Guatemala: Antigua

Matt and Nick both came to Guatemala at different times in the past to enroll in a Spanish language school in the city of Quetzaltenango (or Xela - pronounced sheh-lah) and Anne and I have been taking classes with the teacher that Matt studied with when he was in Xela.  She is a great teacher and very knowledgeable and we have come to know her very well (and visa versa) from topics that have come up during our interactions.

So it was that we decided that we would like to come to Guatemala to see some of the places that Matt and Nick had visited and to meet our teacher.

The flight to Guatemala City from Mexico City started with a bit of a glitch because the hiking poles that Anne had brought with her were confiscated by airport security because they seemed dangerous.  While Anne and I sadly accepted this denial, Nick came up and charmed the stern supervisor into keeping them for us, getting a voucher to present when we return for them! This was quite astonishing.  I doubt that there are many countries where security agents would make such an arrangement with a passenger on their way out of the country so it was a nice surprise to be treated this way.  

For a megacity, the international terminal was relatively calm at the time we flew out which was also a surprise.  I suppose it is also a testament to the fact that a small percentage of the inhabitants of that city are regularly using the airport.  We are planning to fly to a beach town in a few weeks so we might have a different experience in the domestic terminal.

We saw an active volcano when we were about to land in Mexico City and again when we were about to land in Guatemala.  There are 23 Holocene Volcanoes (that have erupted in the current geological epoch) of which 3 have erupted within the last 2 years.  One of these is Volcán de Fuego (volcano of fire) which is in the city of Antigua and erupts every few years - the most recent having started in September 2021 and is ongoing with ash and smoke being ejected many times a day.  In September 2018 the volcano erupted much more violently causing 159 deaths and 256 missing persons.

Antigua was chosen as the capital of Guatemala by the Spanish conquerors and was established in 1527 under Volcán de Fuego and was destroyed by an eruption from another nearby volcano in September 1541 (you probably want to plan your trip to Antigua to not be in the month of September) and rebuilt on its present site which is 8km away (5mi).  A great deal of construction was undertaken over the next 200 years as it remained the seat of government and the city had expanded to 60 000 people by the late 1700s.  Three major earthquakes wracked the city in the 1700s, each one dealing considerable damage to the beautiful buildings of the Catholic Church and government.  

The earlier quake in 1717 was explained as divine punishment and followed a big eruption of Volcán de Fuego but the buildings were repaired and life continued until in 1773 the city was destroyed by an earthquake and a decision was made to move the capital to a valley in which Guatemala City now stands, about an hour's drive away.

We learned some hard lessons in Antigua about booking places to stay.  We arrived at the place we had reserved at about 7pm in the dark.  Our driver, someone Nick had been in contact with since he visited here a few years ago, unloaded our stuff and we knocked on the door only to be told that it was private residence and not a vacation rental.  It turns out that some of the sites that you use for booking places don't take the same amount of care to confirm the reservation that you'll find with AirBnb.  Booking.com must have had this property listed, but its owner left and didn't remove it from the listings.

We had to scramble to find a hotel and the first one we stopped at wanted to charge us $250 for 2 rooms which is what you'd pay for a pair of rooms in the US at a 2 star hotel.  Our driver recommended a different hotel which was around $86 per night per room - still expensive by Guatemalan standards but we really had no choice.

We were able to find an alternate AirBnb that night and moved in the next day.  Some AirBnb hosts are terrible and there is a limit that AirBnb will do to help you get a refund - even if the owner has exaggerated their listing for the apartment (a cosy apartment turned out to be an apartment which had a kitchen that was open to the winter air and a neighbor who was doing some demolition work on the shared wall).

We realized that you have to carefully read the reviews of the apartments before booking them, make sure you have heard back from them (and/or that you can call their mobile phone) and preferably get one that has instant booking (which means they have a key you can access with a code when you get there).

Once we had settled in we walked around the town.  

It is very quaint with a lot of small shops like those you find in Mexico city selling daily needs and snacks but also plenty of shops selling local crafts and art.  

Or hotel was typical of many of the buildings - a big two door entrance into a central courtyard with a large house of rooms.  I suspect originally housed wealthy families and officials and are now hotels, hostels and restaurants - of which there are plenty.

Our Spanish has improved during the few weeks here.  I had a conversation with someone on the roof of our hotel the morning after we arrived.   I asked in Spanish which volcano was Volcán de Fuego and the person asked me where I was from, after pointing out both Volcán de Agua and Volcán de Fuego to me.

  After I told him he said in Spanish that he was from Santa Cruz, California... he had a chuckle at my tortured Spanish when he could speak perfect English - but the rest of the conversation continued in Spanish...  I told him that I could order coffee, breakfast, lunch and dinner to which he replied - "well at least you won't die of hunger!"

Speaking of which, the restaurants in Antigua were very worthwhile - we ate at a vegan restaurant called "Once Once" - which is a play on words - "once" is the number 11 in English but the English name works just as well. 

We found a great Indian restaurant, a Greek restaurant and a number of other more traditionally Central American restaurants.

The city has a main street with an arch that attracts a lot of tourists for photographs with the big Volcán de Agua as a backdrop. 

This volcano was named for an eruption that was essentially a mudslide that destroyed Antigua in 1541.  Many of the tourists are from Guatemala as well.  Nick said that local families in Guatemala City will save up for weekend outings to Antigua.

Along this street and again in one of the churches that was all but destroyed by the last major earthquake we saw some wooden platforms with Christian figures on them depicting the events around the crucifixion of Jesus. 

In April the city has a huge festival during which these platforms are carried through the streets to celebrate Easter.

There is an opportunity to hike up to Volcán de Fuego - the hike is typically a 2 day hike for which you can rent equipment.  The town of Antigua is at 1500m elevation (5000ft) and the hike goes up a mountain ridge near Fuego which is at 3976m.  The temperatures up there at night can get to -15C even though the weather all year round is pretty temperate in the city below.  Due to the elevation the summits are often socked in by clouds but you have an incredible view of the lava flow on Fuego from the ridge at night and then an opportunity to hike up Fuego as far as is possible in the morning.  The hike takes 3-6 hours to the base camp and then a couple of  hours up Fuego in the morning before hiking back down.

Visitors are warned to acclimatize before attempting this hike and we realized pretty quickly with Nick coming down with something and with the forecast showing multiple overcast days in a row that we should consider coming back here another time with the intention of doing the hike rather than trying to fit it in on this trip.

 We spent two nights in an AirBnb with great views of both Volcán de Agua and Volcán de Fuego.  Anne points out that I can't keep saying this, but this would be a great little town to live in - were it not for the prospect of what the next September might bring.