After relaxing by the water in Rio i jumped on the Litegua bus to get me to Antigua. For 125 quetzales it got me to Guatemala City and then onto a connecting bus for the remainder of the journey. Having heard that Guatemala City isn’t the nicest place to hang around (about 15 murders a day) i decided to skip it. The bus trip took longer than advertised (again) and we were all worried that we would miss the connecting bus. Luckily the next bus had waited even though we were nearly 2 hours late.  The short drive to Antigua doubled in length as it took us nearly an hour to get out of the city so a good 7-8 hours in the saddle that day.

I often book my accomodation ahead at least for the first couple of nights as i like to know where i’m going. I hate trudgeing round from hotel to motel checking prices and rooms with my bags on my back, i’d much rather get somewhere (even if its not exactly what i want) drop off my bags and go and explore.

I stayed at Hostal Posada de San  Carlos, a mixture of private rooms and dorms for backpackers. I feared Antigua was going to be a little expensive so I stayed in a dorm for about 12USD a night, it was clean, had comfortable beds, and good staff, in fact very good staff.

Antigua is in the central highlands of Guatemala and is well known for its well preserved Spanish influenced architecture and ruins of colonial churches. It has a great central square surrounded by imposing buildings.

Cathederal of San Jose next to the main square –

Hermano Pedro, an ancient hospital –

Many ruins of old churches can be found when strolling around town –

If you come to Antigua make sure you have some comfortable shoes to walk around in, ALL the streets are cobbled and the pavements aren’t that wide !!

Theres normally a volcano back drop somewhere –

Antigua  can be an expensive place to stay, there are five star hotels, pricey restaurants, spas galore and many gifts to buy. But fear not as there are a few hostels, cheaper hotels, bars and cafes, and street food to eat in abundance in the evening.

I haven’t mentioned about the volcano trekking that can be done here but as i’m going to be back here in a couple of weeks, it can wait !

SimonTheSailor