A wonderful weekend in Antigua

What can I say about Antigua. I've fallen in love with the city. With Coffee shops around every corners, wonderful latin american cuisine and a waking up to a spectacular scene outside of our front door with volcanoe fuego dominating in the background, I think I may have found my niche. This weekend has just been amazing. On Saturday, I arrived at my apartment and finally met all of my roomates. One girl is american pursuing her masters in midwifery from UCSF, another is from London a former Chemistry teacher taking a break from her career to travel and finally 2 sisters from London of Pakistani descent. Our landlord is pretty cool herself, and she's been great communicating to us always in spanish- which is awesome esp in a touristy city like antigua. Yesterday, I kind of played in a little low key as I has I had a vague sense that I was coming up with a sinus infection. Although I think it probably was viral in nature given the fact that I had a mild dry cough with no fevers or purulent drainage, I went ahead and prophylactically treated myself of a bacterial etiology. Azithromycin is such a cool drug and I already feel better. Last night, I went with the two sisters from London to this cozy little bar/movie theather where every saturday they have a free movie playing on this big screen so it gives everyone to sit back watch a movie and dine on some nice food. I ended up ordering the grilled queso con tomata sandwich which was awesome. As always there is a lesson to be learnt with each venture and I learned lesson number 1 last night. That is.... whenever ordering water, do not say "yo quiero una agua mineral".... unless you like drinking club soda! So now my favorite phrase is una agua con mineral sin (without) gas (carbonation). Ahh I remember those high school days when I was learning about agua con gas laughing in my head on when the hell I would would ever need to know that.

That brings me to today. A wonderful day. Today I ventured out in the city. The entire city of antigua is walkable. Started off with a nice desayuno with huevos (eggs) guatemalica, 2 slices of homemade wheat bread a cup of fruitas and ended with a nice and probably the best I ever had cafe con leche. From there, I just made my way to the mercados saw a whole bunch of ruins and saw this really old catholic church. Turns out that that really old catholic church, I randomly ran into a american couple that was attending their daugthers wedding in antigua that I had met on my plane journey from Ft. Lauderadale to guatemala city. Come to think of it yesterday, I recall a big procession of cars marked in wedding decor with loud horns and music ringing... It may have very well been that specific wedding ceremony.

Lastly, this evening I decided to rest up a bit a headed to the parque central (the center of the city)to do some people watching and just lounged there as there was nice latino music playing in the background.

Guatemala day 1

Well, I finally made the journey into Central America. What an experience it has been so far. I arrived in guatemala city around 7:00 at night expecting to see my driver who was supposed to pick me up and drive me down to Antigua which is like an hour away. It was just my luck, that he forgot to show up leaving me to improvise and figure out a way to get to my city. Luckily, I was able to bum off a ride with this other american girl who was also headed to antigua to learn medical spanish--and just by random chance it happens to be that we will be roomates for the next 3 weeks or so. My first day in Antigua has been pretty interesting so far. Set in a charming area with 2 active volcanoes at it's north and south ends. The city definately is touristy and even the street vendors have mastered english to get the sale. Well, I'll start classes on Monday for a crash course in medical spanish before heading out to Lake Atitlan where I will be working at hospitalito santiago. Alas, I think I will now head back to my hotel where a siesta is definately warrented after my black beans con arroz and fried plaintains lunch meal.

The Journey Begins

After literally a 2 month hiatus of basically contemplating the adventure that beholds me, I am 12 days away from hopefully initalizing my plight to save the world. Yes, I've been told I am whimsical at times, and of course I don't doubt it a bit- after all my plans keep changing. So here I begin. I start my journey in the wonderful city of Antigua which is located in the southwestern corner of Guatemala. For 2 weeks, I have been set up to learn a little espanol de medicina. From what I hear about antigua, it's a very charming city although a bit touristy at times. From Antigua, I am off to Lago de Atitlan and will be working at the Hospitalito Atitlan. This hospital has a neat history as it was opened in the 1960's to provide healthcare for the people of Santiago Atitlan which is a small rural village that is home to one of the indigenous sect of the Mayan population. In 1990, fierce civil war struck and this hospital was abandoned after there was a massaccre of 13 citizens of the community, thus leaving the town without any access to medical services. In 2002, a grassroots organizatin decided to rebuild this hospital not knowing that in 2005, a hurricane by the name of Stan would bury it under 8 feet of mud. Since then this hospital has once again been constructed and through the help of various agencies among them the University of Pennsylvania, this hospital now provides services the members of the community.

For info about the hospital u can go to: http://www.puebloapueblo.org/ha.html


Well, the plane ticket has been purchased. I am leaving on July 26th. My return ticket is open (I didn't buy one), so I'll stay as long as I need to both working on my research project and also staffing the hospital. The vibe I get from these people, is that they'll make me similar to a resident gradually moving me up to first doctor on call. I'm totally stoked. From guatemala, I'm off to Africa most probably Botswana although there is a looming possiblity I'll be off to Zambia sometime in October instead !(the need there is more great).


That's all I can think of right now. Adios!