Santo Domingo en el Cerro

Today was super fun :) Every month we all get a half day to use. Stephanie, Charlotte and I all took ours today and decided to take two of our friends out to lunch. They are also staying at NPH, but they're here for slightly different reasons. They're grad school students from Chicago who needed to do a project for their Master's thesis (or maybe it's just a class? I don't know. They had to interview the older kids here to get an idea of their experiences growing up at NPH.) They seem pretty cool and since they're leaving after being here for the last three months, we didn't want to send them off without a little celebration. I was able to talk everyone into Santo Domingo en el Cerro, that fancy restaurant that I went to a few months ago with folks from the language school. The restaurant is owned by the Santo Domingo hotel, one of the nicest hotels in Antigua.

First we had to go to the hotel and wait for the shuttle bus. The hotel is crazy expensive and it shows. The gardens are really beautiful with fountains and flowers everywhere. There's really nice art work and furniture in the lobby. You can tell it's definitely for wealthy tourists. They even have a bunch of macaws hanging around.

After waiting for a few minutes, the shuttle bus finally came to get us (more like a shuttle trolley. It's just like those little safari cars that they have at zoos. I don't think I ever felt like more of a tourist). It took us down the street about a 1/4 mile, then we drove up the super steep driveway. It's really pretty as you go up. You get continuously more gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, plus there are different statues and art exhibits on either side of the driveway.

This was the first time I had been there during the day so I was never really able to appreciate the awesome view before (Look beyond the awesome people for a glimpse of the awesome views)

We had a really nice lunch (I had a delightfully rare steak with mashed potatoes, corn and salad, accompanied by a beer and followed by the best creme brûlée I've ever had- all for the incredibly reasonable price of $21). It took us a while to get back (the trolley man kind of forgot about us) but all in all it was a great time. I hope some of my American friends venture out here so I can have an excuse to go again! (I'll go without you too, I would just rather have company)

Oh, side note: There was this weird fruit/vegetable shrine set up next to the entrance of the restaurant. One of the girls said that she had seen something similar in another place in Antigua, so it might have something to do with Semana Santa.