Friday, Old town, Antigua, Guatemala
This will be a brief entry, as I do not want to torture you guys with having to read too much.
We were in Antigua yesterday, which was lovely. Antigua is beautiful, it has a colonial, seeped in history feel to the place. This is not surprising given that it was the Spanish colonial capital. The architecture was stunning – in a Mudejar influenced Baroque style. It has the charm of an old European town, rather than a bustling cityscape, and is strewn with interesting ruins and attractions. Lots of the houses had stunning painted wooden panels lining them. They were generally coloured in pastel shades which added a restful air to the surroundings. The leafy old town square was bedecked with horse-drawn carriages. I am happy to announce that these horses looked in much better condition than the horses at the volcano. Antigua also has the benefit of being relatively safe and peaceful, which is a happy respite in a country which has a high homicide, but very low (2-3% prosecution rate).
We spent an enjoyable day wandering around Antigua, people watching and soaking up the sights, tastes and smells. I went into a pharmacist in Antigua to buy some cream (labelled with the price on) and asking (on the off chance) for un ´mejor precio´ (a better price) and she just gave me 7Q off (about 25%)...for no reason - I didn’t even say because I’m a student or anything! Love it. Am going to find buying things in the UK very strange…here you can haggle for literally anything, go into a DIV clothes or hardware store....if you don’t like the price...just ask for a better one. Of course, I do like to haggle as that is part of the culture, but I think it is really important to remember that a few Q to me doesn’t mean much so you shouldn’t take the biscuit.
We’re heading to Lake Atitlan tomorrow, we´re planning on going to the nearby market town, so looking forward to soaking up some culture and haggling a lot.
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