I ACTUALLY SLEPT THROUGH IT ALL.

Holy Week flower arrangements on windows
Historic Center, Guatemala City

Well, I ended up being interviewed as a guest on Inside Guatemala in the Antigua Channel, a national cable TV channel owned by some big local media mahers. Interviewed alongside moi was Architect R. Rodriguez, the Director of the Historic Center Office of the City of Guatemala.

The topic was the Historic Center today and tomorrow. As for me, I was there mainly due to my blog in Spanish, which gets a few hundred hits daily and has become the "go to" site for information on all things happening downtown.

Sadly, I didn't get to watch myself on TV because it was aired Sunday at 9 p.m. and I was sleeping off a whole weekend of partying in Antigua, but many friends contacted me to tell me it went very well. Great. My 24 mins. of fame have come and gone and I was sound asleep ...

Hotel Porta in Antigua

Will have to wait for a rerun.

We were invited to several events in Antigua, the main ones being a party Saturday night to kick-off a new loft development (more ritzy stuff for retired US expats, I guess, the place is starting to feel like Sun City, Arizona or Boca Raton, Florida). And also a big wedding the following day.

So we stayed at the Hotel Porta, which is really VERY nice. They had a special rate of around US$115 per night for the upcoming wedding. No idea what their regular rate is, maybe like US$150. They had a "Magic Bar" thing at night, at the Porta Hotel bar, with a magician going from table to table performing very clever tricks. I LOVE magic tricks, so I found it entertaining.

Rum Bar in Antigua

Saturday night, after the kick-off party--we left because, no disrespect or anything, but it was full of people in their 60s, which seems to be the target market for all new developments in Antigua, and since I am not into the baby boomer "retiree" scene ... we ended up going to Rum Bar, a New Orlean-ish expat enclave close to Hotel Porta, in Antigua.

View from garden, Antigua house

I didn't take my camera that night, so borrowed a photo from the Internet, but it is very nice inside, with an indoor bar, an outdoor garden bar, a guy singing New Orleans blues, and a menu which features stuff like jambalaya and po-boys. The po-boy isn't made with "for-real" po-boy bread but it was good enough and my husband really liked the quesadillas.

Good music, pleasant crowd, inexpensive and tasty food, can't complain. I had a good time and will probably return. It is somewhat amusing that the bar shares space with a Spanish school and a Yoga studio. Students walk blissed out from yoga or out of class straight into a bar ... not too bad a way to learn a language!

Pool covered in rose petals at house in Antigua

The wedding was in a mansion housed in a 16th Century convent or monastery, adjacent to one of them romantic old churches crumbling in ruins.

It. is. AMAZING.

All the Antigua house photos in this post are of that house. It is huge, with thick stone walls, vast gardens and gigantic trees. Decorated beautifully down to its last details, the view of the church ruins next door and of the volcanoes is breathtaking and there is a huge pool where the original orchard used to be.

Very cool bird's nest hanging from roof in
a porch of Antigua house

The party lasted pretty much from noon till sundown. We left at sundown and on our way back to the city stopped at a Biker's Bar called ... Biker's Bar. We had passed by it several times in the last months, so finally decided to check it out. The bar is VERY cool, it has a wonderful view of the city from up high in the mountain and the menu offers iguana, venison, rabbit, and wild boar. All coal-roasted or coal-barbequed or whatever you want to call it.

Original monastery dining room at Antigua house
(now the owner's library)

We were absolutely stuffed from the wedding party, where I gorged on the fresh sushi! Sushi in Guate is, as a rule, not very good, so when I find decent sushi, I definitely take advantage of the situation. But next time around, I'll have the iguana at Biker's Bar. I have tried iguana before and must confess I liked it. Twas a while back, though, I'd have to try it again to ascertain if I still do. Or not.

Either way, I will post pictures whenever I do!

Biker's Bar in San Lucas, on the road to Antigua

Today at had breakfast at the inn with Myron, a Latin-americanist PhD from Georgia State doing research for a book on gender, class and Guatemalan literature. Not my field, yet found his conversation absolutely fascinating! We had breakfast in the garden and while he had the Guatemalan typical, I had my usual, the granola with fruit and yogurt. I make the granola, and if I may say so myself, I believe it is pretty good.

Breakfast at the inn

I cannot cook to save my life, but a few things I can make, and one is granola.

In the end, it is soooo pleasant to talk books and general nerd-osity with visiting scholars from abroad. Myron liked the inn. It really is ideally situated for scholars (half a block from the General Archives of Central America). The man loves the historic center as much as I do and knows it well. Plus, he's really such a great guy.

Traditional Guatemalan fare at Arrin Cuan

Also visiting from abroad were my nephews and nieces who hail from the US, Australia and Argentina, all came at the same time, so we took them to a nearby restaurant specializing in Guatemalan typical fare, Arrin Cuan, and they loved it. They spent a lot of time taking pictures of the food and nary a crumb was left on a plate!

In general, this will be a busy week. I have taken on another (paid) consulting project, have also been invited to join the Tourism Planning Committee of the Historic Center of Guatemala ... up to now, we've mainly just had meetings and done very little planning, but hopefully that will change ... so have meetings and night events every day of the week ... life can become very lively here, very quickly, with what amounts to really very minimum effort ... can't complain, can't complain.

www.QualityGuate.com

Bed and Breakfast - Parking

In the Historic Center of Guatemala City