Antigua

Antigua is to Guatemala as Austin is to Texas. It’s charming, you can get a cappuccino with soy milk, and it’s chock full of non-natives. All the language schools here (and there are many) operate on the no curriculum/individualized lesson system, which means that each student is assigned his or her own teacher. Sometimes this works out well, and sometimes not so much. Oftentimes, the lesson takes the form of a little sightseeing excursion, so student/teacher (aka gringo/local) pairs can be seen everywhere, strolling through the cobblestone streets.

One day, we went with our teachers to Valhalla, an organic macadamia nut plantation. We went by bus–one of the famous Guatemalan chicken busses, which are old US school busses lovingly painted and decorated and used for travel throughout the country–up the mountain to a lovely rural area. The plantation itself was full of mature, shady macadamia trees, and nuts lay all about the ground, not far from signs that said “Please do not take any nuts from the ground.” Darn. There were plenty of nuts in the gift shop, though, as well as oils and soaps and lots of information about the benefits of macadamia nuts for inner and outer health.

We saw how the nuts are sorted and processed, and enjoyed a snack in the garden and a visit to the extremely attractive baño therein.

In Antigua itself, there are many upscale shops and activities. One such place is the Chocolate Museum which has a quite good display about the history and processing of chocolate, and also sells many types of chocolate and chocolate scented keychains and cacao shampoo and earrings shaped like cacao pods and so on. In addition, they offer chocolate workshops; here is a typical participant, who made a bar of cardamom/chili/ginger chocolate that was very good.