Antigua: Resurrection

Antigua can be decidedly glum when you're there the second time and its without your lover. Especially when it's pouring down rain. I cought a bus from San Lucas to Antigua and after skittering through its soggy streets, ducked into the nearest cafe to let the rain die off. It just so happened that this cafe belonged to the place where I was planning to spend the night. Coincidence? After getting a bed and locking up my things I retired to the covered courtyard to read.

Glancing at my watch I was dumbfounded to find it was only about 2:00 in the afternoon. If I so wished, I had an entire ten hours of reading to look forward to. I nearly finished my book and enlivening talk broke it up nicely. My first visit was with a couple of Israeli girls with whom I was sharing the table. They were kind and sweet, even giving me what was left of their challah (about half a loaf!), a kind of bread that told me is eaten at the Shabbat and which seems to melt in one's mouth. They were off to Atitlán, so I bid them "shalom" and continued to read.

After about an hour I found myself chatting with a couple of Seattle-ites, clearly best friends, one of whom was an Oceanography grad at CW. Both of them had done their undergrad at UC and were now out to see more of the hemisphere. I described to them my misadventure outside Patzicía and they were duly impressed. It turned out they were waylaid by the same event.