La Antigua Guatemala

In the main square in the attractive, colonial tourist town of La Antigua, with the cathedral in the background.

We read a ranting article in a local English language paper that stated that the ‘La’ should not be excluded from the name of the city, as so often happens, and to do so would be to offend Guatemalans.’ La Antigua’ it is then. We set off in a shuttle minibus from Guatemala City. Travel agencies seem to have wrapped up tourism travel in these door-to-door services, which are comfortable enough but lack any price transparency, all charging different prices for the same service. Hmm. It’s a bit draining if you want to avoid paying too much and the circuit of shuttle bus destinations feels like a tourism conveyer belt that agencies really don’t want you to get off. Anyhow, our minibus climbed a steep hill on a dual-carriageway out of the bowl where Guatemala City sprawls, past incredible numbers of poor housing, followed by private, gated and gun-guarded, rich housing estates and into the next valley, where the Old Guatemala City, La Antigua Guatemala lies. This was the original capital city founded by the Spanish; the current Guatemala City was founded after an earthquake virtually destroyed La Antigua. It is a very picturesque place, with a volcano looming to the east, hills all around, cobbled streets, and houses painted in assorted colours. The buildings in the centre largely house restaurants, hotels, hostels, travel agencies, bars and wi-fi cafes. There are a couple of impressive plazas and a couple of beautiful, recently restored churches. The other churches, of which there are many, lie in ruins following the earthquake of 1775 (there have been several big ones since, the last one in 1986). It’s great that they haven’t knocked them down but have cleaned them up, made them safe and left them as a testament to the past, leaving an impression of both the grand history of the town and the destructive power of earthquakes. On the edge of town there is also a noisy, bustling market selling everything imaginable but drawing us in for its bargain fruit – bananas and mangoes being notable favourites. La Antigua was certainly a very easy place to be as we sipped coffee and ate bagels whilst watching Slumdog Millionaire on a big screen in an American style café, but this wasn’t what we were hoping for in Central America and, for the first time, it felt like travel fatigue was beginning to set in.