On the Road Again

                         Agua Volcano, from our Antigua rooftop this morning

We are on the road again, this time on a two-month jaunt to Guatemala.  We arrived in Antigua yesterday, our home base for two months,  planning to travel as far afield as we feel safe.

When we retired, we knew that a second home in a warm climate probably wouldn't happen for us.  Let's face it; we can barely take care of the one we already have.  We toyed with the idea of renting a place in a better climate every year, giving us a chance to escape winter and see places more interesting than southeast Michigan.  This year was slated to be Thailand, but events conspired to keep us in the Western Hemisphere, just a few hours from home.  So here we are in Antigua, Guatemala.  Since our arrival 28 hours ago, we have checked into a hotel, looked at four apartments, begun negotiations for our Spanish language classes, weasled our way into a two-month guest pass at a five-star hotel spa, walked over 20,000 steps, and aliented a half-dozen natives.  A good beginning.  We clearly have to pace ourselves, though.

Tomorrow, we move into a lovely 2-bedroom apartment.  Many of you will be surprised and pleased that Roger didn't jump on the cheapest thing in town, and we mean that figuratively. The runners-up in our Apartment Hunters International quest were larger and some were quite spectacular, but this one is halfway between beautiful and adorable, with a terrific location.  It is colonial style, with dark open beams, rough stucco walls, and a plant-filled courtyard.  It is in the center of town, just steps from restaurants and the central plaza. The rooftop jacuzzi (which the natives pronoune yackuzzi--how quaint!) and terrace were a big selling point. 

We are anxious to get to a place where we can cook and where Roger can have his bottomless coffee (his only vice, other than the S&M thing).  So now the challenge of grocery shopping. We made a quick pass through the local "supermarket".  It took Linda 20 minutes to find what she thinks might be oatmeal. The dairy section was WAY too big.   How many types of milk do these people need?  What kind of mammals are we talking here?  The meat was scary: lots of processed sausage-like meat of undetermined origin.  This is going to take some work.

This will be a great trip, no doubt, but it will be hard to top India. It was not only an amazing adventure, but it was fun. The Indians may be an impoverished and downtrodden people, but they are so damned optimistic about everything.  And the Guatemalans are...well...so Catholic.