Day Seven - Antigua and LA catchup

Hola muchachos y muchachas! We are writing to you from El Portal Cafeteria, Antigua, Guatemala. From the cafe, we can see out across the Plaza Central, where tuk tuks, horses and carts and the old Catedral all make for a very interesting scene.

We have just finished out second day at spanish school, and had some time to kill this afternoon so we thought we could finally update our blog! You will find two videos, one from LA and one from just now in Antigua, at the bottom of this post.

First, we have some photos from LA that we could not upload from Gen's camera, but we bought a card adapter (very hard to explain in our very mediocre Spanish!) and have managed to finally get them onto the computer to share with you.

These first are from the Getty Centre, where we went on our second day in LA. As you can see, we did not get much of a view. We didn't mind though because the thick thick fog was really magical and eerie. You could hardly see your hands at the end of your arms.

We were extremely lucky that a fantastic exhibition was on, of Rembrandt and his students' drawings. So it didn't matter that we didn't get much of a view, as we were spoiled for landscapes!

The centre itself is fantastically beautiful, and it is completely free. A 'must-do' in LA as it were.
Here is Gen under a banner from the Rembrandt exhibition.
As you can see, it was a happy day.
To top it off, we went to a diner and treated ourselves to milkshakes and......
...Possibly the foodstuff with the highest percentage of saturated fat in the world - cheesy fries. We have since got back on the healthy-eating-wagon. (Don't worry madres!)
Ok, so you are back up to speed. On the day we left LA, the 2nd of Jan, we got up at around 6am to get our shuttle to the airport. Travel all went smoothly, and we were picked up by a GVI staff member, Adam, at Guatemala City Airport at about 9pm. We spent the first night with the other new volunteers, and in the morning were taken to our new home for the next six weeks, with the lovely Christina and her elderly father, Adrian.

Our house is on the same street as all the other volunteers which is nice because it makes walking to and from the centre of town very safe.

Antigua is a phenomenally beautiful town. It is the old capital of Guatemala, which was largely deserted a few hundred years ago after a devastating earthquake. It has been gradually repopulated, mostly by the Guatemalan middle class and expats and tourists. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so it is very well preserved. The streets are cobbled, and the buildings have to be painted in traditional colours. There are no tacky signs or advertisements in the town. Many of the most grand structures are now in ruins, but you can get an idea of how impressive the city must have been in its prime. Gen says that the fact that they are in ruins merely adds to the romance!
This is the edge of the Catedral and Parque Central. We walk across this main square every day to get from our house to the Escuela Espanol.
This is the front facade of the Catedral.
Antigua is particularly beautiful because it is nestled between three very impressive (and active!) volcanoes. The volcanoes are constantly having very minor eruptions which apparently releases the pressure and eliminates the risk of a big one. This volcano is Volcan de Agua.
This is Volcan de Agua again, looking down one of the main streets.


The Catedral is on the left, and the Parque Central on the right. Ahead is one of the old palaces. Our school is nearby, as is the coffee shop where we will meet with the other volunteers to take the shuttle up to our communities where we are working from next week. This week we have just had intensive Spanish lessons, one-on-one, with the lovely Silvia and Maria.

We are a bit apprehensive about the teaching, since we have been told by Doreen, the Guatemalan project director, that we will each have a class of our own of about 30 kids: Libby six and seven year olds, and Gen four and five year olds. The only comfort is that the indigenous children don't speak Spanish either, so they won't notice our bad grammar!

Well, we had better go now but we are thinking of you all, and wishing you were here!

Adios,

Elisa (Eh-lee-sa) y Jen (Hen) - Our Guatemalan names!

Besos (kisses)
xxxx