Window view of Mountains around La Antigua Guatemala

This shot was taken from my car’s window, which I parked on the shoulder of the road that goes from La Antigua Guatemala to La Nueva Guatemala (Guatemala City) about three kilometers from La Antigua’s entrance or exit, depends which way you’re going. These houses belong to the community of San Juan Gascón, a small village just outside of Antigua Guatemala.

As beautiful, cosmopolitan, antique and modern as it is La Antigua Guatemala, many people choose to live in one of the surrounding villages that belong to the municipio (county) of La Antigua Guatemala. There are many reasons for this decision which range from the economics, ‘real guatemalan experience’, or simply to live in a more natural and greener environment.

To try to live in el casco histórico (downtown) of La Antigua Guatemala is the equivalent to try to live in Manhattan; very prohibitively expensive. Others feel that Antigua has lost its Guatemalanness (new word for you there) so they pick one of the villages where the slow pace of the lifestyle and traditions are more in check with the rest of the country. Many more opt for a bigger space where they can have a large garden, trees and lush surroundings. Finally, for some people all three reasons make perfect sense. Besides, all the villages belonging the La Antigua Guatemala are so near as to be 5 to 10 minutes away from Antigua. Nowadays, with Satellite TV, Direct TV, cellular telephones, and wireless internet access you can have it all.

With certainty I can declare that the lifestyle one can have in La Antigua Guatemala and its surroundings is among the very best available in Guatemala and the world. That is if you don’t mind the loud firecrackers, the processions, the church bells, the horrible city services, the common crime, the copious rainy season, and so on.

Post cards request update: Two new post cards were found in my post office box on Monday. Susie sent her post card from Iowa on October 9 and it only took three days to arrive in Guatemala City. Becky sent a post card of the Heublein Tower in Simsbury, Connecticut on October 2 and it was received by the postal service in Guatemala on October 9, but it did not make its way down to La Antigua until Monday 22nd. Please keep them coming! If you don’t know what I am talking about, please do read the entry Postscript.

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