Weekend Adventure

This weekend I traveled with four other girls to visit Antigua, a nearby city that is hugely different from San Lucas.  While San Lucas is very traditional and conservative, a very Mayan community where most of the women wear traje, Antigua is very modern and European.  Although very touristy, Antigua is a great place to go if you need a breath of fresh air—and great restaurants, shopping, and nightlife.  I also have a friend from college, Brianna, who lives in Antigua and is currently volunteering with Common Hope. 

            Before we could enjoy the luxury of our vacation, however, we had to endure a mode of public transportation that many Guatemalans use every day: the chicken bus.  Chicken Busses (or camionetas for non-gringos) are old school busses that have been painted over brightly and run routes between various cities in Guatemala.  To get to Antigua, we had to first catch a bus to the city of Escuintla, which is about three hours away by bus.  The bus ride, which only cost about two dollars, was by far the cheapest and most uncomfortable journey that I have ever taken.  When we boarded, there were already two or three people in every seat, so we all had to split up and sit on the edge of seats that already had two passengers in them.  The man in charge of collecting fares stood in the back of the bus and kept urging us back, so that we had to push through people that I had no clue we could fit between, especially with our backpacks.  I was soon to find out that this was not even near the maximum amount of people that would fit on the bus.  By the time we had gone through a few more stops and left town, every seat on the bus had three people sitting in it, and two people stood between each set of seats.  It was so packed that I was essentially sitting on the lap of the old man next to me, and the girls in the aisle next to me were sort of sitting on my shoulder.  With the afternoon came rain, which is when I learned that Guatemalans, like cats, will go to any length to avoid getting wet, even if it meant closing all the windows on a bus packed with more than 100 passengers.  Needless to say, we were ecstatic to switch busses in Escuintla and move into a bus with only two passengers in each seat.

Once we arrived in Antigua, night had already fallen, which combined with a lack of street signs created a struggle in finding our hostel.  After about 10 minutes of trying to orient ourselves and find the center of town, we randomly ran into some friends from San Lucas who work in Antigua.  They graciously walked us to our hostel, which was located right in the center of town.  After quickly freshening up, we walked to a restaurant nearby called Sobremesa that is known for delicious, rich food and exotic ice cream flavors.  The tiny (two table) restaurant was staffed only by the owner and head chef, who chatted with us all night while we idled over a 4-hour dinner.  I enjoyed tomato bisque soup, spinach and mozzarella stuffed steak, new potatoes, vegetables and ice cream for about fifteen dollars.  After dinner we had intended to meet up with Brianna and go dancing, but we were so stuffed full and tired from our journey that we could barely muster up the strength for our 4 block walk back to the hostel.

Tired out at the hostel!

The next day started with similarly good food, because our hostel offered complimentary breakfast cooked to order, with fresh-squeezed orange juice and fresh fruit on the side.  After breakfast we walked around and took in the old architecture that has been preserved in the town, including some old churches.  We also saw the tomb of San Pedro, the patron saint of Antigua.  

Our day mostly consisted of walking around and sightseeing, sprinkled with occasional stops at bakeries and coffee shops, and a little shopping.  Lily and I also got piercings done at a really cheap but really well certified piercing place in town (there is absolutely no place to get pierced around San Lucas).  I pierced my nose and Lily got her cartilage done.  We concluded our night with dinner at a Greek restaurant and then went to a club called El Chaman with Brianna to see her friends’ band play.  They were really good, and we got to indulge in one last luxury before our trip back to San Lucas—dancing and staying up past eleven.