It's been nearly three weeks, and we're ready to head home. I think the most taxing part of this trip was all the moving around we did. We have seen a huge chunk of the country and that meant a LOT of unpleasant bus rides. But it was totally worth it!

We've spent today just wandering around Anitgua and revisiting the local market. There is a large indoor market close to the arch that has prices on everything. This is a great place to get an idea of how much things are worth before going into haggle mode at the stalls with no prices. With the exception of Ireland, where I bought Guinness **** galore, I pretty much never buy any souvenirs for myself on our trips. But today we were walking through the market stalls and I saw the coolest handmade carving of some kind of animal with antlers, and I really wanted it. Brittany did the negotiating and we went from 200Q to 140Q. Almost 20 bucks! But this thing looks like you'd find it in Pier One for $50. It doesn't go with anything in our house, and I've been told my office is too sparse, so lookout APG!

We've been here long enough to see it all the time, but I'm still amazed by the sight of women and children walking the streets with giant bowls filled of fruit or even water on their heads. They simply walk up and down the bumpy, uneven paths without dropping a thing. Impressive! They must have amazing cores. I bet they've all got ripped six packs hidden under those baggy clothes haha. I got a kick out of seeing a warning sign at the market: no walking around with stuff on your head!

One thing we're not going to miss is the Guatemalan sense of time. "Your bus will be here at 9AM" invariably meant 9:30 or later. You'd think we'd get used to it, but everytime we had a bus to catch (which was often) we would race to be there on time and, sure enough, it would show up half an hour later. Better to be early I guess...

I'm still not used to seeing armed men (and sometimes teenagers) standing outside EVERY store. Apparently the police are kind of a joke and don't really do much, so everybody hires private security guards, which are basically just guys with shotguns standing by the door. I'm convinced they wouldn't know what to do with the gun if push came to shove, but we decided not to test that theory :)

Semana Santa is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm starting to see why thousands of people flock here for it. Today they were doing mock runs with dozens of people dressed in purple carrying religious floats around the plaza. Every street is being cleaned, flowers are popping up left and right, and you can tell the people here really take pride in the celebration. Even so, it's not worth the 50% higher prices and swarms of people.

We've got a shuttle to the airport set up for tomorrow at 9AM (50Q each) and we'll touch ground in Miami at 5PM. A five hour drive home and it's off to work the next day! This country has been a blast. I think the biggest tip I could give anyone planning a visit is to brush up on your Spanish. That might sound like a no-brainer, but very little English is spoken outside of Antigua. If nothing else, get those numbers down so you can score some good deals!

At least we get to hit the bakery one last time tomorrow morning. Mmmmmmm...pastry.....