Antigua Quirks

Sat 5-5-07
You know, sometimes it's the little things that make a difference, both positive and negative. Here are some of Antigua's "little things" that give it personality. ALL of the streets are cobblestone, along with most of the sidewalks. A few stones are missing here and there just to keep life interesting. It pays to keep your eyes focused on where you're stepping as you go from place to place.
The bathroom has a charm of it's own. NO toilot paper can be put in the toilot- it ALL goes in the trashcan because their plumbing cannot handle the paper. Fortunately, the trashcans are emptied often. The water in Antigua is turned off around 10 or 11 nightly, and comes back on around 4am. There is no hot water in most places, including my house. The traditional shower head is replaced with a large special shower head that has wires running to it. We call it a "widow maker". It heats the water in the shower head just before it's sprayed out. All of these bathroom qwirks are very common all over Latin America.
My house is literally at the very end of a fairly long ally. The ally has one continuous wall on the left and right, with an occasional window and door. There are no spaces betweeen houses. The change in the color of pain on the ally wall and the door signify a different home. Sometimes the walls are kept up nicely and the windows are nicely decorated. And sometimes it's far from pretty. When the door is opened, it sometimes opens directly into a room with spare lighting and furniture. But sometimes the door opens into a patio/garden area with the actual house built aruond the garden. What surprises me is how you really can't judge the interior by the exterior. It kind of reminds me of people in general. What we present on the outside may be far from what's on the inside.