Big Orange Backpack

We`ve decided on a change of plans. According to our itinerary, we were going to stay in Flores two nights, but after our trip to Tikal (we got back by noon), we felt as though we had tapped that beautiful island, and wanted to move on. We found out that our hostel had an arrangement with a travel company that had overnight buses to Guatemala City, and shuttles to Antigua directly after Guat City. We took the bus last night, and I´m writing from Antigua presently. I had these visions of this place being magical and like from 18th century Spain, but its just polluted and decrepited. Its quite interesting, but not worth the days we were prepared to spend here. We arrived in Antigua this morning at about 8am, and we are spending the day here before going to Lago de Atitlan. Between the amazing recommendation of Eric and the many Israelis we´ve encountered here, we figured that was a place to devote as much time as possible. We will be there until the 2nd, and we will spend the night of the 2nd in Antigua before getting on a 4am bus to the Copan Ruins in Honduras, where we will spend one night before moving on. We´ve been traveling at break neck speed, but I dont feel tired yet, so I want to keep moving as much as possible. We are meeting so many Israelis and its really quite amazing to connect with them, as Jews and as travellers.
This morning in Antigua has been totally magical, we walked into the market and had an amazing meal at a food stand only frequented by Guatemalans, and had this great big meal of rice, beans, and eggs for only Q10, which is about $1.20. We walked through the artists market and then stumbled upon the Cultural Center here, which was probably the most beautiful building in this entire country. There was an amazing exhibit on about the ¨disappeared¨ of South American countries in the 1970s and 1980s during the civil wars down there. There was also this very fancy reception also going on. We brushed our teeth in the bathroom like true backpackers, and we´re currently waiting for the rain to subside before we head out to some churches and other town site-seeing before our bus to Lago at 4pm. This has been an absolutely amazing vacation, and I never really want it to end.