..Antigua, Guatemala..

It is cold! When I left Flores 2 days ago, I boarded a bus at 11P.M. that was going in the direction of Guatemala City. It was an 8 hour bus ride throughout the whole night. It wasn´t a big deal since I was soooooooo tired and immediately fell asleep. I´m not kidding, I woke up as the bus was pulling into the terminal in Guate (as locals call their capital city). Once off the bus, I almost felt culture shock. I had been so used to the peaceful quiet villages with picturesque homes and gorgeous lakes, towering ruins and incredible beaches that when I smelled pollution, police sirens and people begging for ANYTHING, I was once again reminded of how different places are from one another even if it´s within the same country. Sorry for those of you outside of Puerto Rico but it´s the easiest way for me to compare something to. Guatemala City is a huge plaza de rio piedras and I mean HUGE with a milla de oro in the center. It is hectic and wild, with sounds and smells that seem to be neverending. At that point, I got into a taxi and asked the driver to take me to the ´chicken bus´station to take a bus to Antigua. I got on the bus, which ended up being PACKED and also was a school bus! Surprise surprise! I love how the unused American school buses have ended up here in Central America and used for local transportation. I have to say though, Central America is a paradise in comparison to The Dominican Republic and Haiti. Although poor, they way surpass the poverty in some parts of the Caribbean. I wonder what I will think once I´m in Nicaragua. Anyway, back on track, I got on the bus to Antigua and began the 1 hour journey to the old capital of Guatemala.
Antigua is famous for its well preserved Spanish baroque architecture. Antigua, Guatemala means the ¨Ancient Guatemala¨. Founded in 1543 after the nearby town of Ciudad Vieja was destroyed by a flood, Antigua was the center of life for the Spanish colony of Guatemala (the colony included what is most of Central America today). The Spanish named the city ´La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala´ but it ended up being just known as Santiago de Guatemala in honor of the patron saint Santiago or St James. In 1773, earthquakes destroyed much of the city. In 1776 Spain ordered the removal of the capital to a safer location where Guatemala City was built. The badly damaged city was to be abandoned by order of the Spanish Crown but not everyone left.
Today, we see NOTHING modern in this city. With the exception of cars, you are transported to the day those earthquakes rattled the city and destroyed much of everyones livelihood. The city is absolutely gorgeous. It has ruined churches, decapitated saints (who probably lost their heads from the shaking of the earth), cobblestoned streets, colors in every corner, a very elegant central plaza with beautiful colonial buildings, a rebuilt fountain (the original was destroyed) and in IMMENSE Mayan presence. Once I arrived at my hostel (The Jungle Party Hostel) I left my bags and began to walk around town. I met these Mayan ladies who were only interested in selling handmade bags, carpets, table cloths, etc. I just wanted to feel the town and speak to a few locals. I met a 12 year old girl named Tatiana. She wanted me to buy something from her and I told her that I would give her money if she let me take a picture and tell me about her life. I walked with Tatiana around the Central Plaza for a while as she told me what she does during the day. She wakes up at 6A.M. to make lunch for her family. At around 10A.M. she arrives at la Plaza to begin selling Mayan artefacts so she can help support her family ending her work day at around 7P.M. Then she returns home to make supper for her family and begin her day again. Tatiana was a wonderful child that I wish I could have helped out more. After that, I took pictures of EVERYTHING. The flowers, the people, the buildings, the carts of fruit on the streets and the vendors at the market. You become completely overwhelmed. Your senses almost go into a short circuit because everywhere you look, everything you smell, everyone and everything you hear (be it Mayan dialects, Spanish, Finnish, church bells or cars), you realize you are in Guatemala and it is a beautiful and diverse land. I wish more than anything that all of you could experience this through your own eyes and appreciate the beauty of culture, history and life itself. How fragile we all are and how sensible we are to what surrounds us.
That evening, I returned to the hostel for dinner and began having conversations with a few foreigners. I was explaining to them how Latin culture works and what is acceptable and what is not. Not all peoples are the same but there is one thing that surely unites Latin America and that is the joy of living. Regardless of how hard life is for some, there is always that smile on their face that tells you everything will be ok at the end of the day. At night I spoke to Ana (U.K.) and Steve (Belgium) about our plans and where we want to go next. Ana is an English professor in London who just wants to spend her 5 week holiday on the beach. While in Honduras, she decided she wanted the cooler mountains to sit outside and paint for hours. She will be visiting Lake Atitlan and the Picaya volcano just to put color on her canvas and release the stresses of everyday life back home. Steve on the other hand, is riding a motorcycle across Latin America. He began in the United States, bought a bike, and is now in Guatemala. He will continue south and who knows where his destiny will lead him to. Everyone seems to be on that never-ending path to internal peace and grow from inside to become stronger, more balanced and feel more empathy. I truly believe that we must understand ourselves from within, to be able to understand others and accept our differences as beautiful things. I know I have already changed in this short time. I see that I am Latin America. This is where I belong. Ethnically, I am not related but these are my people. I am understanding Puerto Rico better as well. I am viewing everything from the other side. You know, it´s funny that I have lived in the United States for so long and completely ignored the other half of my homeland. Puerto Rico is clearly ´the best of both worlds´ but it is far from achieving that ´best´status. It is DEFINITELY much more Latin American than it is American. The infrastructure, the people, the food, the music, is all distinctly hispanic. Puertoricans have lost themselves in a sort of limbo that they cannot escape. Politically speaking they all lean toward some sort of union with the United States, however, culturally and socially they are undeniably Latinos. Puerto Rico is about 20% U.S. and I have learned that here. That may be a topic for another day but my roots is another thing I have begun to explore on this journey. Who am I? What do I love? Where do I belong?
I have faced my passions, I have faced my fears, I have looked at children in the face and seen happiness and suffering. I have seen that there truly is a world to be explored and to be cherished. Our world is not our life, our world is not our job or our neighborhood. We must be reminded that our world is a ball of Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon and a hundred or so other elements that floats in the middle of a neverending vacuum. A vacuum that has no beginning and no end. It is something bigger than us, than our minds, than our desires, our fears and our selfishness. Venture out and discover what you have not discovered and you will discover yourself. With that thought, I leave you until the next time. It´s still cold..