Saturday, September 29, 2007
I arrived today to Antigua after a long journey from San Antonio. The fight took me the round about way, first through Denver and then Los Angeles, and finally Guatemala City. That’s what you pay for when you get cheep student tickets. But it was good to have extra time to read without distractions. I finished the first half of I, Rigoberta Menchu, which, so far, is very well writen and has given me a great sense of contemporary Maya life than any other history book I’ve read. I have yet to understand what is so terribly controversial about it, but perhaps it’s because its about an Indian woman who actually speak for herself–gasp!
The Drachen Foundation was generous enough to pay for me to spend the first two nights in a very nice hotel in Antigua called, Candelaria. They even sent someone to pick me up at the airport. And so, the long hours of flight travel have ended and I can take a moment to rest in the peace of my hotel room.
The countryside between Guatemala City and Antigua reminds me a lot of Ecuador. There were tall lush tropical mountains and small ramshackle homes hugging the road. There are lots of houses made of corrugated tin and cinder block. From what I saw of Guatemala City, it is filled with twenty story skyscrapers and noisy highways. It is situated in a valley below the mountains, and as we drove away I could see the sunrise as the morning clouds slowly drifted down the mountainside to the city below.
Today I am going to rest for a while in my habitación colonial sencillo—which is very comfy and there is a beautiful patio outside to relax on. These next few days I will try to find an apartment and figure out the logistics of travel between here and Sumpango.
I am feeling good—very jet lagged—but very content to have a refuge after so much travel. I am not too nervous about my project. I have a strong feeling that this is the right place for me, even though I wouldn’t have guessed that six months ago. Its strange how you can never really predict the future, even when you like planning things out as much as I do.
Besos,
Chris
