Photo Sets » Guatemala - 2003
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So this is my second trip to Guatemala and I decide that I really need to see Antigua and the famous market town of Chichicastenango. I fly into Guatemala City and quickly hide in my room until morning having realized that the city is more dangerous than I want it to be, AND my Spanish has somehow dissolved in the several months since I was last in Guatemala. I wake up early and head straight to Chichicastenango on Saturday morning. I arrive, find a hotel and get ready for the market to spring into action the following morning. Sunday morning I wake up at what my body is telling me 2am, yet my clock reminds me that it is 6:30am. The noises from the street are overwhelmingly foreign, like a soundtrack of "exotic noises" gone awry. I leave the hotel and am shortly in the middle of a flood of the most vibrant, over-saturated colors I've ever seen in my life. I walk around for hours, and begin to feel guilty that I haven.t purchased anything. I never succumb to the peer-pressure of other tourists and touts because I have no intention of carrying a wool blanket, a parka, or a fake stuffed sheep for the next few weeks. I make my way to Antigua and soon fall in love with its colonial beauty. I.m in the town only a few hours wandering aimlessly looking for Spanish Schools when a random guy comes up to me to ask if I study Spanish here. This is how I meet Martin, probably the most interesting person I've ever met. He soon becomes one of my best friends. He's Swiss and in town for 5 weeks to learn Spanish (which he does) before heading down to Colombia to work with the Red Cross (ICRC). He and I spend the next two weeks together in the same host family, and most importantly, he introduces me to Clare. The next two weeks are filled with mornings studying Spanish and afternoons in the park or climbing Volcanoes (<-- never again). Clare and I, through some sort of mutual insanity, decide that my 4 week trip to Guatemala and Costa Rica is now going to turn into a 6-7 month trip to fulfill a dream and see as much of Latin America as possible. This is the craziest, yet absolutely the best, decision I have ever made. No regrets, not a single one.
So this is my second trip to Guatemala and I decide that I really need to see Antigua and the famous market town of Chichicastenango. I fly into Guatemala City and quickly hide in my room until morning having realized that the city is more dangerous than I want it to be, AND my Spanish has somehow dissolved in the several months since I was last in Guatemala. I wake up early and head straight to Chichicastenango on Saturday morning. I arrive, find a hotel and get ready for the market to spring into action the following morning. Sunday morning I wake up at what my body is telling me 2am, yet my clock reminds me that it is 6:30am. The noises from the street are overwhelmingly foreign, like a soundtrack of "exotic noises" gone awry. I leave the hotel and am shortly in the middle of a flood of the most vibrant, over-saturated colors I've ever seen in my life. I walk around for hours, and begin to feel guilty that I haven.t purchased anything. I never succumb to the peer-pressure of other tourists and touts because I have no intention of carrying a wool blanket, a parka, or a fake stuffed sheep for the next few weeks. I make my way to Antigua and soon fall in love with its colonial beauty. I.m in the town only a few hours wandering aimlessly looking for Spanish Schools when a random guy comes up to me to ask if I study Spanish here. This is how I meet Martin, probably the most interesting person I've ever met. He soon becomes one of my best friends. He's Swiss and in town for 5 weeks to learn Spanish (which he does) before heading down to Colombia to work with the Red Cross (ICRC). He and I spend the next two weeks together in the same host family, and most importantly, he introduces me to Clare. The next two weeks are filled with mornings studying Spanish and afternoons in the park or climbing Volcanoes (<-- never again). Clare and I, through some sort of mutual insanity, decide that my 4 week trip to Guatemala and Costa Rica is now going to turn into a 6-7 month trip to fulfill a dream and see as much of Latin America as possible. This is the craziest, yet absolutely the best, decision I have ever made. No regrets, not a single one.
