Business is Business

Friday after work was a swift shift of pace into vacation mode. The thirteen of us took off with our driver Victor, we are total bffs now, to Antigua. It is certainly hard work traveling with this many people, it seemed as if everyone had their role. Mine, was music DJ. I have an eclectic mix on my iPod luckily but it was tough to please everyone, not only do we have a generation break down but also cultural, from Dubai to Taiwan, we have quite the mix. However, Id like to think it was a success considering we sang the entire way there. Have I really only been with these people for six days?! We arrive at our fancy hotel in the middle of town Hotel Posada de Don Rodrigo and our room (me, Becca and Nancy-the tiny Taiwanese lady) had a gorgeous view of the famous clock bridge. Inside our hotel we had a charming garden with an Arabic style fountain with the view of the volcano…yes it was picturesque, so we went a little crazy with pictures for a while. Why do people have to take duplicate pictures? We know you are going to post them online and we can share photos instead of taking five of the same thing….I will never understand this. Anywho, we wanted to venture off and of course everyone was pulling in multiple directions, so we split up. Patti, Becca and I went to my little coffee shop in the plaza (I had to, I told them I was coming back) my little barista friend Claudia made Patti her first cup of coffee out of a V-60…this was extremely exciting for me considering my adoration for the art of coffee. I had been talking this place up to Patti the whole week, and she told me it lived up to its name, and then some, so I was pleased. I deserve some sort of compensation for spreading the word on this place, seriously. Well I did happen to buy a pound of this amazing coffee from “The Orient” which is just the eastern region of Guatemala, but the nodes of caramel sold me. Claudia hooked me up with a hot chocolate with a little bear design in the foam…gosh stop being so cute! I needed to get out of there before I bought more coffee. So we met up the rest of the group at a wine bar and that's when the shopping spree began.

A couple of the women we came with earned their name of “shopaholic” by spending every dime they had…or Quetzal (the currency here), to the point where Nancy tried to keep shopping without realizing she had no money left, someone had to spot her for our last dinner. Let me remind you, stuff is cheap here, like really. I love bartering, at first I really hated it, but now, it has become a fun little challenge. By the end of it you realize you were arguing between 6 and 7 bucks and it seems a bit ridiculous, however, it's about the sense of accomplishment, not the price. It is going to be hard for me to go shopping in the US now, Im going to try to get my purchases down at least 40% and I will probably get laughed at.

After a few hours of being stalked by little kids on the street and me realizing I have no soft spot for that, we decided it was time for dinner. Carlos, my partner in crime from Puerto Rico who loves food just as much as me, finds a great place with amazing reviews…however it’s on the other side of the city, only a 20 minute walk. Walking through these cobblestone streets isn’t exactly a picnic for everyone we are with, so assuring them with how food is going to be after their constants “are we there yet mom” type of responses, we finally make it, and I give Carlos the death stare saying with my eyes “this place BETTER have been worth it” we look inside…it has a bar and a table for three. You've gotta be kidding me! Yep. Rob goes around the corner saying “oh look there is an upstairs!” Turns out there are exactly thirteen chairs up in this attic space they turned into a vintage graffiti covered dining area. We spent about an hour just reading the quotes all over the building, admiring the unique décor, and of course adding a bit of our own. After enjoying some fabulous tenderloin in a peppercorn sauce and a glass of wine, we were ready to roll.

Our goal before we left for our trip was to find a karaoke bar in at least one of the cities we visited, sadly it did not happen, as I love karaoke. But we did stumble across a little dance club where we earned our name of “those loud American girls” as we got the party started as the only ones on the dance floor. Before we knew it I was being spun around by some random old man, I looked around, turns out we were all doing salsa and just going in a big circle changing partners. It was great! But we maneuvered over to the rest of the group and hung out in our own little corner dancing to this random mix of bachata, salsa, rap and techno.

