We wrote that last post when we were actually in Mexico City, but couldn't post it until now because of Blogger's horrible policy of dealing with potential spam. The good news is that we're back!
We've been in Antigua since Sunday evening. On the way from the Guatemala airport we met a Australian and Brit, Corinne and Max, who were also traveling to Antigua. The place is pretty full with ex-pats in general, and for good reason. It's a gorgeous and quaint town.
Yesterday, we started taking spanish classes at a co-op, La Escuela Cooperacion, which is supposed to pay its teachers a fair wage. Julia and I each have our own teachers and we learn for four hours each day.
Marcus's teacher, Eduardo, is really nice but doesn't play games by the rules. (We play language games for the last hour of class each day.) He breaks rules like a little kid. Julia's teacher, Elva, cheats to help Julia beat Marcus even though Julia doesn't ask for help. This seems true to her nature, since she has also tried to make Julia overpay for things multiple times now.
In fact, all through Antigua, we've been faced with lots of attempts to steal (?) money (overcharge, lie, give wrong change). But people are really nice if you ignore that! And, despite our best efforts, we're spending more money than necessary all over the place.
Our first night in Antigua was spent at a horrible hostel with a shower that didn't work... And in a room that we think was a bathroom previously, given the soap dishes built into the walls. There were tons of bugs, and it smelled like pee. So much for Lonely Planet advice!
After that, we moved to Corinne and Max's hostel, which is quite nice. We've been hanging out with them a lot, and Corinne came with us to AFEDES, the women's organization that Julia is writing about for GlobalGiving.
More on that later :)
