Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Journey Begins...

After over a year of planing and preparation, the trip has finally begun. My flight left this morning from Nashville at 5:30 and after a rather bumpy flight with an abnormally high number of crying children, I landed in Guatemala City around 11:30 AM, giving me plenty of time to catch a 45-minute cab ride to Antigua (The traffic was horrible. Today is Día de los Muertos and the highway was completely packed with people going to visit cemeteries). My original plans were to be picked up by the organization with which i'll be working (more on them later). I had a feeling that they might not show up especially since today is a major holiday here and, alas, I was correct. I decided to just grab a cab to Antigua and figure it out here since the office of volunteer coordination is not to far from my hostel (I found it after wandering around the town for a while). All part of the adventure, I guess. While searching for the office, I was able to see most of the town. Below are a few pics.

Three volcanoes dominate Antigua's horizon. The one to the south, Volcán de Agua, is the largest and in this picture it disappears into the clouds. Note the cobblestone roads and colonial architecture. Neat.





These colonial-era cathedrals are all over the place. Some, like the one above and to the left, are a bit deteriorated.


There were literally hundreds of kites flying really, really high up.  People would find open areas to let their kite out and navigate all the trees and electrical wires. There were a number of entangled kites that didn't make it all the way up.



I took some cool videos that I'm having trouble uploading right now. I'll try to get those up later. Right now it's time for some much needed rest.

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