The Last Few Days

The last leg of our trip from Santiago to Panajachel to Antigua to Guatemala City stretched out over two days and was much more relaxing that I expected. It was fun to show Erich some of my favorite restaurants and sites in the cities that I have grown to love over the past three weeks.

Antigua is by far my favorite city in Guatemala and I was happy to be there for one last day and night before we left. While walking around the city, we came across an unmarked shop selling coffee and chocolate.

The owner, who processes everything by hand in small batches was taking a well-deserved rest:

We also found a small place selling pupusas. Pupusas are made by stuffing corn tortillas with cheese and your choice of ingredients. I chose chicken, sweet peppers, and olives for mine. The pupusas were delicious and filling!

We stopped by Tabacos y Vinos to see Ricardo and enjoy one some wine and some delicious espresso.

Ricardo was even nice enough to take us back to Guatemala City on Friday night before our Saturday flight back to Wisconsin. We dropped our bags off at his hotel and then headed out to see Zona 4 where many of the nicer restaurants and bars are located. I had mentioned my love of fondue (which I’ve managed to enjoy three times while in Guatemala!) so we ended up having meat fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert.

We also enjoyed an “obscuro” or dark, Guatemalan beer called Moza that Ricardo assured me was not favored by the locals who drink a lot more lager. Erich and I split the beer, which came in a very strange tall glass:

It was nice to enjoy a stout again, even though it was nothing close to my favorite – Guinness!

One thing I'm definitely going to miss seeing the "Chicken Buses" barreling down the streets that take the locals from one city to another and all over Guatemala City.

I’m writing this entry on our last flight of the trip, Miami to Chicago where we managed to get upgraded to first class, whoo! It was a nice surprise and almost helps me forget that we’ll be spending the night in the airport tonight as our flight is too late to catch the last bus to Madison. We’ll be on the road back home on the 6:00 AM bus after spending the night on a bench near the baggage claim at O’Hare. Ah, luxury….

Antigua, Part I

Our first day in Antigua was spent exploring the city. We stumbled upon a tiny kitchen with local women making tortillas by hand. They were happy to sell us four for 1 Quetzal (about $.13).

We also checked out the city square and some old cathedrals.

We took a tour of the most famous jade factory in Guatemala. It was even visited by Bill Clinton during his presidency! Eva custom designed a beautiful jade necklace and picked out a matching ring and earrings, all for about $100 US.

On the way back from the jade factory, we stumbled upon a crowd in front of the church. Soon there were very loud fireworks and confetti as the Cardinal of Antigua (we think) and procession of people with candles exited the church.

Last night for we rang in the New Year in style in our new friend Ricardo’s Tabacos y Vinos (Cigar and Wine) shop. He was kind enough to provide us with some delicious wine and a Cuban cigar.

Some of these pictures may even show up online on Ricardo’s website: http://tabacosyvinos.com

For our New Year’s dinner, we went to Ricardo’s friend Hector’s restaurant. Hector went to culinary school in the United States and returned to Guatemala to turn his home into a restaurant. The tiny place consisted of a few tables with the kitchen in plain view. Even though Hector doesn’t have a sign, or even a name for his restaurant, word of mouth ensured that the place was overflowing.

We feasted on homemade pasta and duck with crème freche and choclat fondant for dessert. It was heavenly and very reasonably priced.

The streets were filled with people, especially in front of Ricardo’s shop right under el Arco de Santa Catalina, the famous arch of Antigua. There were musicians and people dressed up as old women dancing in the streets. There was also a little boy wearing a bull costume covered in fireworks that went off as he pranced around the street.

After Ricardo’s shop closed we hung out in the doorway safe from the jostling of the crowd and the spontaneous fireworks that kept going off in the streets. We friends with the other people sharing our nook. We were lucky because they were willing to share the bottle of champagne and flask of whiskey that they had brought with them.

These ladies really knew how to ring in the New Year!

The next morning, we enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in for the first time during our trip. Needless to say, not everyone was so lucky.

I did manage to get a run in. I headed out of the city and ran five miles straight uphill on a road leading up the side of one of the volcanoes that surround the city. Needless to say, it was grueling and I was only able to run the first three before it was too steep and the air was too thin. Even on the way down the road was too steep to run at first - my hips and knees ached even from trying. For those of you familiar with Madison think of running five miles up a hill steeper than Bascom and then running down another five!