Find Part 1 of the story here.
For the second day in Guatemala, I initially had a tour to Antigua Guatemala booked, but that was canceled only a few hours before it was supposed to start. The *one* time I book a guided tour, and it’s canceled. So I was on my own, which turned out not to be a problem at all.
At around 9:00am, I called an Uber from my Hotel in Guatemala City’s “Zona 10”. Not two minutes later, the driver arrived and off we went. Here’s one word of warning: I was going on a Sunday, so there wasn’t too much traffic. It took us about 50 minutes from Guatemala City to Antigua, but a fellow travel that was going the day before during rush hour was forced to endure 2½ hours of stop-and-go traffic. So your milage might vary. Keep in mind that the price will also increase based on traffic – for me the cost was about 150 quetzales (20$US), for him it was about 30$US.
I actually enjoyed the ride quite a bit, the driver was very friendly, the streets mostly free and I liked the scenery of first Guatemala City and later on the wooded mountains.
Some history – from 1543 through 1773, Antigua Guatemala was the capital of Guatemala, back when the Spanish were still the (mostly) undisputed rulers of the region. In the 18th century, the closest Volcano broke out and destroyed part of the city. This was deemed to be a “sign of god” that the city should be abandoned, and the capital was moved to where it is today, Guatemala City. During this time, the population of the city shrank from 60,000 at it’s peak to merely 9,000 people that were still living in the ruins of the former capital. Most of the still standing buildings fell more and more into disrepair. Only in the 20th century was the city “rediscovered” for it’s beautiful, mostly untouched baroque colonial architecture. Preservation and restoration efforts took place, and later on Antigua was declared a “UNESCO World Heritage” site, transforming it into the tourist magnet it is today.
The driver dropped me of at the “Plaza Mayor”, the big plaza that is the heart of Antigua. In retrospect, I should have asked him to drop me of at the outskirts of the city, since that would have saved us both the combination of traffic, questionable shock absorbers and cobble stone that we had to endure for about 15 minutes while we rode through the congested town center.
After the somewhat dreary Guatemala City, Antigua was a welcome change in scenery – a beautiful little park, quaint little streets with colorful houses, many old Spanish churches in various states of decay, mysterious ruins and a huge volcano lurking ominously above it all – Antigua is basically everything you expect when thinking “Central America” in one neat, walkable package (missing only a waterfall, but I’m sure you can find one if you’re really looking for it).
By the way, did you notice the purple decorations in the background in the pictures above? It turned out that, completely by accident, I went to Antigua on the day of one of the biggest Easter processions in the world! That meant that the whole city was decorated, and many of the women and young girls were dressed up in traditional, colorful Guatemalan clothing. That was really a sight to behold.
The locals decorated the streets that the procession would later walk through with “carpets” made from colorful sawdust. On the left, you can also see the first participants dressed in purple robes, as well as the ample tourists taking photos (on the right) 🙂
The main event – the christian passion scene, including Romans and a brass band playing somber and low tempo music. I guess the death of Christ is an event where even in Latin America playing Reggaeton is considered inappropriate!
Note the large Mountain looming in the background – that’s the Volcán de Fuego, sadly that day covered in rain clouds. There’s also a very nice viewpoint on a small hill nearby, but sadly it started to rain so the view wasn’t that remarkable.
Late in the afternoon, I took an Uber back to Guatemala City. This time, there was a bit more traffic and it took us about 80 Minutes to get back. Unfortunately, I also experienced some problems with Uber – the first driver started the ride without actually picking me up and I had to open a dispute with Uber to return the resulting cost (which was thankfully resolved the next day). The Uber driver after that brought me home safely, but did not end the ride when he dropped me of – a common scam where the drivers try to take advantage of the fact that a longer ride might cost more than initially displayed. Luckily I checked after only 10 minutes or so and was able to cancel the ride so that no extra cost was billed. It shows that even when taking Uber, you’ll have to be alert to what is happening.
The next day, after exploring the “Zona 10” and it’s Malls and Starbucks a bit more, I was back on my way to Mexico City. As a bonus, I got a great view of the Volcano Popocatépetl from the plane while approaching MEX.
This concludes the writeup of my weekend trip to Guatemala. In retrospect, it was one of the most fun tours I’ve done in the last few months, and it was a great way to get out of the City and see something new.
If you’re thinking about visiting Central America, I really recommend going to Guatemala and especially Antigua, even more so if you only have little time. I hope I will be able to return soon, since I feel there’s still a lot to explore in the Land of Vulcanoes!
The Guerito 