Me with the panorama of the city in the background

my visit to the colonial old town of Antigua with its many churches and volcanoes - what was GOOD and what NOT

A chilly night bus ride

My night bus from Flores to Antigua started moving at 10 pm and was sold out to the last seat. Next to me sat a casual Italian who worked as a diving instructor in Mexico. We both suffered from the extreme cold that was present in the bus. The air conditioning cooled the bus to almost icy temperatures. Sleeping was therefore not really possible. Furthermore, the ride was too bumpy for that.

Shortly before 5.00 a.m. we reached the Moloch of Guatemala City, the capital of the country. In a very small bus station we waited for the shuttle that was supposed to take us to Antigua. There were so many people in the station that some of them sat or even slept on the floor .

I remember the toilets there. I had already got used to the fact that public toilets in Latin America often lack toilet seats. But that not even the toilet box was covered and that all kinds of insects and other objects were floating in it was new for me.

Random reunion

After waiting for more than one hour, our minibus arrived. When the door was opened, the Bulgarian guy which I had met already in Caye Caulker (Belize) smiled at me. What a coincidence!

Arriving in Antigua we were both looking for a place to stay. So for the first time I went to a new town without having booked an accommodation beforehand. The far-travelled Bulgarian always does it that way. He just starts walking and chooses the first best and cheapest hostel.

bad hostel, good hostel

We checked into Basecamp Hostel. As the name suggests, the hostel serves primarily as a base for excursions to the surrounding volcanos. The old city Antigua is beautifully situated, surrounded by a multitude of volcanoes that rise almost 4000 metres above the ground. One of them, the volcano Fuego, is still spitting lava today. More than 100 people died during its last eruption in June 2018.

The hostel itself was also very "basic". Shortly after we arrived, a friend of the american owners later threw my Bulgarian buddy's things off the bed because he told him it was his bed. The Bulgarian then had to settle for the uppermost of the three-bed (!) bunk bed, which he disliked very much because he could hardly get into the bed due to his size.

Our 6-bed room was directly at the street. When the big busses rushed past the window early, the walls and the beds wobbled. That was not the only reason why we stayed there only for one night, because the next day the water was out for a long time. The owners just shrugged their shoulders and said that this just happens in such a developing country. At least they could have offered a price reduction.

Together with the Bulgarian I moved to a much better hostel, which the Italian from the bus trip had recommended to me before. The name of the hostel is Hostel Villa Esthela. From the roof of the hostel you had a wonderful view of the city. For one night I paid around 6 $ for a 6-bed dormitory.

Walking through the picturesque town

We strolled through the narrow alleys and cobbled streets, past the colourful houses and the many churches. The old town with its baroque colonial architecture ranks among the UNESCO world cultural heritage sites.

In the centre we visited a chocolate museum. Among other things, we learned that chocolate is derived from the Aztec word xocóatl , composed of the words xócoc ("bitter") and atl ("water"). Chocolate therefore means "bitter water", because the Aztecs used to drink cocoa as a bitter drink with water. Guatemala still exports mainly coffee and cocoa all over the world.

In the centre of the city there are a lot of hostels, restaurants of different styles, coffees and of course a lot of travel agencies. In addition, the many Spanish schools in Antigua enjoy an excellent reputation and attract many foreigners, especially Americans, to the city. Some of my friends attended a course here and were thrilled because the lessons here are much more personal and at an extremely fair price.

It is therefore not surprising that you only look into foreign faces when you visit a restaurant or a bar here. For most locals this is simply too expensive.

As a result, the city lost some of its appeal. The commercialisation process is already well advanced and prices have risen accordingly. Chocolate costs more here than in Germany, for example, although cocoa is produced here and the price level in Guatemala is normally significantly lower than in Germany.

Later we visited one of the many markets where I bought a fancy knife and we finished our visit to the center after we saw some vulgar paintings in an exhibition.

short hike to the viewpoint

The next day we visited a lookout point from where you can see the city and the surrounding volcanoes. Wonderful! However, the view of the volcano was blocked because of the many clouds.

No volcano ascent

Climbing these volcanoes is among the most popular activities here in Antigua. A German girl had told me how she saw the volcano Fuego bubbling near the summit of the volcano Acatenango during the night, later watching the sunrise and looking at the smoking volcano. What she hadn't told me was that the temperatures up there could drop down to 0° C.

Neither I nor the Bulgarian had a jacket with us. After consulting some travel agencies, we opted not to make the tour. Guatemala was also in the rainy season. So you ran the risk of being shrouded in clouds or getting soaked at the top of the volcano.

Even today I am a little upset that I did not participate in this excursion. The pictures and reports I've seen and heard from other travelers are simply amazing.

Travelling to the next place

Instead the Bulgarian and me booked a shuttle to Lake Atitlán in the west of Antigua. The tour operator warned us urgently against using the public chicken buses. It would be a little suicidal to do this because drivers exceed the speed limit considerably. She also described the route there as dangerous because of the poor road conditions and the bandits who raid buses there. This time we fell for it, later we only used the cheap chicken buses.

The next day, after 2 nights in Antigua, we continued on to Lake Atitlán.