Antigua, Guatemala

We started our day with a 2.5 hour walking tour focused on history and architecture. Pablo was our guide and he has been doing these tours for 15 years. Pablo speaks 5 languages fluently and had some level of speaking in another 5 - that blows my mind. Antigua is a UNESCO world heritage city because of the many buildings and remains from the colonial times. A number of the buildings are in ruins because of earthquakes. Some have been partially restored but still showed signs of ruins. We had 15 people in our group. There was a young couple from New York but the rest were from various countries: Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Peru.....

After our tour, we checked out a small outdoor market area in a church ( Brother Pedro) parking lot. The traffic was crazy because people were trying to turn into this lot to attend a service there - it seemed dedicated to youth and was very crowded.

We then stopped at an "Irish" pub named Snug. While they had a Guinness sign out front, it was not in their offering. However, we enjoyed a beer and some lunch on their rooftop. The quiet was a stark contrast to the traffic on the street just a short distance away. It also provided a good view of the foothills on that side of town.

Next stop was across town to pick up some additional things from the grocery store. We are still stocking up and limit our purchases to what we can carry in our small day packs since it is a 15-20 minute walk back to our apartment.

We rested at the apartment until it was time to head out for the Steeler game. We made a quick stop at the Central Park and were surprised to see them taking the Christmas lights down on a Sunday evening. The park had many people in and about.

We watched the Steeler game at the Monoloco (crazy monkey), recommended by our guide Pablo and many online sites. We went upstairs and asked for the NFL game (soccer was on all of the screens - surprise) and were obligated. It was not crowded but business did pick up as the evening went on. A group of students came in during the second half and the way they were cheering the Steelers on, I expected them to be from Pittsburgh. However, when I went over to talk to them, it turns out they were from a university in Michigan and were there on a two week cultural trip. They joined us in erupting in celebration when the Ravens kicker missed a fairly easy field goal as time ran out, making Boswell's missed extra point a non issue. We walked back to our apartment in good spirits, especially me (Jeff) since I fully expected them to lose going into the game.Read more