Antiqua - Part III

Day 1 – Travel Day

Awake around 6:30am, I took myself outside so as not to disturb a snoring Glenn and had a coffee whilst enjoying the sunrise over the harbour and listening to the boats put-putting along.

The hostel was relatively new. The owners had lived in GC and had a holiday home here (I can see why) for many years. They tore the original house down as it was riddled with termites and halfway through the rebuild decided to turn it into a B&B. It meant they lived out of one room and shared the living space with their guests. Not sure if I could do that, even if it gives me a little slice of paradise.

 

We had a delicious breakfast, coconut flavoured tortilla for Glenn with eggs and cheese arranged into a smiley face, and eggs for me.

Our boat wasn’t due to depart till 11 so we lazed around, chatting to other guests and enjoying the view until it was time to lug our bags back down the hill.

You could only purchase your ticket on the day of travel, so we got to the harbour around 10:30, purchased our tickets, found some shade and settled down to wait for the boat and did a bit of people watching.

Someone somewhere hollered that the boat had arrived and everyone made a mad dash to the dock. When we got there, the small boat was rammed packed so we weren’t sure if there was room. After a bit of cajoling and pointing, two lines were ordered to squeeze up and make room for us. Luckily it was only a 30-minute journey.

 

The journey itself was lovely. Flat seas and blue skys also meant that our luggage, which was piled up on the front of the boat wouldn’t get wet either. After one brief stop to let people off at what looked like a nice beach resort, we arrived in Puerto Barrios.

From here we needed to take a short taxi ride to the bus depo. We jumped into a waiting taxi to find ourselves sharing it with the driver and two huge dudes with yellow eyes and went in a totally different direction. It was at this point I scolded myself for not being a bit more careful. We weren’t to worry though, the driver just decided to give us a tour of the un-scenic dusty town, dropping each of the dudes off first before depositing us at the bus station.

 

We had around an hour until our bus (another Pullman) arrived so bought a cold drink and found some shade.  When it arrived, to Glenn’s delight, it had an entertainment system built in (like you get on planes). After trying and failing to find the movies, Glenn settled down with his headphones to listen to some music and then proceeded to sing rather too loudly, or speak to me at the top of his voice for the duration of the journey. Fortunately, the other passengers also had earphones in so weren’t treated to the delightful rendition of ??? at the top of his lungs.

The 5hr journey turned into 7 as we hit traffic just outside of GC. We were due to transfer to a small minivan that would take us on the rest of our journey to Antigua. However, when the bus turned down a very darkened street with suspicious looking locals peering through the window and no sign of the van, we did start to worry. Are we being dropped off in the middle of the city, at night, with all our valuables?

Suddenly a huge metal gate slid open and an armed guard appeared and we were ushered into the waiting minibus hiding behind it, phew! Very security conscious here!

We arrived back in Antigua around 9pm and after dragging our bags to our hostel, went in search of some food. After briefly popping into the snug to say hi, we then headed for home, both a bit travel weary.

Day 2 – Fight Night (Well Afternoon Actually)

This morning I had a lie in (Glenn not Shel), she always gets up at stupid O’Clock) as we did not have anything planed until the afternoon.  Once up we went to the upstairs sun terrace and had some coffee and spent the morning blogging.

Around 12ish we then headed out to the cigar shop to pick up some tobacco (it’s the only place in town that does it).  After this we then went in search of a restaurant as we knew we would have a bit of a boozy afternoon and evening so we thought we should get something inside our bellies.

We were looking for a particular local dish that had been recommended in our guide and after putting our heads in a couple of places we found a nice little restaurant where you could dine in the shade of their courtyard.  Shell ordered the local dish, Pepian, which is a spicy sesame-seed sauce served with chicken and I went for the stuffed peppers, both when they turned up were very nice.

After lunch our intention was to go back to the hostel and book our airport transfers for the following day. However, as we walked past The Snug, the owner Rory called out to us, he was about to go to the charity boxing match we had tickets for and he offered us a lift there, which we gratefully accepted.

We drove a short way out of town and through a couple of backstreets and then parked up outside a school.  Helping Rory with some provisions he had brought along for the bar-be-que stall we entered the school gates, showed our tickets and then handed over the food to the stall.

Inside the school playground they had erected a very small looking boxing ring, crudely constructed in 4 by 2 and ordinary ropes, raised on a platform of beer crates.  Amusingly there was a statue of the virgin Mary in a recess in the wall directly behind the boxing ring, maybe she will look over/after the boxers. Also, there was a stretcher and medical staff standing in close attendance if divine intervention did not help them!

 

Today was an event for the ‘Children of Guatemala’ charity and it was boxing matches between local bar staff (mostly ex-pats) and sponsored by local businesses, The Snug being one of them.

First, we headed to the makeshift bar and were welcomed by the barmen from The Snug, Ed and Dom and we got ourselves a couple of tinnies.  Whilst we waited for the first fight to begin there was a DJ spinning good tunes and we chatted to Rory, who was telling a tale about the last time he was in custody in New York (he’s got loads of stories).  By now there was quite a sizeable crowd and everyone was drinking and having a good time in the sun (not us, we had found some shade).

It was now time for the first fight and they had a MC that introduced the two fighters into the ring, a very big American fella and a smaller wiry looking guy.  As the fight started the crowd became very vocal supporting the American guy, it was quite a good match up as the American was quite slow and had the power but the other guy had better skills and in the first two rounds (3 x 1 minute rounds) he got the better shots in.  The only real damage that was happening was when the fighters accidently slipped out of the home made ring.  In the third round however the wiry guy had to throw in the towel as he was exhausted, that or he had too much to drink.

 

The second bout once again was fairly evenly matched and to our surprise once again it was quite a decent fight.  Apparently, all the participants had been training down the local boxing gym for the last month.  Another way they had devised to raise money was by having a bookies there to take bets on the fights, which added to the crowd atmosphere. As with the Thai boxing we had seen, Shell had her blood lust up and was shouting like a goodun!

The third fight on the bill was between two of the local barmaids, so we were cheering on Lori who worked at The Snug and who we had chatted to when we had been there.  Again, it was quite a close match with Lori seeming to shade the first two rounds much to the delight of the crowd, Lori was obviously a very popular girl around town and most of the crowd were routing for her.  In the third she seemed to tire and the other girl started to get on top, but in the end the referee awarded the win to Lori (2 rounds to 1).

 

Obviously the beer had been flowing very easily and the next two fights were fought and received very well.  The final bout was the best of all with the two young guys looking very toned and it was an extremely good contest, which even had the first bit of blood spilt in the ring (not just from slipping out).  In all it had been a very different and enjoyable afternoon, it was nice to see the ex-pat community out and supporting a local charity.

 

After the event had finished, we then had to work out how we were going to get back to town, fortunately Ed and Dom were heading back to the Snug for the after party so they said to tag along with them.  We are glad we did as they took us to a bus stop where we caught our first chicken bus, we rode this to the edge of town then walked the rest of the way back to The Snug.

Back at The Snug the atmosphere was great and the music was playing and everyone was having a good time.  Many beers were drunk and peanuts eaten (by Glenn not Shell), we were enjoying our last time in this great little pub.  At some point, late in the evening, we’re not sure when, we then said our goodbyes to everyone and headed home for the night. Fortunately we did not have an early transfer in the morning (plus we had not got round to booking it yet!).