Blogs from Antigua, Capital Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean

Our last stop on our Central American adventure and that involved a last pit stop in Guatemala.... The lovely Antigua.... Certainly a no brainier alternative to Guatamala City. We arrived after a long 9 hour journey, which stated with the 40 minute rough road back from Semuc Champey and continued with the twists and turns through the mountains.... Not great when you'd had a bit too much rum the night before..... It was about 4pm when we arrived in Antigua and got dropped off in the main square and had a short walk to our hostel..... La Tereza ...., which had some little luxuries like hot water, filtered water, free brekkie, which wasn't your average bread and jam... Pancakes, omelette, scrambled eggs.... Once again Guatemala was spoiling us....This place is really really pretty. Much bigger ... read more

I arrived in Antigua on March 31/11 and was dropped off at the home of my host family. I was given a quick tour of the house (very nice) and an introduction to my new family. The women of the house are Connie and her two daughters, Cookie and Teresa. The men of the house are Teresa’s husband, Jorge, and two of their sons, Alex (21) and Jose (16). Two other students are also staying at the house; Mimi is from Slovenia and Nadine is from Holland (Sigrid, from Germany, came halfway through following Nadine's departure). Antigua is such a beautiful city. Obviously I noticed right away how clean and fresh it was. The city consists of brightly painted colonial style buildings complete with terracotta roofs and cobblestone streets. The city is surrounded by three tree ... read more

I spotted him from a distance, hangdog expression, backpack dangling from a shoulder, meandering amongst the throngs of LAX. On spotting me, a surreptitious smile, a handshake and our mate Burch had now morphed our tight group of two into the three amigos with two months ahead galavanting around Central America. A month's gossip was exchanged over a couple of hours prior to the reality that we were still confronted with one of the less glamourous chapters of travel - the red eye flight.The actual flying time from LA to Guatemala isn't overly daunting, but already crusty and in stopover mode, the 11.30pm takeoff and rapid transit in Mexico City prior to the last leg is a recipe for the perfect storm in terms of jet lag. Guatemala City is bipassed by 99% of tourists who ... read more

While walking around Antigua, we kept noticing a wooden statue of a mustached man wearing a black suit, red tie and a wide-brimmed hat and smoking a cigar. We asked who he was and were told he was Maximon or San Simon. While we saw several in town, there were three chapels that were built just for him. The closest was in a town called San Andres Itzapa. We decided to go on a quest to find Maximon. Just who is Maximon and why would we be searching for him? We went online and found that Maximon is a pre-Columbian Mayan god of the underworld formerly known as Maam ("grandfather"); his modern name is a combination of Maam and Simon. He is also seen as an “everyman” saint; one who likes to smoke and drink. People ... read more