Blogs from Antigua, Capital Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 13

I have been in Antigua Guatemala for six days and it feels like I have lived here my whole life. I’m figuring out my way around this beautiful country step by step. And with a little help from my new friends I will be able to walk the streets blind folded soon. This weekend it the independents of Guatemala. So there are parades and food everywhere! Every time I turn a corner I swear there is a different parade going on. The parades consist of all the Antiguan schools, daycares, clubs etc… each school has their own marching band and they all have their own costumes. Like when I was in the parade in Duenes there was a day care that was all dressed up like smurfs! They are all very creative and very cute. I ... read more

My adventure started off with a five hour layover turning into a seven hours layover. Arriving in Guatemala around two, meeting two gentlemen from Canada that are in the same organization as I and waiting twenty minutes for are driver to return with the car, I was exhausted! The drive through Guatemala City was similar to Ghana (Jessica and mom) but not as chaotic. People crowded the sidewalks and the chicken buses were filled to the ceiling (chicken buses are bright colored school buses that you can pay to take you places). On the way to Antigua it poured! It was like buckets of water were being poured on us! The driver was very careful and knew what he was doing. I’m glad I wasn’t driving! The driver toke me and my new friends to Maximo ... read more

Another day exploring Antigua today. This is such a beautiful city. All of the buildings are such beautiful colors. I will let pictures speak for the majority of this town. At 2pm, we took a tour to hike the Pacaya Volcano. It is one of two active volcanoes in Guatemala. I misunderstood and thought that we would see red lava flowing down, but that is not the case. Apparently, red lava only flows if it is about to erupt. The last eruption of Pacaya was in 2010, and it was catastrophic. Hundreds of houses in the towns surrounded the volcano were demolished (I was surprised so many people live on/around the volcano...seems like a non-ideal location). The ashes from the eruption went as far as 10 hours away. We were able to see the pool of ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, Another early start for the shuttle out of Honduras into Guatemala and another hot and uncomfortable ride. The border crossing was one of the smoothest and we laughed in the face of the money changer who tried to get 175 Questals for 500 Lemperas - we negotiated a much better 195 Questals from a man who saw us as normal human beings rather than gullible tourists. We quickly pushed through the horrific looking Guatemala City and eventually got to Antigua around lunchtime. Antigua is a beautiful colonial city with brightly coloured houses and stone cobbled streets. We stayed at the wonderfully hippy sounding Holistico Hostel which was great and had an afternoon wandering the streets, getting our bearings and looking at a few churchs, or the remains of them, after years of earthquake ... 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