Antigua

I´m in Antigua, Guatemala right now sitting in an internet cafe. I paid 5 quetzales for 30 minutes. Divide five by 7.5 and that´s about how many American dollars I´m paying. I was dumb and forgot to bring a memory stick to transfer photos onto the blog but hopefully I´ll be able to find one here in Antigua.

Last night I hiked up a volcano. Actually, I rode a horse most of the way because I´m lazy and out of shape and horses are pretty. I´m not sure yet if I´m going to brave the three-day hike, despite Kai´s assurances that there are frequent breaks while hiking. My horse was lead by a little boy named Julius Caesar (Julio Cesare? I can´t spell in Spanish). He said twice that he was ten and then someone else told us he was 16 and another person said he was six, so I really couldn´t tell you how old this kid was, but he has a hell of a job. All day he has to climb up and down a volcano, and then he goes to school. It's insane. The volcano was awesome, and at the top there was a view of both the stars and all of Guatemala City.

I´m gradually picking up some Spanish phrases, but mostly I just ask someone else to translate for me. It´s only been a day, so I´m sure by the end of this trip I´ll have lots of nifty Spanish phrases to get by with. The world feels very silent when everyone around me is speaking a language I don´t understand. I can say basic phrases, but without knowing numbers beyond five, I can´t really haggle and buy things from the market unless someone hagles for me.

Antigua is beautiful and colorful and surrounded by mountains. It used to be the capital of Guatemala until a giant earthquake destroyed most of it. There are ruins from the 1700s around the town and they´re probably my favorite thing about this place. Now that I finally have quetzales, I can pay to go inside the ruins instead of looking at them from outside of fences.

The woman behind me is on the webcam speaking in German, and she probably doesn´t know I can understand most of what she´s saying. This is a very touristy town, so there are a lot of Europeans and Americans all over the place. I have about seven more minutes in this internet session and then I have to head back to the hotel, which is more of a hostel. We´re taking a bus to San Pedro around 2:00, where new adventures await. Bye, everyone!