Julie's Journey: Signs, Arches and Hills

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Happy November and Greetings from Central America!

SIGNS

I love the painted signs outside of businesses in third world countries. Sad to say, but I think this creativity actually stems from the fact that many of the people are illiterate so they have to draw /paint what they are selling on the signs so that illiterate people will know how to find a store. I have seen this in many other places also, like in Kenya and in Southeast Asia. None-the-less, I LOVE these signs!!!

office supplies store - Ciudad Vieja

pet spa - Guatemala City

paint store - Ciudad Vieja

butcher - Jocotenango

dental office - Sumpango

laundromat - Sumpango

ARCHES

The architecture here is so spectacular; a lot of it is from the 1500’s and is Colonial/Spanish stye; especially famous are the arches.

Arch in Guatemala City

Arch at the cemetery

in Ciudad Vieja

Antigua's famous arch

See this Wikipedia link for a picture of this arch (the one in Antigua) during the day (as well as some general info about Antigua):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua,_Guatemala

HILLS

Antigua is basically flat with a grid plan. However, besides being surrounded by 3 volcanoes (2 are active) there is a nice hill which I climbed up the other day. The hill is called, "Cerro de la Cruz" or, Hill of the Cross. I took these photos from the top of the hill so that you could get a perspective of the size of the city. Notice how, as dusk comes, the clouds start to obscure the volcano; but then it makes a final cameo before the night takes over. By the way, Guatemala has 33 different volcanoes!

For those of you who have written me and are awaiting my response – please hang in there - I will try to get back to you soon. My life down here has been pretty occupied with all of my activities: yoga classes, salsa classes, gym (yes, they have a gym here and I actually joined it), hikes/rambles/excursions, trying new restaurants, lots of cultural activities and music to check out… oh, and of course… Spanish lessons and homework!!! Spanish takes up at least 20 hours / week. Busy busy!!! I haven’t even had a chance to do any shopping/checking out any of the stores that have beautiful clothing or art or anything like that yet.

Speaking of Spanish lessons, some of you have asked for photos of the people I am eating with, etc. The below photo has (from left to right): Chris, Tommy (both down here indefinitely), me, Martin (our teacher) and Bonnie. We are all taking private one-on-one lessons from Martin, but decided to have a weekly collective group lesson together – hence the photo.