Nosotos estamos en Antigua hablando espanol

Well, for those of you who ´no habla espanol´, the above title means that we are now in Antigua Guatemala and are speaking spanish .... a little at least!

We arrived here on Sunday 28th and are just starting our second week at the Spanish school here. We survived our first week and managed to converse with our teacher to some degree. We are lucky in that our teacher speaks English fairly well, so when we really get stuck he will help us out with a translation. Otherwise, it is all in Spanish. Something of a challenge for us but we are learning a lot and are certainly a lot better at understanding what is being said, if not being able to say much yet. Here at the Centro Liguistico Internacional they speak very slowly and clearly with expressive body movements to help us understand. The school is in an old hacienda that has been converted for use for instruction. Most students have a dedicated instructor, though Sue and I share one teacher, Edin Ruano, a charming Guatemalteca about 30 or so. Our classes are held in the courtyard of the property. We sit outside at a little desk and chat about Guatemala, Canada and other countries. We probably spend about 1 hour or so learning and practicing grammar, and the rest of the three hours in conversation. It is great to learn about Edin´s country and culture. I think we will likely have enough capability to get by in our upcoming travels. I may have mentioned previously that it would be really tough for anyone who couldn´t speak any Spanish to travel here, as one encounters English speaking individuals only occasionally. At our ´casa´a young fellow arrived yesterday from Korea to go to Spanish school here. He doesn´t speak English or Spanish, so he is going to have quite a time. He seems to know nothing about western culture. He came out from his room last night and motioned for us to come in. He held up the blanket on his bed with a questioning look and apparently didn´t know how to use the bed and covers. I had to show him that he was supposed to get between the sheets and put his bed on the pillow. I don´t envy his challenge!

Well, let me record some of our adventures over the last week or so. I last wrote from Puerto Barrios where we spent our first full week. We left there by bus and had a fairly uneventful 5 hr trip back to Guatemala City...only saw one major accident en route between a semi and a van. Although most people here drive slower than anywhere else I´ve ever seen, the roads are so winding and sometimes rough, that accidents are common. We also didn´t encounter any problems with bandits or anything. Every guide book starts with a discussion of personal safety and makes it sound as if one is risking one´s life to step into the street. This is a dangerous part of the world in many ways. Robberies do occur and the crime rate is high. Forty people a day are murdered in Guatemala. But so far we have been fine and I think if one uses common sense there shouldn´t be a problem. The key is never adventuring anywhere by yourself. There is a great system of Tourist Police here. They will accompany groups on walks and tours to ensure their safety. Police and security guards are everywhere here. They all carry hand guns and shot guns or automatic weapons. I think it is also legal for individuals to carry weapons as most museums have signs up forbidding bringing in guns...just like a sign that may say no photos or no entry.

Anyway, we arrived back in GC about 3pm and took a taxi to the bus station where the chicken buses leave for Antigua, a small city about 30 kms outside GC. We had heard about chicken buses and had seen them barrelling down the streets of GC spuing deisel fumes with engines roaring. We actually thought we were going to get a tourist bus or shuttle to Antigua, but we ended up on a chicken bus instead. We were pushed aboard, our bags stowed with the driver, not on an empty seat as all seats, as we were soon to learn, are eventually occupied. And with that, the driver floored the bus and we rocketed down the street. Chicken buses are old school buses which are imported from the states and completely rebuilt here in Guatemala. They are painted garish colors and are covered in chrome, each with its own name. There were only 4 or 5 people on board when we left the terminal, but the bus stopped 2 or 3 times along the way to pick up people. As the bus raced along the streets of the city, the conductor hung out the open door yelling ¨Antigua, Antigua¨at the top of his lungs. Whenever someone signalled the bus, it would stop and pick them up. Then the bus stopped at a market where the conductor got off and ´worked the crowd´trying to get people to come to his bus rather than the competitions´buses. This was repeated a couple of times until the bus was jam packed, with 3 people on each of the two person seats and the aisles full of others. And then we were off at a hair raising rate towards the outskirts of GC, the wind howling in through the open windows, deisel fumes whafting through the bus continuously and the sound system blasting out Spanish music at a decibel level enough to give us concern about our eardrums surviving the trip! The driver obviously thought he´d missed his calling as a formula one race car driver, but happily we did arrive in Antigua in one piece 1.5hrs after we set off and all for 7 quetzales or $1 each.

