Slowphil gathers momentum

[Slowphil]

Well here we are in Antigua, this town was actually the 2nd capital city of Guatemala but with the volcanic activity it drove the Spaniards to move it to Guatemala city.

start with the hotel again, Hotel San Vicente, we're paying 160Q for a double room, little small but the hotel is extremely nice and handy to everything in Antigua



the hallway in front of our room



we can use the sink in the back to do our laundry which is lucky



One place here that I had read about before was the Moto Cafe where the bikers kind of hung out so off we go, this is the official name of the place




met Dave the owner and Dave from Quebec who has guided the bike tours for the last 7 months



there were many laughs with the beers



but Dave has never had a guest book before so I shamed him into starting one



but Dave is not just a good time Charlie, he's a dedicated businessman, here he is sending off a customer with vague directions and even vaguer warnings



but actually Dave has a good handle on who can do what and he hooked me up with a mechanic who could straighten the dent out of my rim, I was loosing about 5 psi a day because I hit a tope I never saw until the last moment and dented the edge of the rim



and here's the guys who fixed it, they came to the hotel took off the wheel, fixed it and installed it the next day for 300Q



wandering through the town I managed to get some pretty good shots, here's the one that just about the whole world knows Antigua by, the Archo



here's a shot of a typical family where the mother has to go out and sell her merchandise, you have to be careful getting this type of shot because the majority don't want their pictures taken



there's plenty of motorcycles in Antigua now something the government is aware of, when you see this sign on the sidewalk it means that from the sign to the corner is strictly motorcycle parking and they're on every corner



here's some of the bikes parked there



and beauty is in the eye of the beholder



of course their not all Ducati's



some random shots I got through the town
window decorations





I was a hair fast on the shutter on this one



an old door in a church destroyed by earthquake in the 1700's



I went over to the chickenbus area to get some pictures of the colours the owners paint their buses




another window picture because I liked it



booby fountain in the centro



artisan market which is loaded with great folk art





basement in one of the old churches, this one was taken by Ed



and of course food-food, food wonderful food, this one I waited to take the picture



but here's one more to Boogers taste, a really nice Irish stew



now Ed and I have decided that to save a little money we'll have breakfast in our room, so here we have granola and just a ton of yogurt to keep our internal workings on an even keel



now this may seem like a strange place to put a picture of a fountain but this was in the courtyard of one of the restaurants right beside where we were sitting eating lunch



and the last one is for my wife, the hotel where we stayed the last time we were here is now closed and they're is a small hardware shop there now




Tomorrow: we cross another national boundry