"Kill La Luz"

So here I am, writing from Antigua, the old capital of Guate before it was changed to Guatemala City for, I think, earthquake reasons. And there you are, wondering where the photos are that I promised to upload for you guys before I left to come here. First, let me apologize. Second, let me say it wasn't (entirely) my fault.

The Internet cafe where I had an account didn't open until noon yesterday, when Tony and I were to meet with Kathleen across town at the Blue Angel. As it was all of our last day in Xela, we had decided to trapse the city in a farewell wander in the morning and then get a few of the national beers (Gallo, Cabro, Moza...you pick) and rent out one of the cafe's two TV rooms and watch a double feature of the "Kill Bill" movies. The anticipated plan was then to saunter over to the Internet cafe, get in touch with loved ones and in my case, upload photos. But then, the electricity went out, simultaneously delaying our entire operation and limiting our possible courses of action. After the power returned and the movie(s) resumed, we had to be home for our last dinner with our host family, which turned out to be quite an affair for Kathleen and Tony as the two of them decided to just about split a bottle of rum between them during "Kill Bill 2." (High points of their respective dinners included Kathleen leaving her host family's dinner table early to have a dance party in her room, alone, in the dark with her mp3 player befor packing and Tony flinging part of his tomale into his tea at our dinner table, spilling it while trying to swap glasses "without me noticing," and ultimately drinking his own tea, wincing at the pulpiness when he got down to the tomale dregs of it...and jokingly gaffawing at the possibility of a man being "mas gordo" than our host brother.)

So anyway, Now we're here in Antigua, which is about four hours southeast from Xela and about an hour-and-a-quarter outside of Guatemala City. The buildings here are colorful and surround massive colonial structures -- mostly churches from what we've seen in our total of about 45 minues here so far -- that rise out of the more petit architecture like cemented ghosts. The weather here is about 10 degrees warmer with more humidity, but still no malaria danger (because of the elevation), and overall more comfortable. We're staying in a little guesthouse of roughly eight rooms (all with private hot water bathrooms) for about $8 a person. We plan to stay here among the tourists, monuments, various international cuisines and traffic peppered with horsedrawn carriages for about three days before moving on to Copan Ruinas, Honduras for another two or three days. We'll work out our travel arrangements tomorrow, but just plan on enjoying this tiny and safe city for today.

Without much more to tell as I haven't seen much off the cobbled streets here of yet, all I can say is I'll try to work on finding an Internet cafe with a card reader for my camera/photos, and until then, I'll blog as frequently as I can!

Stay safe, wish us the same and I'll talk to you all soon!