A Day in Antigua

On my way out of Guatemala, I decided to spend a day in Antigua, just to see what I had missed by deciding to study Spanish in Quetzaltenango instead.  On the bus ride there, I watched Furia en la Sierra, which turned out to be the (unintentionally) funniest film of all time.  I think part of it must have been shot in Antigua, or somewhere very similar as the opening scenes look like the photo below.  This film is so low budget that they did all their camera pans by driving the cameraman in a car, past the scene very slowly.  You can tell because the camera shakes as they go over the cobblestones.  (Found out after writing this, that it was actually filmed in Mexico in 1991, find it if you can, it’s great).

I love this fountain, if you look closely the woman is holding her own breasts.  If you look more closely, it looks like she’s squeezing them and there is a hole in each breast, where water can shoot out.  My favorite part of all this, is that she is the most bored looking women of all time, like yes, here I am, and yes there is stuff shooting out of my breasts, but my shift’s almost over, and my back’s killing me, and if one more tourist takes my picture–aayyaaawwn.  Are you still here?  Didn’t notice.

(Ok you see the close up here. )

This is the main square, where everyone sits around looking in their guidebooks.  I think it’s called Lonely Planet Plaza (you might want to refer to Rough Guides for a confirmation on this).

Antigua really is charming, but I think the volcano that finds it’s way into all my shots steals the show.  If you forget for a moment where you are, the Volcán de Agua will point you in the right direction.  The photo below is the Santa Catalina Arch, one of the many reasons why Antigua is a World Heritage site.

And finally, a little happy accident, as I was checking my settings I snapped this photo off, and caught the traditional skirt of the woman walking ahead of me.  Her daughter skipped ahead and was wearing pencil legged jeans and a t-shirt.  There seems to be three types of dress: traditional, American and the stuff tourists buy.  Haven’t seen any tourists in the traditional skirts, or any locals wearing hemp pants with handwoven inlays.  (Will keep looking).