Chris's take on Antigua

I cannot recommend this place enough. Of all the places I have seen in the world, it is definitely in the top ten with Rome, Paris, NYC, Aspen, etc. I am writing this on a bus coming home from a visit with Alisha in Antigua Guatemala. Antigua is a great town of 60,000 people that is about 40 minutes from Guatemala City. By bus from San Salvador, it is about four hours. The bus is nice and comfortable, assuming you splurge and pay the extra $17 for a first class seat! The bus has big comfortable leather seats, food, drinks, and movies. If it were not for sitting in the same place for four hours, I would say it is downright comfortable.

Antigua was the capital of “the new world” when the Spanish conquered the region in the 1500s. The capital has moved a few times over the last 500 years due to earthquakes and floods, and eventually ended up in Guatemala City. The Spanish still have their embassy located in colonial Antigua, though. The architecture shows its history, with very Spanish style buildings, cathedrals (huge), and homes. There are no modern buildings anywhere in the city, and the city planners/government has done a great job of maintaining the colonial feel. There are many ruins of old churches, convents, monasteries, etc., all over the small city. Actually, probably the finest hotel in the city is called Santo Domingo and it a hotel made in the middle of the ruins of a 15th Century Convent. It is a 5-Star hotel and Alisha and I ate dinner at their great restaurant. When we were there, there were a number of different events, namely a gringo wedding, that was going on. If you know someone who wants an awesome destination wedding, this would be the place. It is one of the nicest, most peaceful hotels I have seen.

For the last three weeks, Alisha has been going to an accredited language school where the State Department sends many of its employees who are learning Spanish. It is called Escuela Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin and it is located in a beautiful part of Antigua, near the main Arch. The school’s courtyard is surrounded by an huge arched ancient convent wall made of a stone/brick combination. The individual classrooms line the walls (outside) and you sit in the box-like classroom with a table and two chairs with your teacher and learn. I actually went with Alisha this morning, since I had the day off (MLK Day) and spent my Monday morning in a grueling four-hour one-on-one session with a Spanish teacher. After the morning was over, I was so worn out I went home and slept for a half hour. I went to the bus and Alisha went back for another four-hour session in the afternoon. I really admire her for her perseverance and dedication in learning Spanish. She has another week and a half to go and she will take her exam that the school provides to give her an official rating as a Spanish speaker.

Guatemala is really a nice country. The place is beautiful, green, not full of trash (like El Salv), and the city seems to be tranquil and Europeanesque. Wide tree lined avenues, stores, reasonable traffic, etc. Of course it has its typical Central American issues like crime, corruption, disparity of wealth, poverty, etc. But from a gringo tourista’s point of view, it is a nice safe place to visit. I wouldn’t walk around at night or walk in an unlit (or lit) park at night, but I wouldn’t do that in many places in Kansas City either. The brand new president just fired 263 mid to high level police officers for corruption last week, and that is the big news. He also went to a local police station at 5am on a surprise visit, and woke up a bunch on “on duty” officers. I like his style.