Antigua – Charming Colonial Surrounded by Volcanoes

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Date: 21/01/2013 to 23/01/2013

Following the road, Our next stop was Antigua point, Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 1979, and recognized by visitors for its charming Spanish Renaissance architecture in the middle of a valley surrounded by volcanoes like volcano volcano of fire and water. Its historical value is enormous for the country, since the first half of the sixteenth century became the capital of the kingdom of Guatemala, embracing the whole current Central American continental, with the exception of Panama. Full-blown, the city was victim of an earthquake in the year 1773, which led to a break in their growth process. Due to the severe earthquakes that followed, destruiram and much of the city, it was decided that the capital would need to be rebuilt in a safer place. A 40km dali surgiu a cidade da Guatemala, it became the capital of the country, while Antigua was rebuilt keeping its colonial charm despite having lost its political importance.

Arrived it was night, after catching Gustav in hospital around 18:30 and pass the Subway for a snack still in Guatemala City. The road was good, but due to the time, traffic out of the city was intense, and so it took a little longer to flow. It was a mountain with lots of curves and hills sloping down well and so, ramps had to be lost if the brake, something we had not seen before. At the entrance of the city there were several hostels, but as we were already engaged SAVER MODE, we went after other options and ended up finding the center of a huge space tourist police and insurance, where to our surprise, had other “campers”, including a couple who had stayed in the same campsite we, wool in Mexico (Guanajuato)! Soon after mounting tents, we talked for hours with 3 American couples, (one was from Alaska and working with oil company, knew and deeply admired Petrobras). It was a nice conversation where we talk about the differences between car travel and backpacking (they were all car), about the future roadmap and post-trip!

The next day, we were walking around town and soon saw a McDonalds, a colonial style house, with a huge garden that eventually convincing us to eat there on one of the nights! We visited the ruins of the Convent Mercedarios, church Our Lady of Mercy, which was destroyed by earthquake in the sixteenth century and rebuilt 50 years later.

With a few minutes' walk up the hill, arrived at Cerro de la Cruz, where we had an amazing view of the city surrounded by mountains and volcanoes!

Along the way we passed a very traditional restaurant, with musicians playing xylophone (instrument that the Guatemalan claim to be the inventors), and had a flawless garden. Despite the left side of the menu is tempting, the right side of the impossible, hahaha!

We ended up eating num restaurant called La pitch, indicated by the guide. We walked to the back of the grocery, where there was a large table, we share with you a couple of tourists and a guy who seemed to be local. The food is chamava “Pepi chicken”, a stew with plenty of spice that the nice lady served us! As in many places throughout the Americas, could not miss the “avocado” (avocado) to accompany!!!

Hunger sated, we left the restaurant, and walk the streets visited a gallery of super cool photos in which the models are local people! Some photos were taken almost 20 years old, and today some of the people who work in the stores are in photographs! Eventually can recognize the face of the vendors in photos, because some are old photos, result of a friendship between the photographer and some places that lasts for more than 2 generations! We sat in the main square, for nearly two hours, where we were observing the habits of tourists! The vast majority were couples, of all ages and different parts of the globe.

Beside the square is the palace of “Captains General”, former seat of government when Antigua was still the capital of all Central America, from Chiapas to Costa Rica! When we were out of the square, find Paul and Andrea, Brazilian couple mining super good people, that despite the elegance, resolveram face Central America by 22 day backpack! After almost 2 hours of talk time, with the sun having already fired, went to meet the Tanajura and returned to Guatemala city.