Fanny Packer Ver. Backpacker

Last year, the stay in Antigua offered an experience of rawness. A feeling that you were unique amongst a foreign environment. Essentially, you were away from the ¨common¨ destination. I quite liked this. The surroundings were generally filled with like minded backpackers interested in fulfilling some experience. And, overall, the place acted as a launching point for some grand Central American trek. Unfortunately, the uniqueness, beauty and seclusion, has been taken over by an over saturation of Fanny packers. I would describe these travelers as the bus bumpers. Those people who don´t necessarily experience as much as see an experience. Although, I really have no grounds for complaint, it is an unfortunate to see Antigua swarmed with such masses. Antigua, for the last two days, has been hosting a festival. The advent of which has inspired random cannon explosions, that dot the sky with bursts of smoke. The significance and timing of each explosion is completely random; and instills a sense of invasion, or enemy bombardment around town. While walking the deserted streets of Antigua, with my friend, late last night, a loud explosion was set off several blocks away. Being Antigua, and knowing of the false sense of security -I learned that several nights ago two girls where rapped by a tuk-tuk driver; several days ago, a burglar (at night) burglarized one of the shops in the Mercado and was shot violently; and that cops have a license to kill- the sound moved me to wonder why they had to shoot the cannons so late at night. Well, except for the occasional startling, as a whole the cannon fire has -oddly- added a colorfully transparent feel to the town. Son and I have grown somewhat tired of the saturation around town, and in several hours will board a bus to Lago Atilan. The place is supposed to be quite nice. We are looking forward to a place were the local feel is not lost by the invasion of the Fanny Packer. Arin Oh, I received requests for photos. I do have many, but just haven't had the opportunity to upload them onto the blog. I will attempt some type of image upload within the next week.