Traveling Applejax

We´re nearing the end of our stay in Antigua, as we will be heading to Lago de Atitlan tomorrow. We plan to leave our bikes here for a few days and make the round-trip by bus. Then we´ll be pedaling our way to Honduras. But I´m getting ahead of myself…back to Antigua.

Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz — a hill overlooking the city.

Our Spanish lessons this past week went well, although neither of us is fluent yet. Nuts! Guess we´ll have to keep at it. Our home stay was also quite comfortable, and we ate well this past week. Guatemala has a few strange vegetables, though. We encountered a new one that looks like a potato but isn´t. It has a pit of sorts in the middle. It´s a little gross — especially if you´re expecting a potato.

Antigua is an interesting town. The streets are constructed entirely of cobblestone. The buildings are colorful and mysterious. When you´re walking down the street you merely see tall walls with large wooden doors. We quickly discovered, however, that these doors more often than not lead to immense courtyards surrounded by several cafes, art museums, shops, etc. This type of construction is new to me, and I like the way it makes the city seem secretive and surprising. I don´t have much else to add, so I´ll let Mike´s pics do some talking.

Carriage in the main square (note the cobblestones).

This is a laugh! Did you see those cobblestones?

One of the landmarks of Antigua.

Pretty tapestries.

And now for “There Must Be Giants Living Here,” a series of photos featuring the doors of Antigua Guatemala by Michael Zysman:

“Doors 1”

“Doors 2”

“Doors 3”

“Doors 4”

“Doors 5” (yep, that´s a Burger King — Antigua has very discrete signage)

“Doors 6”

“Doorknocker”

Phew! Lots of photos to upload! I have one more left, though. I know you´ve been anxiously awaiting the answer to the “guess what´s in this photo” game. Well, Ma was the closest with her unofficial guess that the photo looked like sheep testicles. The picture does, in fact, feature howler monkey balls. They´re pretty weird because howler monkeys have very black fur and even their faces are very black. Those white balls really stand out. Mike has helpfully circled them in a zoomed-out version of the photo I originally posted:

Gross, huh?

Well, that´s it for now, but note the new poll question to the left. Antigua has some pretty dramatic security measures and our home stay casa is no different. Take a stab at the correct answer and I´ll fill you in in a week or so.