Sobre mas de Antigua

Las Capuchinas

Otras cosas

La Merced

Listening to American radio in Spanish

I've been spending many of my free hours this last week in Internet cafes and cafes offering free wifi, filled with foreign travellers. It's a sort of buffer around the reality of being in a strange country attempting to conduct life in a language I barely understand and can speak almost no words in. Forming a complete sentence is nearly impossible. In writing, and with the aid of un dicionario, it is not nearly as messy. I can express precisely, with proper grammar. But this has always been my problem. I have no eloquence in the spoken word. I expect it will continue to be my biggest frustration as the journey progresses. I think I can handle the aloneness, I have much practice in that aspect.

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Still, when I hear these familiar songs it is hard not to miss 'home.' I don't really have a good answer when people ask where I live. Here, wherever that happens to be, I suppose. The turtle carries his house with him. I know where I belong, but somehow it seems more personal than I care to explain to strangers.

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I feel innocuous in Antigua; pale in the reflected light of the rainbow colored culture. Though how much of that is just smoke and mirrors I haven't been able to decipher. It's all just a matter of perception though, in the end, isn't it?

La Antigua y mi casa

The ruins of La Recoleccion.

Dia Numero Dos

Arrived in Antigua, Guatemala on Friday morning. The mountains and volcanic peaks wreathed in wisps of cloud are truly fantastic. The mornings are lovely - sunny and warm, but the afternoons are all rain. I suppose it is August, afterall. Struggling with my very limited Spanish, so class will be good. Lots of wandering and gawking so far. Still seems surreal. The feeling enhanced by the ubquitous ruined churches, crumbling stucco in bright facades, diminutive women in childhood-dream dress...

Flying into Guatemala.

Fountain de las Sirenas, in the park - the center of Antigua.

The Cathedral on the park, with Volcan Agua to the south.

Another ruined church.

The ruins of San Francisco.