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Published: July 18th 2008
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Antigua
the famous arch. A picture that you'll probably only see on this blog. One third of the way through our trip already, and it's going by far too fast.
We talked with the driver yesterday at Semuc Champey about a shuttle to Antigua this morning and he was going to pick us up on the road outside the hotel at 845am.
He didn't. El Recreo made some calls for us and said the bus left at 8am and the next one was tomorrow.
We walked into town (10min uphill) and checked in at a travel office about getting to Antigua today. The guy said we were out of luck but he could take us tomorrow for Q150 (then said "but for you, Q140!"). Frustrated and feeling our luck had turned, we walked 5-10 minutes further down the road to El Retiro to get a room for the night. 9:15am, they should have a room, right? They were booked up. We walked to the front gate by the road and sat down to figure out what to do. That's when we met Ben and Ruth. They were from Ireland and 8.5 months into a 10 month trip through Central and South America. They assured us we could still get to Antigua today and filled us
in on how. We rode into Coban together and offered them recommendations for Flores (Dona Goya II) and Tikal (Templos 4 & 5, stay off the main trails) and they suggested doing the volcano tour in Antigua. We parted ways in Coban (them to find an ATM, us to find a bus going south) and Lauryn and I got a cab to the station.
For travelers: The collectivo minibuses leave Lanquin on the hour (we actually caught the 10am bus at 1020 outside El Retiro, remember it's Guatemala time). It was $4us one-way to Coban. We arrived in Coban at 12:20 or so after picking up and dropping off folks the whole way. In fact, when we hit Coban we had about 30 people on the 24 seat minibus. The bus stations are not near eachother, so we caught a Q10 cab to Monja Blanca (the station for Guatemala City buses) and bought a $7us ticket to Gua City, which leaves on the hour. It was about 4.5 hours, and was on a coach bus. We stopped once for a 10-min snack and bathroom break. Once in Guatemala City,
take a cab to your next bus stations (whichever the Lonely
The Yellow House
the view looking through our window Planet, etc tells you for your next destination). We caught a chicken bus to Antigua (75 minutes and $1.50 but it would take 30 min if the bus didn't stop every four blocks to recruit passengers).
The rides weren't all that bad until we hit Guatemala City, which was everything we had expected it to be. The bus pulled into a lot surrounded by walls and barbed wire and we had a taxi back into the lot to take us to the Antigua station. It was a nervewracking 10 minute ride and we pulled up just in time to catch a chicken bus on its way out of town. It was interesting and a little exciting/entertaining on the bus, as the conductor hung out the door yelling "Antigua" and periodically jumped out and ran along the street before meeting back up with the bus a couple blocks later. The bus didn't as much stop as it slowed down for passengers to hop on and would frequently swerve across three lanes of traffic with horns blaring to either get in the fast lane or pick up passengers.
We arrived in Antigua at dark and had a tough time getting our
Antigua
Pupu...seria? Interesting. bearings and finding the hotel we were looking for. Our first two choices were booked up so we went with one across the street that had an opening. It looked like something out of Taxi Driver but it had a bed and a bathroom and an appropriate end to the ghetto-fabulous day.
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Antigua
Day 11, July17
We spent the day finding a new hotel and exploring the town. We were able to get a room in the much sought-after Yellow House (Casa Amarilla) but will stay tonight in another hotel that we found which looks even better. Some highlights from yesterday are:
* the town doesn't actually look like a dark, dusty place that it seemed when we rolled in the night before but is actually quite safe, clean, and pretty
* we found a really neat exhibition on the 20th century civil wars of South America, specifically focusing on those killed, missing, and the kids who were born in prisons and are unaccounted for
* we ate dinner at an Irish Pub called "Reilly's" that was good food, good drinks, and a lively place at night. Don't order a gimlet (vodka or gin, which comes with the
alcohol and a lime wedge) and be prepared for the chicken curry special with fries to be a big bowl with chicken curry poured over fries. Surprisingly, it worked but rice was a better choice.
We have a tour set up for the volcano so we'll probably do another Antigua + volcano posting in the next few days. We'll be here three days before heading to Lago Atitlan.
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