intentions of staying there I looked for a way to get to Antigua. It cost $10 to get to Antigua in 2 hours: a bargain. Upon arrival I dumped my ever so conveniently small backpack in El Gato Negro Hostel and headed out (the backpack that I mentioned in the beginning, the kind that you take on a jog to the park, but never on a 4 month trip through south America). It was past midnight and dark so I did my best to find night life wearing a Rolling Stones T shirt that I stole (and now own) from Palfreeman. As it turns out, no bars and clubs can stay open after 1am in Antigua. I had one Hour. I Managed to find a live music place to chill out. At the least I got a picture with Palfreeman T shirt on stage banging the drums looking like a rocker.

The next day I headed out to check out the town. Antigua was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You could see colonial Spanish architecture in all the buildings. A church on every street albeit uninhabited by worshipers. Guatemalans are very religious people.

Although there is one McDonald's, one Burger King's and one Subway in Antigua, you wouldn't find any big signs advertising them. The signs you will find advertising them are not huge yellow 'M' that we are used to. They are hard to notice, (Unless you are about 10 feet away from them) 2 square feet in diameter and a quarter of an inch thick at the most and made out of bronze bronze.