Saturday: We made our three-hour trip to Lake Atitlan. It was as breathtaking as everyone had told me. When you are about to see the lake driving through these winding mountains, you pass a giant waterfall, as if that isn’t welcoming enough, right after it you arrive at Mirador where you have a view of almost the entire lake (its so big theres no way you could see the whole thing). Completely enclosed by mountains and three giant volcanoes, the blue water was stunning. So calm and captivating, I could have easily just sat there the rest of the trip with a cup of tea in hand and a hammock. Set. Turns out there was a lot of tea and hammocks at our hotel, so I guess wishes do come true sometimes. :P

As we came to our hotel though, Rob (this giant 6’5 Canadian man who is the most sarcastic person I think I have ever met) Becca and I are starving by this point, but everyone wants to go on this cruise across the lake to three little cities THEN eat lunch…uhm no, Im not going to wait that long for some grub, especially when I just smelled the most delicious chicken coming in on the bus. So we run, literally run, to grab this street chicken before we depart. For basically an entire leg and breast and some fries, it cost me 15Q which is about $1.80. No hormones, no preservatives….just some regular ole fried chicken. It was heavenly. Running back we get on our boat, which I am almost certain does not pass any of the US safety codes, but that is one thing about Guatemala, you may die doing some activity, and that's just the way it is. At your own risk. Turned out to be a fun little ride, I felt as if I was in New Zealand by how green the mountains were all around us. Plus the boat was so low in the water, that the water came up around us to form a half tunnel of water surrounding our boat, it was pretty neat. (I tried to make a video of this but I don't think it does it justice).

This was our hotel pool. 

To summarize the city hopping, me Rob and Becca stuck together in the first city where the rest of the group just had lunch. Well we already ate, so we ventured off to find some cool art galleries, and I so wish I could have bought some of the paintings I saw, but since we were traveling by boat…I wasn't going to risk it. We met an artist who was actually showcased in Austin! He went through a few of his paintings with me and told me about the meaning behind them. It was very hard to resist. The next town was a bombardment of  little kids telling me how they need to pay for their school and mom’s pointing at their daughters saying they need to eat today….geeze are you kidding me?! Do you just want to take my whole wallet? The other ladies who have bigger hearts than me, or are more easily manipulated, however you want to see it, buy their little trinkets. I try to explain to them that I am a broke college graduate and am here to volunteer to help and give my TIME. However, I understand the desperation, but when we tried to give a boy coins and he says "no I dont want that," I no longer have any sympathy for you. I said "money is money" but the kids just say “business is business, do you want to buy it or not”….wow. That was in English. I think you are doing just fine in school kid. We also got to see where the locals make all their ceramics, that was pretty cool to see, I was more worried about breaking something so I tried to stay clear of the area. The last city we were at for a short time and it was very close to the mountains where you could see a bunch of kites being flown from God knows where, I was playing where’s waldo trying to locate the owner of the kites, it was pretty impossible with the mist. A storm was coming, so we rolled out of there.

The boat ride home was a wet one. Pouring rain we somehow made it back across the giant lake and got ready to go have us some dinner. The majority of the group decided to stay in at the hotel and watch the Marimba band and dancers, Im not that crazy about marimba or eating hotel food, so Becca, Rob, Carlos, Victor, Renee and I decided to go to the Circus Bar where our coordinator had told us had amazing pizza. Yes. I am all about that. They hit the nail on the head because I have never had such an amazing Hawaiian pizza. The only factor I didn't take into consideration was the fact that “Circus” bar meant “clowns”….this country is really pushing it with the whole clown thing. I just cant win. There were pictures of them everywhere. However the great wine and relaxing Spanish guitar music made up for it.

Sunday: Chichicastenango Market, also known as Chichi market for short. I was honestly not that impressed with the selection they offered, as it did not look anything like the pictures. But Becca and I were able to go off on our own and dive into the shops of our choice at our own pace, which was nice. It was just a nice relaxing day at the market and I really enjoyed people watching, and of course the bartering was the best here. My favorite line of many was "Amiga! Buy for your mom? Your boyfriend? Your dog?...Your enemy?"...I laughed out loud at that one. Nicely done sir. Seeing who could get the best deal was the name of the game, and I think I won. The market closes at 2 so we all met up and had lunch at a restaurant at the heart of the market. It was a great way to end the weekend.