Actually, Thomson doesn't run... or if I do, it's with the grace and dignity of a fat toddler chasing an ice cream truck, but more on that later! (The running on chocolate thing that is, we don't need to discuss what happens when I try to make all of limbs work together to propel me through space at anything faster than a leisurely stroll because, trust me, it isn't pretty).
So, if you read my last post, you know that I survived stomach bugs, bug bites and a 10 hour bus ride to get to Antigua. But what you don't know is that the 10 hour bus ride actually brought us to Guatemala City and then we had to take another shuttle to Antigua! Fooled you!! I'm such an unreliable narrator! Who gave Holden Caulfield a blog??? And that last line alone should explain why I don't run...
We got to our hostel around 8am and were able to check in. Except just kidding, they tried to put us in a dorm that didn't have AC when we had paid up in advance for a room that had it! We told them that we would take a refund for the non-AC room but they didn't want to give us a partial refund (because they hate refunds of any kind apparently) so we would just leave our stuff in a hallway closet until check in officially began at 2. We would get the air conditioned room that we'd paid for and they wouldn't have to give us a refund for 7Q a night, otherwise known as ONE US DOLLAR(!!!). But let me tell you, getting changed in a hallway at 8 in the morning when you know that a perfectly good bed is 10 feet away and could easily be yours is pretty infuriating. Spoiler alert: When we came back to check in later in the afternoon, they'd overbooked all of the rooms with AC and ended up putting us in the same room they'd showed us at 8am and giving us the stupid refund.
Once we were all dressed (and we dressed up for fun today), we went out to breakfast and then walked around the town. Antigua has a lot of old churches. Like a lot a lot. And we couldn't really figure out why there were so many religious buildings in one place with such little signage (and I mean signage at all, we couldn't even find signs in Spanish to explain what all the churches were doing there) but they were pretty to look at and all highlighted on the map that we'd gotten at our hostel so we bopped along from church to church for a while. P.S. Some of these churches are actually *RUINS* of churches, like the old one was destroyed in an earthquake or volcanic eruption or something and what's left of it is still chilling here without any real explanation as to why.
But we noticed that as old as some of the architecture is here (and the churches do date back to the 1500s according to Google), Antigua is not without its modern influences. These newer stores and restaurants are made to blend in but it's a rigging McDonald's, how well can it actually blend?! (Surprisingly well, Whitney didn't believe me when I told her that I'd seen McDonald's bags which meant that there must be a McDonald's nearby). We saw a Mickey D's, Wendy's, BK and yes, Dunkin Donuts. I nearly passed out at the sight of Dunkin. During the winter/spring tour, Jas and I developed a very sophisticated system of alerting the other one to the presence of a Dunkin: it involved slapping the other person and screaming "DUNKIN!" repeatedly. So that's why I did on the streets of Antigua, except I was slapping Whitney instead of Jas and she didn't appreciate it. But as excited as I was to have spotted the holy grail of early morning dining establishments, I couldn't help but think WTF???!!!?! They have Dunkin Donuts in Guatemala but NOT in Montana? Dunkin Donuts' slogan is "America runs on Dunkin" but I've learned the horrible truth is that many Americans have never even been to Dunkin but everyone in Antigua is welcome to get a box of munchkins whenever they feel like it! I will be going there before I leave just to get some Dunkin en espanol.
For lunch, we went to a place called Ta'Cool. Nuff said.
And after lunch, we came to the part of the day that got me closest to running! We were going to ChocoMuseo for our "bean to bar" chocolate making class. At any given time, I am 86-94% chocolate so I was really excited to learn how to make it. And more excited to learn about how it was made from actual chocolate makers and not from the ride at Hershey Park that we went on like nine times during one visit when I was little because I loved chocolate THAT much. Our chocolate making guide was named Orlando, like Orlando, Florida or Orlando Bloom, whichever we preferred. He took us through the whole process. We got to roast beans, peel beans and grind beans (the last one was a competition that I pitifully lost). We learned about how the Mayans had a chocolate drink that translates into "bitter, spicy chocolate water" (which we actually got to make later) and how the Aztecs used cacao beans as currency (my type of people!). We made three different drinks: the bitter spicy one, a tea with the peel from the cacao beans and an early European hot chocolate type thing. I didn't like any of them! BUT I loved talking about chocolate! At the end of the workshop, we got to pour our own chocolate that we could pick up later in the day. I made two milk chocolate bar -- one plain and one with nibs which are the inside of the cacao bean -- and Whitney made a bunch of different shapes. We were very proud of our chocolate and were planning on saving them to bring them home and share but it's already too hot for them so they needed to be eaten! Which we have started to do now. Sorry not sorry. Chocolate forever!
We have since been trying to reorganize our lives in the tiniest dorm room known to hostels and have changed the itinerary! We've added a stay in Panajachel, Guatemala! We're cutting out one day in Antigua and one day in Guatemala City and dropping Panajachel right in the middle. It is a lake and Whitney has a friend from college who just moved there! Apparently there is going to be a festival happening there on Saturday night as well so we really have something extra.special to look forward to. We also grabbed dinner at the Rainbow Cafe which was suggested to us by yesterday's yoga instructor. So things are really fantastic here and oh yeah, did I mention that we're hiking an active volcano tomorrow? I might be willing to rethink my stance on running if things start to go south there but fingers crossed that I can keep walking like the uncoordinated goon that I am!
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