Antigua

Wednesday afternoon offered the first warm sunshine since Sunday. I walked around town for a couple of hours. Where I stopped for lunch, I had a conversation with a Salvadorian whose father is a gardener in Santa Fe. I enjoyed taking photos of flowers contrasting with the textures and shapes of the ruins of an old convent. I went to several hardware stores to shop for calentadores (electric showerheads). My feet were tired by the time I returned to my host family home a couple of kilometers north from town. Also, the clouds and wind returned.

My habitation is simply luxurious this week. I have a room with my own bathroom. A major road is just on the other side of the concrete block wall. However the traffic subsides between nine at night and five in the morning. I sleep well with the extra blanket I requested. The house has a center garden. The family has rooms upstairs off the second floor balcony. There is a laundry room with spiral stairs to the roof top patio and clotheslines.

Thursday I accepted a ride back to the house for lunch. Then, I walked to a nearby cultural museum. The acres that surround the main building are a fair-trade coffee cooperative and nature trails. After the coffee tour I was enchanted by the collection of musical instruments, from pre-columbian to present time. The docent demonstrated many of them.

My teacher this week initiates some challenging discussions. I slow my speech to do mental searches for correct verb endings. Sometimes I even get it right.