Part of Isaac’s process in applying to attend the University of Santa Monica was to take the TOEFL exam. It’s the test of English as a foreign language. Of course, wouldn’t you know, they weren’t offering the exam here in Costa Rica. So he had to fly to Guatemala so he could take it. I decided to go with him, since I had never been there before.

Guatemala was a lot different than I had expected, not that I knew anything about it before I went. Actually, this was the first time I traveled somehwere and didn’t study about the place before going. I was so terribly busy with homework, that I just pretty much got on the plane and showed up!

We stayed in a 4-star hotel in Guatemala City that we found online. It was truly amazing, and only cost us $80 per night. The exam went really well and Isaac scored a 243 out of a possible 300. The minimum score he could get and still be accepted to USM was a 220 I believe.

The next day we took a tour of Guatemala City and then of Antigua. Both were stunning. Here you see a picture of a woman washing clothes in downtown Guatemala City in a public washing place. Notice the typical colors of her clothes. It was pretty cool to see.

But Antigua was the nicest surprise. It was really amazingly cute. Check out some pictures on Google if you have the chance. Next time, we’ll be staying at a hotel in Antigua. We saw a couple amazing places that integrate the Mayan ruins into their architecture very well.

Here is a picture of one of the gardens inside one of the places we visited in Antigua. Every building had a courtyard and garden. Everything was colorful, well taken care of and flowers were everywhere. I understand that real estate is super expensive. Like in the millions of dollars. Yeah. You heard me! It’s pretty exclusive there.

On our next trip, I’d really like to see some other parts of Guatemala where some of the more well-known Mayan ruins are. Sounds pretty interesting to me. It’s a must-see if you get down to these parts and have time.