Great weekend... bad Monday!

Well, this weekend was pretty exciting. My friend from Mexico that lives in DC (Daniel Vazquez) came down to Guatemala due to work, and it was his first time here. We met up with him on Friday night and we had some food and drinks, here's the evidence from Friday night...

Mariana, Estuardo, Carlos, Daniel...

Unfortunately for me, while I was at the gym Friday afternoon, I was called 10 times... all of the missed calls were from work (by the way, my voicemail doesn't work, so people can't leave messages on my cellphone). I called back and found out we had a project that needed to be completed on Saturday, so I had to come in for about 4 hours on Saturday morning. After that, I went to pick up Daniel, who was staying at a hotel, but he was moving out and staying at my place until Monday. We headed down to Antigua Guatemala (about 45 minutes from Guatemala City), which used to be the capital city of Guatemala, and has a lot of Spanish-colonial architecture, with cobblestone streets and an international community. Antigua Guatemala is one of our most popular tourist spots... really awesome place to come down and visit.

In front of Iglesia de la Merced...

Daniel and a partial view of Antigua...

Enjoying a bite to eat...

After lunch and walking around town, we headed to this bar called "Monoloco" (crazymonkey) in Antigua, that's owned by some Bostonians. The bar is covered, wall to wall, with Red Sox memorabilia, and the best part is that they transmit all the Bosox games there. Anyways, we had some beers there, stopped at another bar, and then came back to the city around 2:30 AM. Daniel was headed to Peten (where Tikal is) that morning, so I had to drive him to the airport at 5:30 AM... I was soooo tired... The good thing is, I came back home and went to sleep, Daniel was gonna go hiking in Tikal for the day... sorry dude!

My dad was in town because of work (and is spending some extra days on vacation) and it was decided that he wanted (along with my aunt & uncle) to celebrate 100 years of my grandfather's birthdate (he's not alive anymore, but sitll, another excuse to celebrate his life). So we had a lunch with a bunch of family members in Casa Santa Domingo (http://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt/ voted the best hotel and resort in Mexico - Central America) which is also located in Antigua Guatemala. A whole bunch of family members I hadn't seen in a long time were there to remember Papa Chepe...

All of grandpa's nephews...

All the people who attended the event... I guess all these people are related to me!

Now, the bad news... On Monday, I went to work like any other day, then I found out that we had a basketball game later on (yes, I've joined a basketball team). Anyways, headed to the game, the game was pretty close, I go up to block a shot and FUDGE! I sprained my ankle really bad... the pain was unbearable. I went out of the game immediately, and I could feel my ankle starting to swell. When the game was over (which we lost), I could barely drive myself home (it was my right leg... yes, that's the same leg I tore my ACL on). Once I got home, removed my shoes, and my ankle was really swollen up... it was the size of Peter's ankle (from Familly Guy). Applied some ice to it, took some Tylenol and tried to get some sleep, which was really bad because of the pain and I could not get comfortable. Next day, the ankle was just as bad, so I had to go to the doctor... after an MRI and the hospital hoopla, I have an extremely bad sprain (or really good sprain, however you want to look at it), the doctor gave me a immobilizer for my ankle that I have to wear for three weeks, some pills to help with the swelling, and I can't do any activities that put too much pressure on my ankle for about a month. Went to work on Wednesday, and it's almost like when I tore my ACL back in the States, have to keep my leg up and I walk around the office about 5 mph.... The conclusion I've reached: it's healthier to watch sports than to play them!!! So basically, I'm out of any type of action for at least three weeks.... at least we have MONDAY off!

Un fuerte abrazo and take care,

CRCP

P.S. Two friends have already come down to Guatemala... who's next?!?!