Antigua, Guatemala

The Great Plotnik left The Great Plotnik World Headquarters and Meatball Kitchen at 3:45pm, got to BART by 4, got to SFO by 5, left SFO by 7, got to LA by 8, left LA by 11, got to Guatemala City by 3:30am (5:30am Guatemala time), got into Jose Mario´s truck by 6, got to Antigua by 7, kissed the Duck hello many times, got to breakfast by 7:30, and here he is, back at the computer by 9:30am, after walking down one street to the end and turning around and walking back.

So far, it seems impossible to tell what the names of the little cobblestone streets are because they change every two blocks. What was Inquisition Street became Nazarene Street became Avenida Hugo Morales, but how anyone would know that is still a mystery. TGP has only investigated this one, long street, Avenida Sexta. Sixth Avenue.

Antigua is charming, but not like a set piece of a tourist village, instead it´s a working town with every street a narrow, cobblestoned, narrow-sidewalked, small Mom-n-Pop shop kind of place. Lots of iron workers and shoemakers. So far, there is little sign of indigenous culture -- it´s definitely not Cuzco -- but I have seen some fabulous manteles, which are wool weavings maybe two or three feet wide and five or six feet tall, and theý´re cheap and gorgeous. They´ll probably be cheaper when we get up to the mountains where they´re made. Anyone who wants to spend fifty bucks or so, or maybe considerably less, for a beautiful Maya weaving, better notify TGP before market day in Chichicastenango on Sunday.

There was an earthquake here last Sunday and last night Fuego, the second-closest volcano, erupted. Doña Quackabella and fellow students watched from a bar as bright yellow lava poured out with an enormous roar. This volcano is only two miles away.

Antigua was the old national capital, but they moved the capital to Guatemala City when volcanos and earthquakes destroyed Antigua for the n'th time. The problem is, they moved it to an area that is far worse.

In her class, Ducknik sits outside in a tiny room with her teacher, a short, large-smiled Guatemalan woman, in a beautiful schoolyard thick with bougainvillea and birds of paradise. We´ll meet up at lunchtime.