Current location:	Antigua, Guatemala
Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	life, travel

Antigua, Guatemala: first impressions
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the authorities in Guatemala have a pretty relaxed approach to dealing with tourists. Although I had dutifully checked the box stating that I was bringing "food or other animal products" into the country, they didn't bother asking me what it was - chocolate, as it happens. The drive from Guatemala City to Antigua was windy and lined with numerous gas stations but the red cats-eyes were pretty.

Antigua is a very small city laid out in a nice grid of small blocks separated by cobblestone roads that prevent traffic from moving too fast, which is a pedestrian's delight, but there are no streets signs to be found. Although it's pretty tourist-friendly in a way that's reminiscent of Victoria in BC, almost none of the residents know more than a scant handful of English words so there's a strong incentive to learn functional Spanish ASAP, which is exactly what I want. On the other hand, if Theresa hadn't been around to help me out today, I would have had a tough time interacting with anybody in town.

Although we had originally entertained hopes of using local SIM cards in the multi-band GSM phones we brought along, that didn't pan out so we're phoneless. Fortunately, the student house in which we're staying has DSL and most local cafes offer complementary wifi. I've also already consumed unfiltered local water so things may get interesting soon. I have acquired only a single souvenir so far. It's a wooden mask for which I paid the list price before realizing that we're expected to bargain. Although I'm not going to sweat the $2 USD I could have saved there, we practiced our bargaining acumen at the main souvenir market for future use. Random neat fact: the local currency is named after the national bird.

While exploring the city we discovered this mysterious cultural gallery that is free to enter but requires visitors to provide their passport numbers. It houses some fascinating local works of art and features the most immaculate public washrooms I've ever seen. Another novel discovery was the local practice of letting candle drippings accumulate at the base of holders to form intricate patterns of multicoloured wax.

After lunch we sat on a bench in the central park amongst a menagerie of other people watching a couple of adorable local kids chasing down bubbles being blown by a tourist couple. Also vying to entertain us were two groups of tourists who ended up taking pictures with each other in just about every possible configuration.

We've been practicing our nascent Spanish vocabularies by attempting to decipher every piece of text we come across. The subtle pitfalls of translation were hammered home to us when we attempted to figure out what "un poco de todo" meant by translating each word to get "one small of all". A random tourist, amused by our linguistic antics, informed us that it meant "a little of everything". Another matter that has caused us much confusion here is the time-zone. Depending on whom we ask, it's anywhere between 1 and 3 hours ahead of PDT. Apparently many of the locals are blissfully unaware of daylight savings. Update: Antigua is 2 time-zones ahead of PST but they don't observe daylight savings so they are only 1 hour ahead right now.

Tomorrow we begin our Spanish lessons.