Hay Calor!

It has been (muy calor) very hot these past few days! Today, after I climbed (yo subi) cerro de la cruz, my shower didn't really take ...

Check out these church ruins! I honestly think there are more churches in ruins than are operational. I think this is because there was a 7.4 earthquake in 1717.

Yesterday, after cena (dinner) Stefan the Austrian and I went to town to get some internets. My cafe of choice right now is El Portal Cafe. I tried a Chocolate Frio - not bad. I saw the girl make it, and I think it was basically nesquik, ice, and milk. A traditional Guatemalan beverage? Haha!

They kicked us out at 8:30, and Stefan was a mite peckish and he wanted some McDonalds. I'm not a huge fan of McDonalds, but I wasn't going to eat, so I didn't make a fuss. When we arrived, I was blown away! The McDonalds here in Antigua is beautiful! It has fountains and a huge garden in the middle! I'm going to go back during the day and take pictures to show you. You won't believe it.

After just a little more than a week, I've discovered how to pick out the gringos. While it's true that gringos are easy to spot cause ... they're white. But here's a list of other ways you can pick them out (I resisted the temptation to make this the "you might be a foreigner if ..." list):

1. Shorts - unless they're exercising, Chapines don't wear short pants!
2. Flip flops - or "thongs" as Gram calls them are a dead giveaway.
3. Sunglasses - you're definitely a grino if you wear sunglasses!
4. Backpacks - having a backpack is a good sign you're from out of town, but not determinative.
5. Weird pants - there are these weird native-looking pants that the gringo chicas wear. They're really weird ... I'll try to get a picture one of these days.
6. Dreds - only gringos wear their hair in dreds! They're the greasy looking gringos that hang out in front of hostels ... like the one near the school that's called "Jungle Party." Haha! Could it have a more skeezy name?
7. Beards - only gringos wear beards! I haven't even seen many mustaches on the locals ...
8. Lastly, if you look at all like these people, you are gonna stick out like the sorest of thumbs.

Yesterday after lunch, I got up to leave the table and almost squashed Senor Tortuga! He and Senora Tortuga had wandered into the dining room in search of papaya! Irma carried them outside and gave them a few pieces of papaya. Here's Senor Tortuga really enjoying some papaya.