last day in antigua

i'm catching a shuttle to the airport in about 2 hours. we did a lot yesterday but mostly it was just relaxing and then running around town for last minute shopping and sightseeing. we went out to dinner last night at an italian place called quesos y vino (cheeses and wine) and it was pretty delicious except we got "flan" and it was not flan at all! it was kind of like a soft pound cake covered in liquor-soaked fruits with some cream on top. the cake and cream were good but the fruits...not so much. earlier in the day we sat at a coffee shop and had coffee and shared a yummy tres leches (3 milks) cake. yes, we had two cakes in one day. :)

we went to the big marketplace for the last time. they've got maybe a hundred stalls, some closed but many filled with all the same types things we've been seeing in guatemala. since they all have the same things they really try to sell to you. people have different approaches that work and don't. one approach was to say "wat chu like?!" and i would say that really didn't work. another guy tried to touch arna on the shoulder to get her to look at something. that definitely didn't work. most people say "hola" and then rattle off a list of what they have - bolsas (bags), table runners, coffee, blankets, hammocks (don't think i'll be carrying one of those home) and many other random things. i usually went to the stalls that either had no one in it or didn't say anything to me. i just don't like being harassed. we went into an actual store in town and the lady actually followed me around the whole store offering me everything! it was strange.

here you cannot just waltz into a bank, you have to stand outside and in some banks the guard is inside. you wait for him to open the door and he asks you what you're doing. this guard usually has a HUGE gun. i was kind of expecting that because hey, it's a bank and they have lots of money there. what is even weirder is that other places have guards with guns. big stores (understandable), little boutiques and restaurants. well actually restaurants is not the right description. fast food restaurants! burger king, pollo compero (like KFC) and subway all have guards with guns! why do they need guards? sure, maybe they get robbed but does that mean they need guns to enforce the law? i guess so.

at this point i am getting ready to leave. i packed up all the things i bought and brought. we just had our free breakfast and will probably just hang out for a couple hours. i really enjoyed traveling in mexico and guatemala. it really opened my eyes to different things. i knew that guatemala was not a rich country but i didn't really know much else. in many countries the traditions and culture take a back seat to progress and western industrialization but it seems that in guatemala it is not really the case. they kind of go hand in hand, if that's possible. most people have cell phones, yet wear the traditional clothing of woven textile skirts and blouses. aside from the big cities, food and household goods are purchased at the big markets and there are of course the lack of refrigerated meat and chicken shops.

i guess i learned a lot about what i usually take for granted. throwing toilet paper in the toilet (they use ceramic pipes here that have shifted from earthquakes so TP gets stuck on the jagged edges) and taking hot showers are everyday things i never think about. the fact that i've never had to beg for food/money or sell things at a market as a kid are biggies, as well as sleeping out in the street. of course there are a lot of homeless in portland that i see everyday but somehow it's different here. in the smaller towns it's not so much they are homeless, but have nothing. i've seen more of their country than i'm sure the majority of guatemalans will ever see, and for that i'm very lucky. it's a beautiful country (aside from the traffic exhaust) and i'll probably come back someday, after seeing the rest of the world.

traveling is so much fun and i'm sad i didn't get to keep going. arna is going to spanish school next week then traveling for another two months all the way down to panama. i have school in a few weeks so i must get back to my normal life. i won't have to live out of a backpack and wear slippers in the shower. i've been very lucky and i suppose part of it was being aware of my surroundings but i've never felt unsafe. perhaps it was because there were two of us and we never really walked around at night. everyone was really friendly and they say "hola" on the street, i will miss that. i was able to eat everything i wanted to and not get sick so that was a real bonus. aside from being a little laid up from my sore back in san pedro i have felt great. i ate tacos and fried chicken from little food stalls and a $2 steak breakfast at the market in chichi.

someday i'll get to do the round-the-world backpacking trip that i've always wanted to but this was a good way to whet my appetite for it, i guess. there were so many europeans and aussies traveling, not knowing where they were going next or how long they had. some people were going for a whole year. while it sounds crazy, it sounds awesome! you learn so much about people, culture and yourself when traveling. i will be back soon i hope.

time to go enjoy my last couple hours here. adios!