Hotel La Casona De Antigua Antigua Guatemala

So we arrived in Antigua, a beautiful colonial city with cobblestone streets and none of the insanity that is everpresent in the capital (Guatemala City). But after doing a few vueltos around the town, inquiring at the various travel agencies, we realized there was no bus to Chichi. Or there was, but it left at 7am each day.

No big deal, right? I could just stay in Antigua? But I had already ...

... locals are screaming at me that the water is not safe to swim in... i start freaking out that there is crocs or something... finally i get to the end of the river where the rest of my tour group are waiting patiently for me...

Then back to the local restaurant to eat more chicken and rice... then back to our hotel where we all have a few beers and cant believe we are still alive.... amazing scenery though and recommended to anybody else crazy enough to do it.....

... spectacle of us as a couple and instead tried to copy his movements and follow his direction.

On Monday morning George and I said goodbye to Dave, Tim and James who were all heading to El Salvador to catch up with Kirsty, Troy and Will and we caught a shuttle up to Coban for the night before then heading to Lanquin, Semuc Champey and the bat caves and allegedly the best hostel in Guatemala, El Retiro.

Coban was the centre of coffee growing in ...

... br >


With the candles, incense, chanting in Tzotzil (the native Mayan language from the San Pedro region) and the slow, gentle swaying of the children carrying the floats, the entire scene was memerising.

The next day, Easter Saturday, there was a repeat of the parade from the night before, with the older men and women of the town carrying the floats - but the main event ...

... Antigua had many ruins to explore. A list of the ones we visited with entrance fee and what´s there to see:

- Le Merced (5 quetzals). The fountain is the largest and likely the most beautiful in all of Antigua.

- Catedral de Santiago (3 quetzals). A romantic place to live out Indiana Jones fantasies.

- Las Capuchinas (30 quetzals). To see what it was really like back then, a fully ...

... et agreable à1ere vue... Youpi! Et tout cela à un prix raisonnable. J'y suis pour les 4 prochaines semaines, alors si quelqu'un veut passer, voici l'adresse : 2a Avenida #36, Antigua, Guatemala...et le plus important, l'essence meme de ce post, la grande nouvelle est que : il y a Internet sans fil dans la maison alors je pourrai lire mes emails régulierement et si vous le souhaitez, on peut s'appeler sans ...

... boot shops. So we flagged down the next bus going north and ended up in Chimaltenango, about 30 minutes from Antigua. It was much bigger but not particularly pretty so we got some delicious icecream and caught the bus back. The whole outing, though not exactly exciting, cost just 18 quetzales each ($2.25 US, including the icecream). We then went to a museum (5 quetzales, .60 US) that turned out to be mainly about this franciscan monk named San Pedro. He was canonized in ...

... a weird amount...irregular imperfect vberbs in past tense anyone??? but i don't know if i can truely communicate...time will tell So we last left you with the Chichi market which was really cool. Since then we've had a short hike up a cross on a hill, so many armed guards for sucha lil hyike, but we hear there are bandits...but seriuously one of the most safe places i think i have been to. Yesturday we did a hike up an ...

... for my trip to the Hot Springs. Boy what a procedure. First you have to stand in a line to give a woman the money you want to change and which she chceks meticulously and then gives you a receipt for the money. Then you get into another line for a woman to check your passport,make a copy of it, check the exchange rate and give you two forms to sign one of which indicates how many Quetales you are going to get. The you get back in the first line to ...

So since I'm too lazy to go out and see the countryside (since I’ve already seen it and I’m increasingly hooked on wi-fi), I figure I’ll at least spend a few more days in Antigua, then go to the airport from there. That makes sense, something you can’t always depend on in Guatemala. Guatemala is very traditional, which tends to mean 'backward.’ People like to glorify ...