Highlights
Sorry I didn´t write for a few days, but we have been über busy and having a blast. Here are just some of the highlights from the past few days:
Pastores
For starters, I hate shopping. More than almost anything. I´d rather drive rusty fish hooks under my fingernails than spend a day doling out money for things I didn´t want in the first place and that Liz didn´t know she wanted until she saw them.
On that note however, I LOVE Pastores. This quaint little town (i.e. two street village) 7 km from Antigua is awesome. The main drag hosts 20+ leather stores in a 500 yard stretch. By leather stores, I mean handcrafted boots, bags, belts, cowboy hats, and overstuffed taxidermied animals. Liz and I did some serious damage by Guatemalan standards, but by American standards, we made out like bandits with four pairs of handmade boots, crafted and molded to fit our feet in the back of the store, and two belts, all for less than my one pair of cowboy boots back home. Needless to say that I will be going back on Wednesday to purchase a pair of black formalwear cowboy boots. As I always say, it´s not gonna be fun unless you got your boots on.
Bike Tour of Coffee Plantation
On Saturday morning, Liz compromised with me and agreed to go on my short cruising bike ride rather than her intense 4-hr marathon bike derby. Needless to say, I think we made the right decision. We spent the morning riding around a 200 acre coffee plantation on the outskirts of town. The farm annually harvests 300,000 lbs of coffee which they sell to Starbucks. We spent two hours biking up, down, and around rows of lush coffee plants (which are actually removed and replanted every 5 years). The scenery was also filled with tall cypress, pine, and macademia trees which provide shade for the plants and delicious, fresh nuts for us/me to snack on during our ride. We also met a nice backpacker from Telluride and hung out with our guides/bike store owners for a while after our ride finished. (She offered us floor space in Telluride this winter and I am definitely planning to take her up on the offer)
Local Bar
After our first meal outside our homestay, a gluttonously delicious affair at Hector´s replete with multiple courses and a bottle of wine, we decided to hit the town. We checked out a bar popular with expats that usually has live music, but it was a little mellow and they were between acts. We walked out the door and followed the music towards the central square, where we came across a bar blasting latino rap and tons of people our age hanging out on the sidewalk outside. Liz was hesitant to go in because we were the only gringos in sight, but we decided to take the plunge and into the bar we went. Indeed we were the only gringos around but I´m sure we fit right in. After a Gallo beer at the bar and some fun people watching, we hit the dance floor. The music was what an American sixth grader might call "grinding music" but no one was touching. Everyone grooves in their own space and if they are dancing with someone, it means that they are in closer proximity and facing that person. With the exception of the spicy couple salsa-ing beside us, I think our dancing (i.e holding hands while grooving) was a bit racy.
Earth Lodge
Final highlight, before Liz tortures me with another morning of shopping, was the Earth Lodge. Our guidebook calls it a "slice of hippie heaven" and that is accurate, if not a total understatement. Our ride up the mountain was an interesting affair involving benches in the back of a pickup truck, a young couple fresh out of Teach for America, a disgruntled NYC art teacher, and a road that I am positive was used for the last Land Rover off-road commercial. But we made it (i.e. we didn´t fall off the cliffs that lined the road and plunged hundreds of feet straight down) but instead ended up at a half-built lodge overlooking Antigua´s valley. Lunch consisted of delicious local sausage (made by a mennonite farmer...whod´ve thunk?) and great burger. The whole place operates on an honor system of payment and we had the most delicious Guacemole made from the lodge´s working avocado farm. We then had an intense Baggo game with our new teacher friends on a Baggo set that vies for the most beautiful Baggo setting ever. The afternoon consisted of lounging in hammocks, a short hike, napping, reading, and eventually returning to Antigua for a sushi dinner.
Pastores
For starters, I hate shopping. More than almost anything. I´d rather drive rusty fish hooks under my fingernails than spend a day doling out money for things I didn´t want in the first place and that Liz didn´t know she wanted until she saw them.
On that note however, I LOVE Pastores. This quaint little town (i.e. two street village) 7 km from Antigua is awesome. The main drag hosts 20+ leather stores in a 500 yard stretch. By leather stores, I mean handcrafted boots, bags, belts, cowboy hats, and overstuffed taxidermied animals. Liz and I did some serious damage by Guatemalan standards, but by American standards, we made out like bandits with four pairs of handmade boots, crafted and molded to fit our feet in the back of the store, and two belts, all for less than my one pair of cowboy boots back home. Needless to say that I will be going back on Wednesday to purchase a pair of black formalwear cowboy boots. As I always say, it´s not gonna be fun unless you got your boots on.
Bike Tour of Coffee Plantation
On Saturday morning, Liz compromised with me and agreed to go on my short cruising bike ride rather than her intense 4-hr marathon bike derby. Needless to say, I think we made the right decision. We spent the morning riding around a 200 acre coffee plantation on the outskirts of town. The farm annually harvests 300,000 lbs of coffee which they sell to Starbucks. We spent two hours biking up, down, and around rows of lush coffee plants (which are actually removed and replanted every 5 years). The scenery was also filled with tall cypress, pine, and macademia trees which provide shade for the plants and delicious, fresh nuts for us/me to snack on during our ride. We also met a nice backpacker from Telluride and hung out with our guides/bike store owners for a while after our ride finished. (She offered us floor space in Telluride this winter and I am definitely planning to take her up on the offer)
Local Bar
After our first meal outside our homestay, a gluttonously delicious affair at Hector´s replete with multiple courses and a bottle of wine, we decided to hit the town. We checked out a bar popular with expats that usually has live music, but it was a little mellow and they were between acts. We walked out the door and followed the music towards the central square, where we came across a bar blasting latino rap and tons of people our age hanging out on the sidewalk outside. Liz was hesitant to go in because we were the only gringos in sight, but we decided to take the plunge and into the bar we went. Indeed we were the only gringos around but I´m sure we fit right in. After a Gallo beer at the bar and some fun people watching, we hit the dance floor. The music was what an American sixth grader might call "grinding music" but no one was touching. Everyone grooves in their own space and if they are dancing with someone, it means that they are in closer proximity and facing that person. With the exception of the spicy couple salsa-ing beside us, I think our dancing (i.e holding hands while grooving) was a bit racy.
Earth Lodge
Final highlight, before Liz tortures me with another morning of shopping, was the Earth Lodge. Our guidebook calls it a "slice of hippie heaven" and that is accurate, if not a total understatement. Our ride up the mountain was an interesting affair involving benches in the back of a pickup truck, a young couple fresh out of Teach for America, a disgruntled NYC art teacher, and a road that I am positive was used for the last Land Rover off-road commercial. But we made it (i.e. we didn´t fall off the cliffs that lined the road and plunged hundreds of feet straight down) but instead ended up at a half-built lodge overlooking Antigua´s valley. Lunch consisted of delicious local sausage (made by a mennonite farmer...whod´ve thunk?) and great burger. The whole place operates on an honor system of payment and we had the most delicious Guacemole made from the lodge´s working avocado farm. We then had an intense Baggo game with our new teacher friends on a Baggo set that vies for the most beautiful Baggo setting ever. The afternoon consisted of lounging in hammocks, a short hike, napping, reading, and eventually returning to Antigua for a sushi dinner.
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