We have arrived!!!

After a hectic flight with a 3 hour delay in New York not to mention a mini-panic attack at having lost the passports (that had always been in my bag!!), getting to Guatemala when there were no more buses to Antigua and having the luck to find a hotel van (5 star hotel of course) that had come to pick up their 2 guests and could get us on the bus, we got to Antigua at midnight!! Oh yeah, and Jo would like to mention that I did not accept to change our flight to the day after and receive $1400 for it (yes, i am an idiot but all I could think about was getting out of Brussels on my first day of vacation!!)

Anyways, money aside, we have spent a wonderful day in Antigua, woke up with a beautiful view of Volcan Agua, had a great breakfast and started sightseeing. We feel extremely comfortable here, the people are very nice and helpful, you dont feel that they are doing it to get something out of us at all. We saw the Parque Central where a tv station was filming what we guess is a morning talkshow. Saw the ruins of Igliesa de Santiago where a wedding was taking place and of Santa Maria de Merced. We had the luck to arrive on the day of Antigua´s saint so there was a firework procession with a band right in the middle of Mercado Central which is full of local artifacts and the usual stuff you can find in local markets. You have street stalls emanating wonderful smells, but we have yet to try street food, we promised we would give our stomachs a couple of days to adjust before attempting at the local rituals :) Jo has already taken 2 films worth of photos, the indigenous people usually allow him to take portraits but sometimes they asked for some money, but he doesnt think thats right so whenver that happend he just moved on to the next subject. We have also discovered the only Fair Trade shop in the whole of Central America (not sure if thats quite true) but it was very well presented with very nice artifacts, of course we couldnt resist. There are many beautiful things to buy to fill up one´s house but we´re trying to keep it to the minimum seeing as we have to carry it on our backs!

Tomorrow we will be leaving in the morning for Panajachel, in Lago Atitlan where we can do hiking and biking if we feel like it, also it is surrounded by 3 volcanos, one active. Jo really wants to hike up one but its not always safe and they recommend to always go with a travel agency, however, i am not sure we will have the time seeing as we want to go up north to Tikal, the mother of the Mayan ruins and then down to Livingston, so still a lot to do.

I guess that is all for now, hope we dont bore you with all this.

Love,
Jo and Fil