What do Christmas lights, active volcanoes and Taiwan have in common?

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After a brief overnight in the distinctly insalubrious Ocetepeque (a Honduran border town 15 minutes from El Salvador and 30 minutes from Guatemala) and a quick change of bus in Guatemala City and we arrived in Antigua. Our now much thumbed Lonely Planet describes Antigua as Guatemala if the Scandinavians took over. As this was our first stop we didn’t really have any references to properly assess the comment but there was little evidence of any Saabs or saunas.

Antigua at first sight was a little worrying for us budget conscious travellers as the supposed cheap eats options were found to have some rather inflated price tags on their menus. However, nerves were calmed when we tracked down some lodging which not only equalled our cheapest nights stay in Central America but was also probably the best appointed hostel we’d stayed in. It had a rather cosy grotto type feel as Irma, its owner, had decided to leave up her Christmas lights due to numerous admiring guests pleading her not to take them down.

If you’ve been to Cusco in Peru then Antigua has a not dissimilar look and feel. Surrounded by three volcanoes, one active, it sits high in the mountains (although below Guatemala City’s 1500m) with city life radiating out from its impressive central colonial square. Like Cusco it fills its role admirably as the tourist hub of the country dripping with shops selling tours and transports. That said its sanitised Latino ways do mean it provides a sense of order and with it an air of calm.

Our day trip to see the active volcano Pacaya was awesome. To be two hundred meters away from molten rock tumbling down the side of a volcano is certainly something special. Toasting marshmallows on the hot rocks was perhaps a little too quirky but having stocked up especially following a German lads recommendation we enjoyed our volcano assisted sugar infusion.

Three nights in this apparently sterilised version of Guatemala felt sufficient. Even the Antigua Cultural Institute’s next Taiwan related event to follow up our attendance to a rather bizarre evening film showing was not enough to convince us to stay longer. Our next move is west to Lake Atitlan.

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