Exploring Antigua

Today was a day spent exploring Antigua. I had read about Antigua and its history in the Lonely Planet guide and had noted a short walk exploring the town detailed in the guidebook. Of course, a lot of the buildings are ones which I pass by everyday – but instead of just passing by them, the plan was to spend time actually admiring the architecture and the history behind the buildings themselves.

I woke up at about 9am and spent some time making sure I had what I needed and having breakfast and set off towards Cerra de la Cruz. It was early in the day and the sun was shining so it was nice to walk through the city and admire the buildings as I walked towards Cerra de la Cruz. It was a pretty straight path up but when I got to a point where I would have thought to go one way, there was an arrow pointing in the opposite direction. I followed it and ended up in a very typical Guatemalan area – with small shacks for houses and a clear sign of poverty. I backtracked and followed the road round until I saw some more clear signs for the Cerra de la Cruz.

The site was beautiful – the cross stood tall in front of Antigua with the backdrop of Agua volcano. Unfortunately some clouds covered the top of the volcano, but the view itself was picturesque and I spent some time just sitting on the edge of the wall looking over the town.

I then made my way back down to Antigua itself. Following the guidebook, I passed various church ruins including Iglesia de la Canelraia, Templo de Santa Rosa de Lima and many more. When I arrived at Iglesia el Carmen, I was feeling a bit hungry and I saw that there were some ladies offering food from the back of a truck. They had various containers of food and would take bits from each container. I asked for the vegetarian parts only and they offered me some rice with an onion based salad and some spinach. It was very tasty and only cost 10Q (less than £1!).

 I then walked towards the famous yellow arch and on my way there the rain began to fall.  I decided to take a few pictures and then went to watch the football for part of the afternoon.

After the football had finished, I went to explore el mercardor (the market). It was very similar to how many markets in East Africa are organised – there is the outside part which most people visit and then there are parts which are further inside – where they sell all sorts of foods: herbs, meat, fruits and vegetables.

I made my way home and rested a little before having dinner and then going to a place called Café No Sé for the evening.