Antigua a la nocheI (Kyle) am finally making my first contribution to the blog! I apologise for my laziness, however whenever I came to the internet cafés I chewed up all my time looking at the marvelous way that global share markets have been doing impressions of David Hasselhoff's singing career! Anyway, enough excuses and on with the blog!
It was with mixed feelings that we approached our last days in Guatemala. Although we were looking forward to being done with 4 hours of Spanish school everyday (so taxing compared to just pissing around and travelling), we were definitely going to miss our host family and the friends that we had made while we were here.
On Thursday 17 Jan, our second last night in Antigua, we invited our host family out to dinner to an Argentinian grill restaurant (Maria's choice). The food was sensational, mostly meat (which is also sensational) and we had a fantastic time.
This is the photo that we took of the restaurant and also the only photo we have of our host family. From left to right, Maria (la madre), Steph, Otto (el padre), Kyle and Carlos (el ijo). Terry (el perro) was missing, however he would have caused chaos anyway. Our host family was fantastic and I gained new insights not only into the Spanish language, but also the organisation of the Guatemalan Fire Brigade, biting habits of Golden Retriever puppies and just how friendly and hospitable people are in Guatemala. We can not thank them enough.
The next night, our LAST night in Antigua, we went out with some students from our school, including the Swiss couple, Janette and Roger, that we met in Semuc. Before dinner, we took a tuk tuk to "Sky Café", cramming four people into it. Seth (another student from school) took a great photo from the front seat:
Sky Café had a fantastic view over Antigua, it was a shame that we had only discovered this place on our last night here, however it would have been hard to tear ourselves away from the Sunshine Grill, our local on the way home from school!
The above picture shows the ruins of the Franciscan monastry in Antigua. It was ruined by a mudslide that destroyed most of Antigua in the 18th century (I think). Anyway, history aside, it may not be habitable anymore, but it makes great viewing while watching the sunset, drinking a cold one.
After Sky Café, we headed back to our host family for a spot of dinner, then met up with the other students from the language school and headed to the place where Steph had cruelly made me get salsa lessons with her, as on Friday nights it turns into a bar. Although this was taken a couple of nights before, here's a group shot of us out with other students from school.
As a side note, dancing, i.e. REAL dancing, not the "walk around slowly dance" that we do in Australia, is a distinctly masculine thing to do. The man makes all the decisions, pushes the woman around and basically makes the female look amazing while not looking very impressive themselves. To LEARN this, however, is extremely difficult, and after three hours of lessons I had learnt "Basic Step", "Basic Turn" and "Basic Switch". However, when watching the locals dance at the clubs, I couldn't identify any of these steps being used, so I stayed on the sidelines, shuffling my feet in a poor imitation of the walk around slowly dance, and feeling like the wallflower that wore pink taffeta to the country ball.
Anyway, back to our last night in town. The samba place was jammed, so dancing was off the cards, however Roger and I managed to win a free beer by singing "Guantanamara"...which rhymes with "one tonne tomato" if you say tomato the american way - "tamaada". Anyway, free beer, all good.
After our salsa school bar closed, we hit another salsa club which seemed to be populated by the reserve squad of male dancers from "Dancing with the Stars". Damn my useless, clumsy feet!
However, disappointment changed to excitement as Roger and I found out we could purchase 3 litre barrels of beer. This, apparently, is also a great excuse from having to feel woefully unmanly by not being out on the dance floor (which is strange in itself really). Janette danced her toes off with many of the guys and Steph also had a whirl with a guy that was about five foot nothing and could dance salsa better than the weather guy off Sunrise!
We finally had enough around 1 am and hit the all night taco place on the way home, which was sensational! With a tearful farewell to Roger and Janette (¡Muy Triste!) we got up to our room at 1.30am, realising we had to pack and be awake by 3.30am to make the shuttle to Copán, Honduras, our first stop before getting to the Bay Islands and Roátan where we were spending a week and a half diving!
An hour to pack, an hour to sleep, and five hours in a minivan to feel hungover and like absolute garbage! However, it was all worth the fantastic great night out and it was a fitting way to say farewell to Antigua and Guatemala!
