Antigua never ceases to amaze me. Last week I turned 31 and I got the best birthday present ever. Somehow, by passing by and turning my head, I found a small shop in Antigua that sells... rootbeer. Oh. my. gaaawd. Rootbeer and cheese are my feel-good go-to's, especially and ever more so when I'm in Latin America. Incidentally, this small shop also had cherry Coke and cherry 7-Up, Dr. Pepper and vanilla Coke and other sodas you simply cannot find in Guatemala. So, because my mind works really fast and really good, I also bought some vanilla ice cream and had the only rootbeer float in Antigua that night for my birthday dinner. I had that and cheese.

Norma loves to finish off jars of peanut butter.

Our small yard is growing a bit, especially because Andres (a Pisces, by the way) enjoying playing with water, not necessarily "wasting" water but liberally applying it to dirt and growing greenery. So now we have flowers blooming that weren't there when we moved in a month ago.



And today I found a small gringo-run 2nd hand shop that benefits services for rescued street dogs. If dogs someday learn to play our game, dogs will run Guatemala as there are so many that run the streets. Streets dogs easily outnumber humans in this country. So I went in this store because I love dogs and I love places that sell odds and ends. The lady running it was quick to ask me what my story was, then she told me she's married to a Guatemalan and thought learning Spanish would be easier. Anyway, they had cool stuff, mostly random junk (my favorite), and we ended up with a legit metal can opener (the kind of thing you can find anywhere in the States but is absolutely priceless here because the can openers I have bought here have all be total crap and break after 1 use), a small receptacle of some sort, like for pens or something, made from the bottom of a plastic bottle with some guipil, or traditional indigenous blouse, fabric glued to it. One of a kind. But finally, we walked out with a very like-new electro-acoustic guitar with a case for Andres' lil brother for only $50! Total steal. That guitar is worth twice that by Guatemalan standards - when Andres saw the price tag he thought it meant only the case. The guitar case and picks came with a store branded on them, I looked it up online and it all came from a music store in Palm Desert, CA. Lil' Poncho studies music in Xela and has been dying to get a classical acoustic guitar he can bring to school. Score!

So, as you can tell, Antigua sure is pulling its weight entertaining me. Today I bought a couple more cans of rootbeer and noticed they also have... Mountain Dew. Ay dios mio. I won't drink it (too much caffeine and bad juju for baby me thinks) but it honors me to know it is there. I asked the shop lady, Why do you guys have so much awesome soda!? And she said the owner-lady brings it back from Miami. I said, Please thank her for me.