Gringotenango

At breakfast this morning, Pedro asked me if I felt the earthquake last night. Hmm... Apparently I slept through it! (He said it wasn’t a strong one.)

After breakfast I left Xela to spend two nights in Antigua. I had to say lots of good-byes, and I think it’s safe to say that the Muñoz family was not ready for me to leave. Both Mayra and Edy made me promise to come back soon, to stay longer the next time, and to bring Dave with me again! :)

I arrived in Antigua around noon. The hotel I’m staying at is called Casa Cristina. I splurged for a room on the third floor. And by “splurge,” I mean that I spent $37/night instead of the usual $22. Yep, I’m serious. And check out the view of Volcan Agua from my window.
Here are a couple other photos of the hotel: my room, the exterior of the hotel and a view from the rooftop terrace.
After I got settled in, I wandered around town for a few hours. Antigua is much different than Xela. First of all, it’s at a lower altitude, so it’s much warmer! I was used to wearing sweaters and sweatshirts in Xela, but I sure won’t need them here. In addition, Antigua is a very colonial European town, which you’ll be able to notice in some of the photos.

Also, Antigua is a tourist town and the tourists are everywhere! I honestly think there are just as many tourists as there are local people. In Guatemala there are a lot of towns with names that end in "tenango." For example: Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, Jocotenango, Chichicastenango... you get the idea. Well, Pedro told me that Guatemalans refer to Antigua as Gringotenango since there are so many tourists here. Now I understand!

I ate lunch at a restaurant called Café Condesa, which is partially indoors and partially outside. I had a cheese, avocado, and tomato sandwich with a side salad and a mango smoothie. One of my goals for my time in Antigua is to eat as many avocados and mangos as possible. So far, so good. :)
I also stopped by a bookstore and purchased a book in Spanish. It’s called Antropologia de la Pobreza (Anthropology of Poverty), and I started reading it while enjoying some sunshine on the rooftop terrace this afternoon. I’m already on page 11… but I won’t tell you how long it took me to read those 11 pages!

Here are a few other various photo from around the city. Tomorrow I'm taking a walking tour of the city, so I'm sure I'll have many more photos to post tomorrow.