“Bubble” Antigua

(Sunday, 22 February 2009)

Antigua is everything Guatemala City is not. So close, yet so far away.

Antigua is where you lay down in the lawn of a cloister of an old monastery half in ruins and fall asleep under the shade of a tree, only with a few flirting Guatemalan couples as company. Where you can be relaxing in the courtyard of an old colonial villa with the sound of opera as background.

This little town is beautiful, no doubt about it. Surrounded by green hills and four volcanoes, is kept safe and clean. Houses are painted in bright colours, the colonial architecture style is adhered to, streets are lively and crowded at night. Most monuments have been destroyed by successive earthquakes that eventually led to the construction of Guatemala City as an alternative place for the capital. Half of those monuments have been reconstructed over the centuries – many in the mid 1900s after the pillage for construction materials in the early 20th century – while the other half has been left in ruins. I guess that adds to its charm.

It’s a town where stores are wide-open until late in the evening, where people seem to feel safe to walk around at any hour.

But it’s also “gringo land”, and land of all the tourists from other nationalities that use it as central point to their trips around Guatemala and their Spanish learning breaks. It’s a place where you can almost listen to English as often as you listen to Spanish. A town full of hotels, youth hostels and travel agencies. Of laundries for travellers, cafes and restaurants.

“This is not the real Guatemala, but it’s a damn pleasant place” they say. I guess I agree with both aspects of that sentence.

I’m happy for the time I’m spending here, and I’m happy too for the other reality I’m getting to know in Guatemala City and at UPAVIM. I also feel like I’ve the time to find out which reality I want to know more of, in Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America.

I guess both?