Exploring Antigua

We loaded into the overnight bus from Flores at 9 pm, we didn’t get much sleep as the driver kept ‘bibbing’ other cars and randomly turning the lights on inside the coach, so we were pretty tired when we reached Guatemala City at 5 am. From there, we were loaded into a smaller bus and were driven to Antigua, we reached the hostel about 7 am, but check in wasn’t until 2 pm so after they let us leave our bags in a locker we headed out to get some breakfast. Along with our bacon and eggs, we received a recommendation to visit a spot on top of a high hill that overlooks the whole of Antigua, so off we headed. The weather is a bit cooler here 28°C rather than 32°C and it is also less humid which is lovely. The walk was really pleasant, it wasn’t too much of a climb and the view was absolutely beautiful!

When we first got to the top about 9 am it was peaceful and quiet and really enjoyable, but by 10 am we could hear a loud bunch of Americans on their way up, they were obviously a Christian group and decided to bring the word of God to unsuspecting sightseers, eventually breaking out into song. Unfortunately for us they didn’t know any of the British primary-school classics like ‘give my oil in my lamp’ or ‘he’s got the whole world in his hands’ and we thought requesting Wonderwall may be a step to far, so we decided to climb down and explore the rest of the town.

Antigua is full of beautiful buildings and cobbled streets, it was once the colonial capital of Guatemala, built by the Spanish and used until an earthquake destroyed the area, but it’s been rebuilt in much the same style and is lovely to walk around.

In all we had walked about 7 miles on very little sleep so we headed back to our hostel and had a sit down until we could check in at 2 pm. Once checked in we went in search of some lunch/dinner. One of the staff suggested a local restaurant called Rincon Tipico and it was delicious! We ordered a chicken and potatoes dish, for Q300 (£3) we got a quarter of a chicken a tonne of potatoes some salad, some tortillas and a weird glass of rice milk, the chicken and potatoes were cooked to perfection over a huge fire and the salad and dressing were great, honestly one of the tastiest meals I’ve ever had, except the rice milk, which tasted like icing in liquid form.

After that we picked up some shopping in a supermarket so we can do a bit of cooking for ourselves as we will be here for a few nights, I’m getting a bit sick of tortillas!

Tomorrow we’re going to see a monastery and attempt a few hikes up a volcano, hopefully this one isn’t active!

Keep you updated.

Lots of love,

Alice x

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