Hi All,
Day two in Antigua has come to an end.
Here’s some new pics…just double click on the first one to bring up a slide show that you can move through. To close the slideshow, just click once on any image in the slideshow:
If you’re having any trouble seeing those photos, you can also see them in the flickr set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25359449@N05/sets/72157623476868468/
Pretty simple day today, mostly focused on getting in to town for various meals and adventures.
We have a window between when Noah wakes up in the morning (around 7:00 or 7:30 am) and when he needs to go down for a nap (around noon or 1 pm) where we can head out and do some exploring of the town.
Today we went up and down some new streets, checked out many new restaurants and bakeries, and bought Noah a great little marimba set (we’ve been wanting to get him one for a long time.)
Papa has learned how to count in spanish better now, so buying things is a little easier. I still barely know spanish though, so it’s making things challenging for me.
More of today’s story after the read more break:
I have Google translate open on my iPhone all the time and I type in a sentence when I want to ask someone something in a restaurant or store. Then I speak it to them…and they think I know spanish. They then answer back with a long sentence of spanish words that I don’t understand at all. Frustrating.
Next year I will be fluent in Spanish when we come back (if next year’s trip happens as planned.)
At any rate, Noah loved the toy store…it was full of handmade local toys. Bari wanted to take home tons of them (they are pretty inexpensive).
We ordered some good lunch to go from a restaurant across the street from the toy store and took a tuk-tuk taxi home. If you’re not familiar with what these are, they are small three wheeled taxis with barely enough room for two people in the back and the driver up front, who steers with handlebars similar to a motorcycle.
The roads are all extremely bumpy…cobble stones made from lava rock from the local volcanoes that surround the town.
The tuk-tuk rides are quite and adventure in themselves. We speed our way down the streets, bump-bumping along, weaving in and out of traffic (no one pays any attention to traffic rules here) and arrive at our hotel.
So far, both days of the trip have seen Noah taking long, 4 hour naps. Today, Moma joined him for three hours of his nap, and Papa got to do something he hasn’t gotten to do in a year and a half: sit down and read a book for an hour and a half.
I sat in a t-shirt and shorts in 74 degrees, with a moist, gentle breeze passing through the covered balcony outside our room. Quite amazing. Happy Papa.
We went back out in to town to get some dinner after Noah woke up. Hopped in a tuk-tuk and bump-bumped our way to the north end of town to try out a new restaurant.
There was a large gathering of locals and travelers on the street where we ended up. There was a religious procession of some sort that we missed by about 15 minutes. We could see it heading in the other direction two blocks away. Hundreds of people walked the street where we were.
Most people we have met and talked with here have been very, very friendly, despite my horrible spanish. The Antiguans are a very friendly, kind people it seems.
Noah took his first shower ever tonight. He squeeled with glee and laughed with his whole body the entire time. The boy loves water.
Mama and Noah are laying in bed and beginning to drift off now.
Time for sleep now. Another day of exploring awaits us in the morning. 
