Busy first full day in Antigua! We both slept like babies last night, and woke up hungry and full of energy. Got a new morning routine down. Change Liana's diaper, then put her in the stroller and roll her into the bathroom while I take a shower with the curtain half open so she doesn't get scared. Then I toss her into the high chair and give her a baby cracker while I make coffee. She eats her cracker and drinks her bottle while I drink my coffee. Ok! This is a routine that works.

This morning we then headed off to the central plaza, and found a nice restaurant. Had eggs and black beans and fried plantains and goat cheese and watermelon! And Liana had pineapple juice in her bottle. We watched the world go by and laughed and laughed. A woman selling woven and embroidered items came by with her 4-year old daughter. I told her I had just arrived, and that I was not buying anything today. She told me she is from a village 8 kilometers away, and that she and 15 family members weave and embroider, and that she and her daughter come to Antigua to sell their goods. She said that business was bad, and that the police would chase her away if she set her wares out the way she used to. She said that many stores had opened selling goods like hers, and the stores did not like the street vendors. She asked about Liana, and said that she was lucky to be going to the US. She said life is hard for the indigenous people of Guatemala. She asked where Liana was born, and I told her Mixco. (Mixco is a Guatemala City slum, where many refugees settled during the civil war.) She shook her head and said that Liana was not from Mixco, that she was indigenous, just like them. I told her that I agreed, and that I was going to have a scientific test done (mitochondrial dna) to see where Liana's ancestors were from. The woman seemed pleased. I asked her daughter if she liked watermelon, and when she nodded, so I cut her a slice. I asked the woman if her daughter was going to go to school. She sighed. She said her daughter had been born with a deformed ear, and that she was deaf on one side. She said that school is expensive, and that the economy was bad, and that life was hard. I guess that was a no.

The camera battery was dead, so you have to wait until tomorrow to see pictures of lovely Antigua. Here is an old Guatemala City one.