Antigua

After only a few days I have fallen in love with this place. Every where I go is an adventure and everyone I meet is interesting. I went to a book store looking for a Spanish dictionary and was having a coffee in the adjacent cafe and met a lady from the US who gave me some great clues about where to go and what to see. She has lived here for 19 years and does massage from her home. So following her recommendation I went to the 5 star hotel called Santo Domingo which is regarded as the best hotel in Central America. It is set in a 15th century monestry which is also a museum. The spectacular gardens had toucans in trees and excavations are continuing in the grounds. I then caught a trolley to the top of the hill to a botanical sculpture garden with fabulous views of the volcaonoes. The sculptures were very modern and reflected the Spanish artist Salvador Dali, a favourite of mine.

 The Arch is a famous landmark here , notice the cobble stones.
Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

 Antigua is full of old churches that were all damaged in a huge earthquake in the 1717.

 A modern sculpture - its Trixie again Clare!!

 This is one of the 3 volcanoes that surrund Antigua.This one is called Fuego ( fire) and as you can see puffs pumes of smoke every day... 

This morning I had my cooking class which was so much fun and interesting. I had to do all the hard work like chopping onions and carrots and rolling the tortillas which reinforced again why cooking is not my favourite past time; but I thoroughly enjoyed the meal at the end, the glass of vino tinto, the company and the visit to the market later accompanied by the gorgeous French Canadian chef Pierre.

Working hard with Chef Pierre- notice his gorgeous chef´s jacket with Guatemalan trim ( I am ordering 2 for a couple of chefs I know back in Aus!!)

Los Parque Central where everyone meets and watches everyone else or listens to local musicians ...

I have purchased some traditional fabrics from a stall that I found with ladies from a women's coop funded by an NGO. So I am going to visit their village (San Juan la Laguna) next week which is up at Lake Atitlan and maybe do a weaving class. My other project is to enrol for some Spanish lesson following  a recommendation of a good Spanish School from a guy I cooked with this morning. Word of mouth is certainly the way to find out about things in this town and tomorrow I have been invited to a supper at 5.30 for a group of "ladies of a certain age" which sounds perfect for me. I am thoroughly enjoying travelling on my own but as some of you well know, I love a good chat!
I have moved back to Las Maria's Hostel as the other one was a bit noisy and this one has far superior breakfasts of eggs & beans with salsa & sour cream or plates of fruit & toast.
As I came into town this arvo to get more money out of the bank, (those Quetzales just seem to slip through my fingers at 8 to the $AU), I noticed that they are setting up for a music concert in the Parque Central tonight so that should be fun.