Antigua

Hi everyone,
We are having problems putting photos up at the moment. We tried yesterday but it doesn´t seem to have worked. The fact that the blog site is all in Spanish is not helped by the fact that my first spanish lesson poked holes in my lingusitic balloon.

Antigua is a beautiful city. In fact Min tells me it is Unesco protected. That would explain why McDonalds is enclosed in a beautiful old building with not a golden arch to be seen from the street!

It is very European feeling. The roads are of cobble stones, sloping to the center so the road is more like a valley. Some buildings are falling apart, with terracotta tiles broken and scattered. Others are beautifully kept in bright paint with huge wooden doors which open into lavish courtyards.

There are markets selling everything from avocado to hammers, to plastic playing cards baring the American Flag. The City is flanked on all sides by steep mountains. Two of which are very obvious volcanoes. Last evening while we were meeting friends on a rooftop bar (drinking sangria and mojitos), one of them decided to puff smoke which turned orange in the sunset.

Today is Monday. Our lessons started at eight this morning. Min´s teacher is called Carmen, she doesn´t speak any english but is forcing Min to spend four hours straight speaking only spanish. My teacher is called Wendy. She speaks OK English, so I am able to ask lots of questions but probably won´t learn as quickly. My excercise book is filling rapidly with new words, and I have 25 sentences to write for homework.... It´s been a while!

Tonight we have our first group salsa lesson which will last an hour. After which we will be very close to a certain rooftop bar, and more cocktails need testing!

We hope to get the photos up somehow soon, because there are some great ones for you. Words cannot describe this place.

We hope you are all happy, and enjoying your days.
lots of love Joff and Min.