A Taste of Tourism

Yesterday I got to be somewhat of a tourist. We woke up early and took another packed camioneta (in fact all of the camionetas that I have taken since that first trip have been packed) to Sumpango, the city where Lydia first lived in. It amazing how small a town will look when passing it on the road. Once over the first hill I could see that the town expanded over numerous hills. Sumpango looked much cleaner than Patzun and there were not as many people on the streets. I met Lydia’s host family, who were extremely nice and welcoming. After spending some time with them and getting the tour around the house and on the roof we made our way across town into a less developed area at the top of hill where we visited the another Peace Corps Volunteer host family, who were again extremely warm and welcoming and were so excited to get a visit from Lydia. After a few more bus exchanges we finally made it to Antigua where we would be staying the night in a Hostel (my first one ever). Antigua is a beautiful city, a regular site for tourist, with buildings with great big wooden doors and picturesque courtyards. It was so strange to see so many Americans and hear English being spoken regularly. It made me realize what a wonderful and rare opportunity that I have to be able to get a real sense of what Guatemala is like and to be more completely immersed in the culture, rather than just seeing the sites. But of course I also wanted to do a little bit of the touristy stuff so Lydia took me around to see all of the amazing ruins of the monasteries that were destroyed in a earthquake, shop in the markets, and of course to bargain. It was a great experience. That night while eating dinner on the rooftop of the hostel not only were there fireworks in celebration of black Jesus?, but also one of the nearby volcanoes had a mini- eruption, which was spectacular to see. I experienced a little more real Guatemalan culture today, but that will have to wait for next time.