Market and Church

Without someone telling me, I stumbled upon one of the best markets. However, the sad part is that they were closing in 20 minutes. It was clearly an old Antique market full of souvenirs. Anything you wanted they had it and they were friendly rather than pushy and sarcastic. Initially, I met a woman selling t-shirts for $10, but she didn't have the color I wanted.
  

Next, I met a beautiful Colombian girl. The long hair, nice body, and pretty smile-yep that's her! She had the best display in her shop with all the colors shining bright in your face. Colombians sure do love colors! This shop had the Mayan belts, backpacks, jewelry, coin purses, all kind of rocks and jewels from the Mountains, instruments, artwork, etc. The tribal patterns looked similar to Guatemala, but the prices were a bit higher(different product quality).

  

She kept saying I was pretty and I said she was pretty and I started with my Colombian female interview.

"Why are Colombian girls so pretty?"

 

Answer: "We like to take care of ourselves, our hair, our make up, or nails. It's part of the culture for women."

"Do they work out?"

Answer:  Some do light running or walking or the gym. I run about once a week."

"Hmm ok I see.

Do you eat food?"

Answer: She is laughing.

"Of course. I eat a lot of food."

 

"Like what kinds of food?"

Answer: I don't eat fast food, but I eat everything else. 

Basically she was telling me she eats a lot of food. The conversation with me shaking my head and her laughing. Oh these Colombian girls.

I ended up buying a Dream catcher, a bracelet from her, and a couple key chains. She was pleased and asked me to come back tomorrow for lunch. That was my departure day Of Course.

         

             

                         

We had to part and I had to head to the 7pm service at San Antonio. I must have asked 5 people how to get there and finally I made it, but late. The pastor was speaking about having faith in ourselves and in our communities. How do we have this faith when things feel hopeless? We have to lift our hands up and praise the lord, praise he lord, praise the lord. Only he can restore our faith and make us feel peace and excitement. 

          

                    

Buses and Shopping

Chilling at the bus station, I meet a nice man as I am waiting for the Western Union to open. He's a bus driver and he works 7 days a week. This is common you will hear that bus drivers and taxi drivers work 7 days a week.  People don't realize what a hard job it is, which is what I emphasized to him. 

We are standing there waiting a line about 20 of us. It is 9:05, 9:10, and 9:45, this girl finally comes strolling in late. This should really not happen with Western Union because people need their money. She tells me that mine is not there yet and I sigh loudly.  My friend tells me about a mall across the street that also has a Western Union.  

I walk out to the hot weather and cross the street to find a huge mall full of everything you could imagine-every brand, yogurt places, Americanized restaurants, Starbucks-it was pretty much like a mall you would find in US.  How genius is it to put a huge mall directly across from the main bus station. What a money making idea. 

 

While I heard the shopping in Panama was good, this was great. I chilled out until I picked up my money and I went shopping. This probably could be the worst location for me to pick up money-worst. I snacked on some candy, frozen yogurt, and a Mrs. Field's cookie. 

I bought some new dresses that were super affordable at the Conair. It was surprising they had this store from New York. The stores were loaded with dresses, shorts, jumpers, skirts, pants, scarves, jewelry, accessories-you name it, they had it. 

They had some department stores with amazing prices and good quality. Not to mention, they were packed with women ready to shop. These women seriously shop! They have huge baskets and carts full of stuff-it's like there will never be shopping again. I can't recall ever seeing a woman buy that much unless it was a store closing or maybe a sample sale. 
For lunch, I decided to be an American go to TGIF Fridays where I enjoyed some nice salmon with rice and beans. As mentioned, the people working at American restaurants have total respect for their job and they take pride in their work. They want to impress you and make you feel good when you are an American.  They could not be any nicer and cuter at this restaurant. 

 

It was around 5pm and I was still there walking around. It was clearly time for me to get over to my accommodation.  I found a nice taxi driver who was fair with his price and knew where he was going- thankful.  While I wanted to go to the Hard Rock, I was going to go there all disheveled. I decided to go to the famous hostel that's found in different cities all over the world. With it's reviews, I was definitely interested knowing that they had a spot for me and it was clean. 

Some Kind of Charm

Sometimes you just know you will love a place before you even arrive.  You may google its history and images, hear it about it from a friend, read about in a book-there is something about that place that you just gravitate towards.  It's the place you envision in your head and it's exactly what you thought it would be and more.  This place for many tourists is the wonderful city of... Antigua. 

Antigua is a city that my American friend always raved about during our discussions about traveling.  It made me curious about Antigua and wonder why she felt so connected to in this city.  It turns out that Antigua was one of the colonial capitals of the Spanish empire in America from the 16th to 18th centuries.  The capital was moved to the location of Guatemala City, which left Antigua to be the remains of the "Old Guatemala."

Antigua has many buildings with Spanish Architecture in colors of yellow, coral, blue, white, red, and they seem to all have their own kind of character.  Amongst the cobblestone streets is a backdrop of green and white clouds of smoke from the volcano.  The cobblestone streets are quite nice, but these are poorly paved and very uneven.  It makes it difficult for pedestrians and bikes. 

On the other hand, it also makes it fun to watch people bounce up and down constantly when simply riding or driving. The main tourist destination is the Parque Central, which has a park, fountain, church, market and surrounding restaurants in a square form.  

The markets sell anything from food to authentic wood crafts to jewelry to colorful tribal skirts to ponchos.  It was surprising to see the wide variety of crafts that Guatemala has and how much skill is put into each and every piece. Surrounding the Parque Central are the streets filled with many restaurants and bars catered towards tourists.  Many students come to study Spanish, volunteers, and tourists visit Antigua making it an international hub.

While Antigua is fantastic, it can be a bit difficult to get around as the streets do not all have names and many shift and turn into different names. I was a bit confused when leaving my hostel and I walked down the street and hit a dead end with dogs barking. Clearly that was not the way so I asked two friendly men dressed traditionally in their Mayan tribal shirts. They provided some great directions and I was on my way in no time. There was just encounter after encounter where people were so kind and sometimes this kindness is what gives you courage and what gets you to your destination AND  to your next destination.   And my next destination just happened to be church. 

The Catedral de Santiago is near Parque Central, but this church was fairly close to my hostel and just full of locals only.   People appeared to be so present, thankful, and blessed.  The pastor was speaking slowly so I could understand pretty well.  After this I stopped at another local church nearby where it said, "No touristas", but I went in to pray not photograph everything.

My adventure continues to the next post with another beautiful interpersonal interaction......