Adventures in Antigua

posted by Alexander

Antigua is one of the most interesting cities I have ever seen. There are all the kinds of stores you would expect anywhere else but they may seem a bit different.

One of the many beautiful churches in Antigua.

There were grocery stores, stores for computers, even one with a few slightly outdated video games. There was a Dominos and a Mcdonalds. One of the more interesting places was the market.

The central square in Antigua was a great gathering place for everyone.

It a literal maze of people trying to sell fruit, or t-shirts. One store even sold a bunch of piñatas. Christopher and I ended up getting some pretty funny shirts there.

As for the structure of Antigua it was not the same as our cities back home. Where ours have everything displayed out on the streets with the buildings behind, every street in Antigua is lined by walls.

Walking along one of the walled streets of Antigua.

As tourists we would walk alongside the walls passing the little doors that made up the entrances.

A glimpse of one impressive courtyard hidden behind a wall and a big door.

We learned that the trick was going through a door; because inside was often an impressive garden or a grand interior.

All the action goes on behind the walls in Antigua.

A garden and a restaurant through a door just visible from the street.

We checked out some cool stuff outside the walls too. One of the main attractions was a park in the center of the city. There was a fountain in the middle of mermaids squeezing their breasts.

Apparently, when the fountain is working, water shoots out of their nipples.  Oh, those Spaniards!

The guide book said water was supposed to come out the nipples but I guess the fountain wasn’t working when we were there. We also looked at many interesting cathedrals some of which were in ruins.

Another impressive cathedral, with a convent off to the left.

Now I know I mentioned the Mcdonalds before but I thought some more detail ought to go into describing the nicest Mcdonalds I have ever seen and most likely will ever see. This place had a different entrance and room just for Mcdonalds ice cream! The main store was huge and opened up into a backyard garden with tables and a fountain!

This is the inside of the McDonald's in Antigua.

And they had a different room and counter for the “Mcafe” products (coffee and muffins and such). Christopher, Mom and I got ice cream there and talked about why it would be so nice. I thought that this whole Mcdonalds was probably cheaper than a small compacted one in a big city in North America. Christopher agreed and he and Mom said that maybe this was a layout of how they want every Mcdonalds to be. You know, once Mcdonalds rules the world.

Now I would like to tell you all about our accommodation while in Antigua.This place was massive! Christopher and Katie each had their own room with two beds.

Our vacation rental in Antigua was about as big as our house back in Canada.

They pushed these together to make them bigger. Mom and Dad had a room with a king size bed and so did I. And every single one of us had a personal bathroom! There was also a big living room and kitchen.

Our kitchen and dining room table in Antigua.  We got to have Dominoes pizza one night.

Unfortunately our first night there was rough because there were people up into the wee late hours of the night, yelling at each other and making us miserable. They must have been up until one o clock! And mind you, they were using a pool which clearly had a sign that said no use after nine! I eventually moved to use Christopher’s extra bed because the sound was fainter in his room. Then when they finally shut up we moved to my room because Christopher’s was full of mosquitos buzzing in our ears. The next two nights were much more restful.