Guatemala 2025 - Days Six And Seven - Antigua

Saturday - 2/15 - The night of the candles.

We left lake Atitlán and drove to the old capital of Guatemala.  Antigua was the Spanish capital of the region from the 1500s until 1773 when it received major damage from an earthquake.  Three years later the capital was moved to where Guatemala City is currently located.  Our guide/driver dropped us at our sprawling hotel.

A small part of the plaza filled with candles.

The Wife wanted to go to early Mass the next day so, after eating dinner at the hotel, we scouted out the short route to the central plaza where the cathedral was located.  The sun was going down and the central plaza was filled with candles.  This was part of the festival of candles where the plaza and some side streets are lit up with candles, food and crafts are sold on the streets, and people mingle.  We did some shopping just off of the plaza before heading back to our hotel.  The candles would have been prettier if we'd stayed until it was darker but we are reverse vampires and are rarely out when it is dark.

Sunday - 2/16 - A walking tour of Antigua.

The Wife got up at 5:00am and walked to the cathedral for Mass.  When she returned around an hour and a half later we went to breakfast, checked out of our hotel, and met up with our driver/guide.  He parked the van closer to the central plaza and, from there, we started a walking tour of Antigua.  We visited churches, former churches used as hospitals, tree lined streets, old colonial buildings, and earthquake damaged ruins (both old earthquakes and the big one of 1976).  Antigua was much more touristy than I remembered.  Homes in some areas were very expensive.  Everything felt bigger and more crowded than what I remembered.  As we walked we noticed Fuego volcano burping smoke and ash.

An earthquake damaged church.

We ended up at the central plaza where we took a short break in the shade  before we visited a jade factory.  Everything at the factory store was beautiful and expensive.  We decided not to purchase anything there.  We did stop at an indoor artisan market not far from where our van was parked.  We didn't find anything we wanted there either.  I looked at a 'jade' mask but I don't believe it was actually jade and the seller said it was and priced it as if it were.  I walked away when he showed be a cheap looking reproduction of a reproduction.

An arch used by cloistered
nuns to cross the street.

We stopped at a food place and bought some sandwiches and snacks for the road we got back in the van and headed back to Guatemala City.

Up to this point we'd visited places I 'd been before.  We had a great guide who knew his stuff and was very talkative.  The weather also cooperated.  We really enjoyed what we'd seen and done and it was interesting to me seeing how things had changed and how my memory played tricks on me. Next week we would be going to places I'd never been before.  I'd never been in the eastern part of Guatemala and everything we saw this week was in the west.  I was really looking forward to seeing new things.  Unfortunately the luck we'd had the first week did not continue during our second.  

Pictures can be found in my 2025-02 Guatemala Google Photos album.