Antigua, Volcanoes and Piñatas.

Volcan de Agua (Water Volcano).





Mayan word of the day:

Kuk: kaqchikel for ardilla, or squirrel.


Two sundays ago was a big sigh for the group being we all went down to Antigua for the day. It had been an intense week at our training site and we all felt we needed to let loose. We finished up some homework we had for Monday from 8 to 12 and headed to Antigua. We arrived at about 12:30ish and landed straight in Mono Loco which is a big Peace Corps Hang out spot. We had some nachos and a beer and unsurprised we met up with the rest of our Youth development group. After, we just walked around and I bought a really cool Mayan Carry on Bag which I will use through out the rest of the time here. I was able to squeeze some time before I went back home to use the local internet cafe in san Bartolome.








We are definatelly going back to Antigua. Its a really cool lil Colonial town with lots of tourism. Things could get expensive in there though...

Apparently Antigua was the second capital of Guatemala after the first capital "Ciudad Vieja" was destroyed by a mudslide off Volcan de Agua (Volcano of Water) in the 1600`s/1700`s. The capital was then moved to Guatemala city about 30 miles east of Antigua in about the 1800`s (could be wrong) when Antigua suffered a devastating earthquake.

Volcan de Agua.



Antigua was later rebuilt and now is mainly a tourist location where many peaople come for its famous Spanish schools. There are many museums one which is called El Azoteo which is a cofee plantation turned museum. It has exibits of traditional pre and post colonial indigenous Mayan Music, culture and garments.

We visited this museum last Friday with our Spanish class. The end of the tour consists of a tour of the processing of the cofee plus a tour of the plantation itself...Here are some pics.











Ripe Cofee, (Yumm!)






This past saturday the Trainees at S. Bartolome were invited to a 1st year birthday party in a terreno (farm) located in the outskirts of San Bartolome. They were celebrating Ana`s host brother's first B-Day. There was food, Piñatas and over 100 children! (exageration) Botton line was that these kids went crazy when the Piñatas came out and hell broke loose when they were opened, even grandma dove in to get some candy!