Guatemala, Summer 2014: Antigua (last day)

Saturday, July 5, 2014

We woke up and cooked a big breakfast with the roomies: eggs, black beans (because we’re in Latin America and no breakfast is complete without them), and hashbrowns. Ali tried to make one big plate-sized hashbrown, but the flipping process ended with a splt (on the floor… shh….), but we still ate it. We set up their table in the garden courtyard and ate outside… it was lovely!

Ali, Potter, and I then set off to walk up a hill at the edge of town. There’s a clearing with a big concrete cross and a view of Antigua and Volcán Agua. We admired the view, Potter had his first water pouch, and then we headed back down.

While we were waiting for roomies to get back from the market with supplies for our July 4th cookout, we decided to go into town to get some lamps that we had seen earlier in the week at a ceramics store. We settled on two small table lamps painted in blue, yellow, and teal and some soap dispensers for the kitchen, but it was a hard choice. This store was full of plates, bowls, pitchers, bakeware, lamps, sinks, and all sorts of other beautiful things. The owner wrapped the lamps extremely well; each small lamp was encased in probably a solid inch of newspaper and packing tape!

Once back at the house, we started to make our 4th of July feast (even though it was the 5th): hamburgers with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mayo, and mustard (“Mostaza, mostaza, MOSTAZA!”); hot dogs; chips & salsa; watermelon; homemade veggie burgers (by Ali!); and micheladas. Aybi had a small charcoal grill that did the trick- slowly but surely.

After dinner we went to Angie Angie’s for a round of drinks. It was a perfect night to sit out in the garden, and when it started to cool off, they lit a bonfire. We then headed back to the house to get ready to go out and look cute. It was, after all, Saturday night in Antigua, and potter and I had yet to experience the nightlife. The 4 roomies took a while to get ready, changing outfits and raiding each other’s closets. They’re a really fun group of girls, and remind me of the group Ali lived with her senior year of college.

Once out of the house (finally!) we went to Frida’s for a round of frozen margaritas (mint for me, so good) and nachos (I’ve been on a roll this week, haven’t I?). After Frida’s we went to a few other bars with cheap drinks and loud music… cue me feeling too old for this scene. It was nice to meet up with more of Ali’s Guatemalan girlfriends, but Potter and I were feeling too tired to stick it out the whole night, so we ended up taking a cab home. We did, however, get a good chuckle out of the list of Belgian beers at the club: Hoegaarden, Leffe Blond (so far so good), and Bud Light. Umm, what? Hahaha...

Sunday, July 7, 2014

Our flight was at 7:15 out of the capital, so Ali had arranged for her best cabbie buddy, Luis, to pick us up at her house at 4:00 am (ouch). We had packed the day before and were ready to go bright & early, except it wasn’t even bright yet! At that hour there was no traffic, so we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Customs and security were a snap in Guatemala and our layover in Atlanta.

We made it home in time for dinner, greeted by an excited and wiggly Jea puppy.