En la Casa con perro Bruno
Antigua, Guatemala
When Bruno was a pup, someone threw him into the water. Our current host, Ernesto, says Bruno is a rescued dog. Bruno is spectacularly protective of Senora Triena, who is 87 and is Ernesto's mother. Needless to say, Bruno barks incessantly. Every time we enter the courtyard, walk in our room, talk anywhere, leave our rooms, Bruno barks. He causes the other two dogs to bark. Yep, my favorite - yappy dogs times 3 and a concrete courtyard and home. The headaches from the dogs are becoming annoying as are the allergies John has from them. Additionally, Casa Ernesto has no wifi. Hence, we move on to different hosts on Saturday.
We arrived in Antigua at 6:30 AM yesterday. We were traveling in business class (gotta love those frequent flier points!), so were among the first to clear immigration. Our luggage seemed to take a long time to get down the belt, so we had to stand in line for a while to clear customs. It was a breeze and we were outside by 8 AM. Santana, our van man, was right outside of the airport exit with a sign for us. Once in the van, we began the fun of letting someone else navigate. Good grief, the white line on roads is merely a suggestion, motorcycles zoom between these virtual lanes of stopped cars and buses. Everyone is honking their horns. After getting through rush hour traffic, and to the outlaying areas, we were quickly at out our host's home. And so began Bruno and his chorus, barking and yapping.
Upon our arrival in the courtyard, Triena greeted us with only Spanish, to the accompanying chorus of dogs. We waded our way through to understand where our room was and for her to understand that we wanted to sleep. Yo quero dormir. So we unpacked and organized a bit, then got a couple of hours of sleep.
All in all, Ernesto, his 'brother' Sergio and Triena are very nice. Ernesto is a patient teacher. He is also, obviously, gay. And since Sergio and Ernesto don't look a thing alike, we are just assuming that they are partners. I'm sure it will be unspoken. No worries on our part. Ernesto is a florist and has clients in many restaurants and hotels. We missed cena (dinner) last night. We didn't understand that it is part of our family stay. We won't make the same mistake this evening. Because we missed dinner, we haven't had an opportunity to chat with Sergio much.
After napping and eating lunch, Ernesto walked with us to our school. We met Julio, who I've been working with online to get us to enrolled. All was set for us to begin lessons, one on one, today at 8. Julio also mentioned that we might be more comfortable at another host's home. I explained that wifi is quite important for me, as I have a bit of a business that I run and need to communicate quickly. So, as I mentioned, Saturday we move to the home of one the instructors at our school.
In the evening, after the dinner we were supposed to be joining them for, Ernesto received a call from Julio at our school. Classes for us will start today in the afternoon. For today only. Tomorrow we will head off at 7:45 for our classes.
Ernesto's Casa was, at one time, a beautiful place. The courtyard was lovely. However, it needs much maintenance. With ancient lemon, lime and bitter orange trees, surrounding the area, the walls need stucco, the tile has all pulled away, and the weeds have taken over. The laundry wash basin is in the courtyard, as are the lines to hang our clothes. I'll probably wash my privates here, but will do the rest in a laundry mat.
Antigua is a quaint, old cobblestone town. We fell in love with the people when we were here 2 years ago. Kind, soft spoken, and smiling. There are many Spanish language schools in Antigua, so there are many students of all ages. I'm sure we will feel at home here, once we get to our final home stay family.
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