Sometimes you just know you will love a place before you even arrive. You may google its history and images, hear it about it from a friend, read about in a book-there is something about that place that you just gravitate towards. It's the place you envision in your head and it's exactly what you thought it would be and more. This place for many tourists is the wonderful city of... Antigua.
Antigua is a city that my American friend always raved about during our discussions about traveling. It made me curious about Antigua and wonder why she felt so connected to in this city. It turns out that Antigua was one of the colonial capitals of the Spanish empire in America from the 16th to 18th centuries. The capital was moved to the location of Guatemala City, which left Antigua to be the remains of the "Old Guatemala."
Antigua has many buildings with Spanish Architecture in colors of yellow, coral, blue, white, red, and they seem to all have their own kind of character. Amongst the cobblestone streets is a backdrop of green and white clouds of smoke from the volcano. The cobblestone streets are quite nice, but these are poorly paved and very uneven. It makes it difficult for pedestrians and bikes.
On the other hand, it also makes it fun to watch people bounce up and down constantly when simply riding or driving. The main tourist destination is the Parque Central, which has a park, fountain, church, market and surrounding restaurants in a square form.
The markets sell anything from food to authentic wood crafts to jewelry to colorful tribal skirts to ponchos. It was surprising to see the wide variety of crafts that Guatemala has and how much skill is put into each and every piece. Surrounding the Parque Central are the streets filled with many restaurants and bars catered towards tourists. Many students come to study Spanish, volunteers, and tourists visit Antigua making it an international hub.
While Antigua is fantastic, it can be a bit difficult to get around as the streets do not all have names and many shift and turn into different names. I was a bit confused when leaving my hostel and I walked down the street and hit a dead end with dogs barking. Clearly that was not the way so I asked two friendly men dressed traditionally in their Mayan tribal shirts. They provided some great directions and I was on my way in no time. There was just encounter after encounter where people were so kind and sometimes this kindness is what gives you courage and what gets you to your destination AND to your next destination. And my next destination just happened to be church.
The Catedral de Santiago is near Parque Central, but this church was fairly close to my hostel and just full of locals only. People appeared to be so present, thankful, and blessed. The pastor was speaking slowly so I could understand pretty well. After this I stopped at another local church nearby where it said, "No touristas", but I went in to pray not photograph everything.
Antigua is a city that my American friend always raved about during our discussions about traveling. It made me curious about Antigua and wonder why she felt so connected to in this city. It turns out that Antigua was one of the colonial capitals of the Spanish empire in America from the 16th to 18th centuries. The capital was moved to the location of Guatemala City, which left Antigua to be the remains of the "Old Guatemala."
Antigua has many buildings with Spanish Architecture in colors of yellow, coral, blue, white, red, and they seem to all have their own kind of character. Amongst the cobblestone streets is a backdrop of green and white clouds of smoke from the volcano. The cobblestone streets are quite nice, but these are poorly paved and very uneven. It makes it difficult for pedestrians and bikes.
On the other hand, it also makes it fun to watch people bounce up and down constantly when simply riding or driving. The main tourist destination is the Parque Central, which has a park, fountain, church, market and surrounding restaurants in a square form.
The markets sell anything from food to authentic wood crafts to jewelry to colorful tribal skirts to ponchos. It was surprising to see the wide variety of crafts that Guatemala has and how much skill is put into each and every piece. Surrounding the Parque Central are the streets filled with many restaurants and bars catered towards tourists. Many students come to study Spanish, volunteers, and tourists visit Antigua making it an international hub.
While Antigua is fantastic, it can be a bit difficult to get around as the streets do not all have names and many shift and turn into different names. I was a bit confused when leaving my hostel and I walked down the street and hit a dead end with dogs barking. Clearly that was not the way so I asked two friendly men dressed traditionally in their Mayan tribal shirts. They provided some great directions and I was on my way in no time. There was just encounter after encounter where people were so kind and sometimes this kindness is what gives you courage and what gets you to your destination AND to your next destination. And my next destination just happened to be church.
The Catedral de Santiago is near Parque Central, but this church was fairly close to my hostel and just full of locals only. People appeared to be so present, thankful, and blessed. The pastor was speaking slowly so I could understand pretty well. After this I stopped at another local church nearby where it said, "No touristas", but I went in to pray not photograph everything.
My adventure continues to the next post with another beautiful interpersonal interaction......
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