It wasn't long until a bus appeared and we were soon in La Antigua. Since it was lunch time, we headed immediately for our favorite comedor in the mercado and once again had a delicious lunch of Pollo Pepian (Chicken Pepian) with a 600 ml. Coke Light for only Q40 ($4.80) for the two of us.
After lunch, we headed over to Pollo Campero for two Conos Helados Suaves (soft-serve ice cream cones). They only cost Q4 each and, since most public restrooms in La Antigua cost Q2 or Q3 (that's right, there are few free rest rooms), the ice cream is exceedingly cheap when the rest room cost is factored in.
We had read that children from a local village would be doing traditional Mayan ceremonial dances and folk dances.
There was a free-will donation, which is used to help keep the children in school. They also sold a beautiful calendar showing the children dancing for only Q75. Since similar calendars sell in La Antigua for Q180, after making a Q100 donation, I was still ahead.
The dancers were priceless, including me. :0)
After the program ended, we headed over to Parque Central and took in part of another concert, this time including guitars and pan pipes. We enjoyed it so much, we purchased a CD.
Leaving Parque Central, we headed up Calle de Arco (Street of the Arch)to check out a steak restaurant that was offering a marimba concert from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. Before we got there, we heard marimba music coming out of a hotel courtyard, walked in and sat down. A waiter appeared and we ordered two Coke Light, which cost Q44 (about $5.39), which was more than we paid for lunch, although lunch didn't offer marimba music.
After a while, we headed back up Calle de Arco, found our restaurant and made reservations for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. It will be our Valentine celebration. We have a table on the patio right in front of where the marimba band will be playing. By Guatemalan standards, the restaurant is expensive. An 8 oz. steak goes for about Q90 (about $11.00), but the concert is free and I intend to eat very, very slow!
Heading up the street towards La Merced, we stopped to listen to an indigenous marimba street band. I gave them a donation and noticed that even they had CDs for sale.
Upon reaching La Merced,
we decided to explore to the north and walked around some busy streets and some quiet streets.
One quiet area we found was a small park next to the ruins of San Sebastian Church.
We sat there for a while before walking back to Alameda Santa Lucia, the main drag in La Antigua. We stopped by Dispensa Familiar to withdraw some more cash and then decided that since it was after 4:00 p.m., we would stop at McDonalds for a Mediterráneo Combo. This is a hamburger with cilantro on the bun, yogurt sauce and a white cheese of some type. It's really quite good. While in McDonalds, I took a photo of a statue of Hermano Pedro.
How many statues of saints have you found in your McDonalds?
After eating, we picked up a sack of tangerines for Q10 ($1.20) from a street vendor in front of Dispensa Familiar. Can you imagine what HyVee would do if there were street vendors outside their front door?
Ready to return to our apartment, we headed over to the street where we pick up our bus to go home and almost immediately boarded a bus for Dueñas. Once again, I told the ayudante when I paid our fare that we wanted to be dropped off at the Ciudad Vieja Cememtery. It was on this trip that the discussion previously mentioned took place (see "How We Are Perceived").
After getting off the bus, we quickly walked back to our apartment. We passed the police pick-up at the highway intersection and greeted them. They honked their horn in reply and waved back.
Tonight we're going to watch some television (English with Spanish subtitles), do our blogging and generally take it easy. Today was a great day to be in Guatemala.
