It is my first friday in Antigua after a very long week. I´ve gone from feeling out of place and uncomfortable to finding a bit of a groove, and from speaking practically no Spanish to being able to hold short (although often technically incorrect) coversations. Since I have been here a week I think it´s due time I do a post on the nightlife in Antigua- mostly because it is so bizarre. Being a town that straddles an odd line between old and trendy, impovershed and thriving, and crawling with English speaking tourists while the natives rarely speak a lick of it themselves- Antigua has an equally odd nightlife. It is vastly geared towards the predomanantly young tourist/student population-to a point I find almost insulting.
We headed out last night because one of the two students who are in my homestay house was heading home today. Being my first real time out I was amazed by the hordes of club-wear clad non natives who swarmed the streets. I don´t know where the native Antiguans hang out but it isn´t in downtown Antigua. We walked past Monoloco- a local dance club known for its super cheap ladies nights (Q3- which is esentailly 40 cents), and typical sleezy club scene. From its dark neon lit depths poured the driving beat of a Kanye song or something similarly popular in the US right now. Our destination was...well I can´t remember the name...but a bar that is nestled in one of the many crumbling ruins that exist throughout the town. It was a pretty cool place- cement stairs 
spiraling up to the bar. Half was a partially open patio that lookoed out over the ruins. It was cool except the empty Gallo bottles that I could see strewn around ground- a kind of extra f-you to the locals. We will build a bar in your ruins and then not even respect them.
spiraling up to the bar. Half was a partially open patio that lookoed out over the ruins. It was cool except the empty Gallo bottles that I could see strewn around ground- a kind of extra f-you to the locals. We will build a bar in your ruins and then not even respect them. A issue I´ve had since I got here is how little authenticity I feel exists. At the bar my friend ordered pizza, the band played Sublime and Jimi Hendrix covers, our host mother frequently serves us things like pancakes, spagetti and hot dogs. In coming here I wanted street tacos and Guatemalan music. Instead it seems like Antigua has rolled over a submitted to what they belive the typical non-native likes/wants.
However, perhaps on the other hand it is the Guatemalen culture embracing the bounty of the other cultures that continue to colonize it and I shouldn´t expect them to stick to the illusion of authenticity when they´ve just surcumb to the inevitability of change.
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