This is a miniature painting on an easel that shows Antigua’s streets with the volcano lit up in the background by the moon. I really wanted a small painting like this to sit at my desk at work. And although this was a common souvenir it took me ages to track down. The problem was that either the work would be very poorly done or the prices would be outrageous. For example one store told me a small painting like this would be $80 USD. This was in a store that only sold various sizes of touristy paintings. I was the only tourist in there, and judging by the dust, the only one in a long while. The women in this hard to find store were surrounded by thousands of these types of paintings. I just looked at them like they were crazy. To give you a sense of scale, the painting is the size of a deck of cards and fits in the palm of your hands. I knew something like this at other touristy areas would be anywhere from 2-15 dollars, so I kept looking.
A few more rip-off stores later I finally found this one. Although it was still pretty expensive in my book (I think I paid somewhere in the vicinity of 15-20 USD) I liked the quality of the piece, that it was a night and showed the volcano, and most importantly the pink building in the background reminded me of the color of the hostel I was staying at. I actually arrived in the late hours by moonlight on my first night, so looking at this painting reminds me exactly of those moments waiting for the owners to wake up and let me in. The agonizing minutes wondering if they had gotten my message of late arrival, straining in the silence to see if I heard footsteps. Thankfully they did let me in, and now I can look at this painting fondly and remember the start of my trip!
Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
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