I spent my last week in Antigua sick with a sinus infection. Thankfully, antibiotics are pretty easy to come by and Alice & Guillermo took good care of me. I'm talking warm soup and tea with honey delivered to my room multiple times. Ahhh, the kindness of others They were incredibly good to me.
By the time Evin got there, I was through the worst of it and so began our adventure together.... I'm not sure the anticipation of his arrival could have been any greater. It was like waiting for Christmas morning when I was 8 years old. The 5 weeks apart flew by until about 3 days before he got there and then time seemed to freeze.
The night of his arrival happened to be the climax of the independence celebration and Guatemala welcomed him with open arms. I've never been in a foreign country for their independence day, but I may just start planning vacations around it. It somehow brings out the best in people.
In Guatemala, they celebrate with a variety of activities for an entire week and conclude with a night of groups running through the streets carrying torches. Some groups run short distances and others run for miles and miles. It's a bit like the carrying of the Olympic torch. Running on dark highways carrying torches isn't the safest thing in the world, but it's cool to see nonetheless. I really hadn't thought of the danger of it until Kristin, the occupational therapist that happens to specialize in burn care, pointed it out. Thanks Kristin.
On the last day of the celebration, tons of school bands filled the streets of Antigua. There were multiple parades and it sounded like Drumline most of the day. There was a great energy the entire day and we couldn't help but put a little bounce in our step to the beat!
The timing ended up being perfect for Evin since I only had a couple of days to share Antigua with him and he got to bear witness to so much of the culture in a very short period of time. We only had two full days of exploring in Antigua before moving on to Belize and we went until I literally couldn't walk or keep my eyes open by the end of the 2nd day. I wish we would have had more time and would have liked to show him even more of Guatemala, but we made the best of the time we had.
We covered a lot of ground and it'd be nearly impossible and a bit daunting to give you a play-by-play so I'll just share some of the highlights, like:
-The crazy rainstorm on the first day. I saw a lot of rainstorms in Guatemala during my time there, but none were like this. All of the sudden the sky just opened up. The cobblestone streets turned to rivers within a matter of minutes. We sought refuge in a nearby store, where we stayed for almost an hour waiting for the rain to taper off. It ended up raining so hard that the roof in the store sprung waterfalls.
-Showing him the market that I loved so dearly. His first day there happened to be one of the market days so we meandered through.
-Exploring a number of beautiful ruins in Antigua together. I waited to do a lot of the tourist stuff until he got there so we could experience it for the first time together and I'm glad I did. We saw some amazing ruins and it wouldn't have been the same experience if it was my second time.
-Introducing Evin to the great people I came to know in Antigua including Kristin, Dave, Sharon & Dwayne, Belinda and of course Alice and Guillermo!
-Finding our way to a neighborhood corn festival where I asked the Guatemalan Police if they'd take a picture with Evin. They were flattered and even brought out the big guns and their serious faces. Of course Evin was grinning from ear to ear!
-Buying our first piece of real art together. I took Evin to a gallery where I had found a painting I really liked. Of course it turned out that he didn't like it and I didn't like the one he liked so we decided that in order to buy a piece, we'd both have to really like it. We found a piece we both loved and after taking a day to think about it decided to buy it. Definitely beats a generic print from Ikea!
My all time favorite thing about our time in Antigua together was getting to share a place that had become very dear to my heart and witnessing Evin's first real cultural experience in another country. He came to Guatemala somewhat reluctantly with the intention of seeing what I'd been up to the past 5 weeks. Belize was for him and Guatemala was just going to be a blip on the radar. On the second day in Antigua he was wishing we had more time because he loved it so much and couldn't stop singing it's praises to nearly everyone we met in Belize. (Thanks for keeping an open mind Ev)
I think he's caught the travel bug... mission accomplished!
I'll post about our time in Belize within the next week. It's time to get ready for work tomorrow. Yep, that's right, after 7 weeks off, tomorrow is my first day back... Yikes! Be gentle PGE :)