We were dropped near our accomodation and we walked up to where we are staying. We had been expecting to stay with a Guatemalan family, but it turns out that the family actually lives next door and our house is like a student residence. There are about 6 or 7 rooms most having to share a bathroom, though we have our own bano. Our room is very small but clean and suits us just fine for the two weeks we are here. All our meals are provided by a lovely young woman who comes to clean and cook each day. She has breakfast ready at 7am and doesn´t leave till the dinner dishes are done about 7pm, so works over 12 hours each day, 6 days a week. For this she is paid 1300 quetzales a month or about $180. One soon gets an appreciation here for the huge difference in the standard of living between a developing country such as Guatemala and what we are used to in Canada. We calculated that our teacher makes under $2 per hour and he works only when he has students. He would be considered a professional with a good job here. Poverty and child labour are evident everywhere, even in relatively affluent Antigua.

Our hosts who live next door, are a very nice young couple. Flor is a beautiful dark skinned woman in her late twenties I would guess while Gustavo, her husband, is a handsome fellow about the same age. They have a daughter Gabby who is two. Gustavo is a surgeon and works several days a week in GC.

We were very surprised to find another couple from Canada staying at the casa when we arrived. Frank and Lee are about our own age, and get this...not only are they from Canada, but they are also from Calgary and live in Scenic Acres a few blocks from our house. Un mundo muy pequeno!! ..... small world. The rest of the gang are all very nice and it has been like being in a university dorm.

Antigua is a lovely town. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and thus is well maintained. There are many Spanish academies here and the students and other tourists bring in lots of money. Even so, there are many beggars in the streets and it is obvious that most people here will be challenged to exist from one day to the next. The town itself is in a valley surrounded by three towering volcanoes, one of which is active with smoke billowing from its cone everyday. You can take tours to climb the volcanoes, though we aren´t going to do that as we have that planned for Costa Rica. All the streets here are made of cobblestone and the buildings are all painted bright pastel colors. Antigua is short for Antigua Guatemala and it is the forerunner to today´s Guatemala City. Antigua means ancient and this town was once the capital of Guatemala. A nubmer of earthquakes have repeatedly destroyed the city, but there are vestiges of its former glory at every turn. Most of the churches and other buildings that were toppled in the 17th and 18th centuries have been left in place and there is a ruined church or a collapsed wall on every block it seems. It is fascinating just to walk around the town and see all the ruins and imagine what a stunning site this town must have been in its heyday. Every day we have visited a ruin of some sort. One church we saw today had had very little reconstruction and mamoth pieces of the ancient masonary and eight foot thick walls weighing tons lay scattered around the interior as if some giant hand had been throwing pebbles around. It was a clear indication of the awesome destructive power of an earthquake.

The people of this town are fascinating and very colorful. There are the Guatemaltecas, primarily descended from the Spanish and the native Mayan population. The latter are very colorful with there dark skins and bright clothing. The Mayan women especially are decked out in native dress and are to be seen all over the town. They ware emboidererd tops and colorful skirts and often carry bundles on their heads walking down the street. Most of the markets and shops are staffed by Mayans while the Guatamaltecas do everything else from stand guard outside a bank to drive the little putt putt taxis that take you anywhere in Antigua for 10 quetzales or $1.50.

One of the great passtimes here is trying to find a cash machine that works or a bank you can get into. There are 5 or 6 ATMs in the main Parque Central area and on a good day, one or two of them will have some cash. You can always tell which ones are working by the line ups of tourists outside. But at least we can usually get some cash in one or two days. The poor locals don´t seem to have bank cards and last Saturday the lines for the various banks stretched around the block. Someone said the locals typically wait 4 hours to get into a bank to cash their pay cheques or get cash.

Sue´s sister Rose and Darien arrive on Friday. They will be travelling with us for the next three weeks as we tour Guatemala and Belize. We are looking forward to that.

Will write again next week.

Hasta Luego