Life in Antigua

It’s hard to explain the magical feeling I experience while spending time living in Antigua.  It feels like home, once I enter the city bouncing on the cobbled streets seeing the bright colors worn by the Mayan people.   This is our third year here and I never tire of walking the streets, sitting in the park, or talking to new friends.  For Valentine’s Day we had coffee with friends and then ate at dinner at Dona Luisas.  Walking into the restaurant, the smell of banana bread wafted through the air.  It is one of the breads they are famous for.

Bruce and I ordered pancakes for dinner.  I know, not a very interesting Valentines dinner but delicious nevertheless.

Much of our time is spent saying, “hola” or “buenos dias”or “buenos tardes”to people we know or don’t know.  We met a couple in the park from New Jersey who have been staying in Antigua during January and February for the past five years.  The park is a great place to make new friends.

On the weekends we have been volunteering at Casa Jackson.  Bruce has made good buddies with two year old Axel.  He is quite a character.

I spend a lot of time with Jacqueline.  She’s only two months old but as sweet as can be.  She smiles when I make funny noises.

I think this is the best kind of volunteer work.  Who doesn’t like to play with children or hold babies?

On Sunday night, Deet, an American woman who moved here 26 years ago, started organizing dinners, where woman meet on a street corner and go to dinner.  On Sunday night, there were quite a lot of us at the Rainbow Cafe.

Most of the women are in Antigua volunteering with an NGO.  Many of the women were from the US but they were also from Australia, Germany and Finland.

We found another cute little restaurant for lunch, sobermesa.  I had a sandwich and Bruce had soup.

We ate dinner one night at Micho’s.  I had tacos and Bruce had quesadillas.

We’ve tried a few new restaurants.  We ate at Roots one day for lunch and I had a delicious rice bowl.

Two days a week we’ve been taking Spanish lessons.  Carmen comes to our apartment and we spend two hours learning new nouns and verbs so we can make sentences.  Then we get 4 hours of homework.  And I’m still not a good student.

Bruce is the teacher’s pet!

And when it gets hot, we go to the pool!

What a life!