Bienvenido a Guatemala

Bienvenido a Guatemala - July 10ish 

Mis estudiantes saben que cuando estoy enojado hablo en español. Ayer fue un día interesante. Tuve al algunas inconveniencias que me frustraron un poco. pero al final todo salio bien. Para empezar dormí tarde y empece mi jornada a Antigua Guatemala ya muy tarde. Esto es muy mala idea cuando se tiene que cruzar una frontera (Lección No.1: Camaron que se duerme). Al llegar a la frontera cambie $40 por quetzales y mas tarde me di cuenta que solo me dieron la mitad! (Lección No 2: Cuenta tu dinero). Después tuve que esperar un camión por una hora en la frontera por que no pasan muy seguido. Al entrar a Ciudad de Guatemala había mucho trafico y se trado demasiado. Entonces tuve que tomar un camión local a otro punto de la ciudad donde todavía había camiones para Antigua. El camión iba demasiado rápido y se paso mi parada. Al punto que tuve que salir del camión y como no se paraba nunca completamente, tuve que brincar con mi mochila lo cual fue un poco espantoso. Después tuve que tomar un taxi de regreso y finalmente este me dejo en el lugar apropiado (Lección No 3. no seas baratero). Después me subí a un camión en dirección a Antigua que iba demasiado lleno! (Lección No. 4: Olvídate del concepto "mid-west" que tienes de puntualidad y espacio personal) Estuve parado la mayor parte del tiempo y sin un centímetro de espacio para moverme. Al final buque hospedaje en cuatro diferentes lugares. Los primeros dos eran demasiado caros y el tercero no tenia espacio. (Lección No 5: Se persistente; la cuarta vez es la buena)

Antigua 

Antigua is a beautiful town, but it is overrated. Tourism has turned it into something that is losing much of its charm. It is a great city if you want too keep all the commodities of living in the US or Europe and see something different and or learn something. More than anything I saw more people begging in the street, more tourists, and a great disparate among rich and poor. It was a bit hard to see the women dressed in indigenous dress working with their kids and going home really late at night. 
When I went to ask for room prices at hotels they usually used a calculator and one of them just told me the price in dollars. That was annoying. It's Guatemala and they should just have a price set with Quetzales. Another annoying thing was that the restaurants all serve fugen things that aren't at all Guatemalan or Latin American. Hamburgers, hamlets, wft! I went to this restaurant that was supposed to be one of the best known in the city and I ended up having a milkshake because everything else was salads and paninis and crap. LOL anyways I ended up eating platanitos, fresas y moras that I bought in the market for a thrid of what I paid for the milk shake. Oh and did I mention the menu didn't even have prices! All the businesses here cater to Europeans and Americans just like Cancun and I don't like it. There I said it. My lonely planet guide said that Guatemala was cheaper than El Salvador and so far that is far from true. Also they tell you the guide prices the places where you would feel "most at home". I don't think that is why I travel. 
Anyways on a brighter note, I went up this awesome hill called El parque de la Cruz which overlooks the city and volcanoes. It was great and I ended up meeting this dog and fed her some of my chips while I sat there with an awesome panoramic view of the city. And then a gringa came and took a picture of me ... I guess she thought I was Guatemalan lol I also ended up walking into some amazing ruins of a church in which the roof collapsed during one of the major earthquakes. They guy was closing up but unlocked and then asked for a tip lol The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Everyone here wants a tip, even vendors... It's weird. It's not that I am cheap but I would rather have them include it with the price. It's not like I know what anything costs here.