Our third week in Guatemala is almost over, which also will conclude our time in Antigua. I could agreeably stay our entire time in this house, though, and through this week we've been less and less inclined to go places. We still explore in the late afternoons, though, after lunch and school- after we've swung in the hammock and read... yesterday's exploration was fun. You see, today, Friday, was our last day of school at Antiguena, so we went to look for gifts for our teachers. A friend reccommended a tradtitional Guatemalan candy store, which was fun, but we also found a chocolate museum (dude, a whole museum devoted to CHOCOLATE) where they had, along with truffles, chocolate bars, etc.- CHOCOLATE TEA. We also learned that the average American eats 51 chocolate bars per year, to which my mom said: 'that's all?'

And then last night we had guests for dinner, and, as many of you have been a part of, or are a part of a Waldorf school, you might appreciate the description of Guatemala being 'one giant Waldorf school.' True, there're lots of handwork, farming, wooden toys, and rainbow silks....

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I told you about Antigua sidewalks. I did not tell you about Antigua houses.

Besides being really colorful, there's nothing truly outstanding architecture-wise about the outside, unlike the churches and building ruins. They're colorful town houses, all attached, right on the uneven sidewalks, no yard outside at all.

That's because the yards are inside. Walking inside a building, through a door- it's like walking outside. In the last couple weeks I read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, originally entitled First Impressions. It proves that First Impressions are often misleading... my first impression of the house we're staying in was different. Walking towards it I thought it was pretty, but I was surprised at no yard. Having only a few visible windows, I thought it might be dark. But as the door opened, there was sunlight everywhere, three visible buildings, citrus trees, birds of paradise, a bubbling fountain, a hammock, and through a cluster of palm trees a giant lawn, and a huge garden. Jane Austen is right- first impressions can be incorrect. Now everytime i pass a house, I wonder what on Earth is behind those walls. It's really fun to go behind doors, and still be outside.

Antigua has such personality. I wonder, when we leave, what the other towns will be like. Chicken buses and tuktuks have minds of their own, and attitudes that say very clearly: 'Oh, look, someone crossing the street! Let's speed up and watch those tourists jump.'

Today two of those tuktuks raced each other down the street, almost causing a head on collision with an innocent car. I wonder why we don't have tuktuks in Washington.

And Fuego, the smoking volcano. A good sport is Fuego-watching, I mean, it's like it knows people are watching, and the eruptions get bigger and smokier, as if for entertainment. I used to find volcanoes intimidating- ash, lava... but this is a friendly volcano, one of three active in Guatemala.

On Monday we head up to Atitlan, Panajachel, and a day or two later to San Pedro, a town accessible to us only by boat.

BY THE WAY... just FYI, someone told us that by joining this blog you don't actually get emailed post updates. (Probably many of you don't want them, but...) there is, I think, a subscribe by email link, in which that SHOULD give you updates if you were wanting them...

I like hammocks. Again.

I like spiral staircases too...

These flowers were on the sidewalk for no apparent reason. Oh well, I thought they were pretty so I got in the way of people trying to load them into a truck to take a photo...

This bakery is across from de la Merced, and every day at break we'd get nibbly things that taste good. It's incredibly inexpensive, Q. 1 for a small pastry... 7.6 quetzals (the currency) to a dollar.

Yay for more pictures of Fuego!

Let's stack water bottles on the sidewalk, shall we? I wonder what they were doing here...

Meet the sidewalk. There's more poles and stuff in other places, but I can't figure out how to rotate pictures sideways to show you without making you go upside down or sideways... my internet is now in Spanish. (It's all I can do to make blog posts.)

I hope Washington is having fun in the snow!

-Anda