Guate and Belize: Antigua

We spent 3 nights in Panajachel and I was sad to leave the beauty of Lake Atitlan behind, but excited for what was next- Antigua! Antigua turned out to be my favourite part of the trip. In fact (I am hesitant in saying this) it might be my favourite city I have ever travelled to. It was a lot more touristy than Panajachel which was really its only draw back in my eyes. I prefer to be one of the few tourists. In Pana, there were lots of expats, but a good (small) number of backpackers/travellers. In Antigua there were a LOT of tourists. But aside from that, it was amazing.

The city itself is just gorgeous. All cobble stone streets, old buildings, bright colours. I can't describe its beauty properly. In fact, the city itself has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent a lot of time walking the streets and exploring. We taste chile chocolate at the Choco Museo. It was yummy if you like spice (which I do) and my only regret is that we didn't do the full chocolate making class. There are tons of cacao trees in Guatemala, which make chocolate. We explored the churches, the restaurants and the markets. I loved San Francisco church which holds the tomb of Hermano Pedro. We ate at Pollo Campero (pretty much a Guatemalan McDonald's) and looked up at El Arco de Santa Catalina, the famous arch of Antigua. Every street holds such rich history. We ate ice cream every day as we walked the streets. Little kids would follow us, asking for ice cream or for us to buy gum off them or have our shoes shined. A little girl and her cutie pie baby sister sat with us in the ice cream parlour one day, and for about twenty minutes we sat and talked. Chris noted how much more easily I talk to kids in Spanish; it comes more naturally to me as I learned Spanish from interacting with kids in the Dominican. It was fun to converse so easily and not have to really think about what I was saying or translate in my head. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to continue my Spanish learning. I really love the language and I think it is a big part of why I loved Guatemala so much.

One afternoon we went to El Frijol Feliz for a Guatemalan cooking class. I could not rave enough about this class. At $45US/person at first we were hesitant. Everything else in Guate is so cheap- we didn't know whether it would be worth it. It was SO worth it and I wish we had time to do many classes. It was easily the best meal I had on our trip, and a fun experience. We were in a class with three other people; a couple from San Francisco and another woman (also from San Francisco although travelling separately). We had emailed with the company prior and picked out a few recipes we wanted to make. We were given bottles of water and pop throughout the class, and wine/beer during the dinner. We made tamales, tortitas de papa, chiles rellenos, and mole de platanos for dessert. The class itself took about three hours, and then we sat outside around 6 and ate it all up. The class was awesome. There was Lavi, a Guatemalan woman who spoke only Spanish, who did the cooking/teacher and Luis, who acted as translator and also helped with the teaching. We went dish by dish, starting with the tamales which were the most fun to make as we learned how to tie them up in the leaves. Luis gave us tips on how to make the meals at home, and the recipes were later emailed to us. Tortitas de papa were my favourite; they were delicious. Everything was so good! Throughout the rest of the trip whenever we were going out for dinner we would comment how we wished we were back at the cooking class.

A visit to Antigua wouldn't be complete without a volcano climb! Antigua is surrounded by three volcanoes; Acatenango, Fuego, and Agua. Fuego is almost constantly active. Pacaya is a volcano closer to Guatemala City that is known for its big eruption in 2010. Since then, it is hard to see lava, but it is the easiest volcano to trek up so is where more tourists go. It takes about 2.5 hours to reach the top of the volcano and we were in a group of about 12 people. We paid $10 to do so, and then I paid extra to ride a horse the first half. The first half was a fairly easy hike so I took that time to ride the horse and enjoy the view. As we got halfway, the horse went back down and the rest of us continued to hike up. It was fine at first, but then the sun began to set and it was getting dark. The last 30 minutes were practically vertical, all over volcanic ash that was really tough to walk on, as we would slip going up. Some of our group couldn't do it, and the guide stayed down with them so we made it up on our own. For the last 10 minutes, Chris was practically dragging me up! Finally we reached the top and the view was well worth the effort and sweat. The sun was just setting over the peak. It was smoky from the heat and lava and we could look out over all of Guatemala City. It was windy as we were so high up, but the ash underfoot was warm. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. We made our way back down in pitch dark aside from the flashlights a few people, including Chris, had been smart enough to bring. It was steep and slippery and the guide compared it to skiing. I admit I was scared of falling and was holding on to Chris probably way too tight! We were exhausted and covered in black ash when we got back, but it was an experience I will never forget.


We stayed 3 nights in Antigua, one of which was New Years. We stayed at Hotel Casa Rustica. It was pricy as it was high season with it being New Years. The room wasn't amazing but it was clean and had a Guatemalan feel in terms of decoration, which I liked, and there was an incredible rooftop patio overlooking the volcanos which I used every single morning and night. New Years was interesting. We bought some wine and watched the sunset, and then headed out into the streets. It seemed like everyone was out on the streets surrounding Parque Central; Guatemalan families, tourists- everyone. By the end of the night there must have been 3000 people surrounding the park. There were mimes, giant puppets, paper balloons being lit up and set off, and fireworks- tons and tons of fireworks. As midnight approached, fireworks continued to go off and strangely there was no countdown. We somehow missed the clock striking midnight as nothing changed (for 10 minutes leading up to it there was the same amount of screaming and fireworks) but it was definitely a memorable way to bring in 2012!

Unfortunately (bad planning on our parts!) we were up bright and early the next morning to catch a shuttle to Lanquin, the gateway to Semuc Champey.