antigua

antigua is a strange place.  old time cobblestone streets (that aren't nearly close to even or comfortable to walk on), most of which are one way, lots of back alleys, and no street signs.  its almost like being in hell for the directionally impaired.  the city is surrounded by volcanoes and i made a point on my first day here to go to the roof of my hotel with my compass and figure out which volcano is north, which is south.  no problem, i should be able to find my way within at least a couple blocks of my place.  but its rainy season and the tops of the volcanoes are covered in clouds so its really not helping at all.

i am so grateful for my iphone app citymaps2go.  i don't need wifi and as soon as it can figure out where i am i get a blue dot showing the direction in which i'm walking.  for maybe $2 i have maps for every country in the world.  i bookmarked my hotel, my school, the yoga place and the street with atms.  i honestly don't think i could travel by myself without this app.

last nite i found a pair of shorts in my backpack that i forgot were in there, figured i'd try them on.  omg.  that was the last straw.  time to get my shit together and start working out again, eat better, stop drinking so much.  i even set my alarm clock for 6am to try running.  its been several weeks.

with my new resolve strong in my mind i hit snooze on my alarm a couple times this morning but finally dragged my ass out of bed at 6:15.  shoes on, map in hand, here i go.  and it wasn't so bad.  a few blocks into my run (over those horrible cobblestones, which requires you to watch your feet rather than where you're going) i saw a couple running and figured i'd follow them, they looked like they had a route.  after a few more blocks i'm checking my phone to see which direction we're going and i hear both the guy and girl screaming about 20 feet in front of me.  when i look up i see a man jump onto the back of an idling motorcycle and the 2 guys drive off fast.

the guy that was running chased for a few feet but turned back to the girl who was crying hysterically.  i ran up to see what happened but they were talking in spanish so fast i couldn't understand anything.  all i could figure out was that one of the guys on the motorcycle did something to the woman jogger.  maybe he grabbed her ipod.  maybe he grabbed her.

all i know is that i was feet away from some sort of assault this morning in full daylight with all sorts of people around.  sorta kills my resolve to get up and run tomorrow.

after that happened i kept running for another 20 minutes before going home.  i was trying to keep my iphone hidden and ended up getting completely lost so i had to consult my map anyway.

its weird being witness to something that i don't understand, i'm not sure if i should be worried or not.  i'm constantly wandering around this town with my phone in hand, otherwise i'd never get back to my hotel.  there are cops with large guns at all of the atms and internet cafes so it seems pretty safe.  and why would a couple guys pick a couple to rob when there are plenty of single women walking around?

i'm still going to go with the theory that these tiny guatemalan guys aren't going to bother with a girl my size.  but still keep my eyes open.  i don't want to get paranoid, that would kill all the fun of this trip.

there was also another spider attack in my spanish class today.  which actually scared me more than the running episode.

i'm the little blue dot