Antigua

our first stop in Guatemala (besides the *insane* driving through Guatemala City to get to our destination) was Antigua.  it’s a beautiful city. 

bishop's quarters in the ruins of the cathedral

“La Antigua Guatemala” (the old Guatemala) was once the capital of basically all of central america and parts of mexico, one of the grand colonial capitals of the Spanish Empire.  the city was once very elegant and full of beautiful architecture – the cultural, economic, religious, political and educational center of the region -- until, in the 1770s, it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes.  at that time, the capital of Guatemala was moved to Guatemala City and Antigua was almost completely abandoned.  with no money to rebuild (or tear down), things just stood as they were for many years.  eventually the city was re-settled, but never completely rebuilt.  today, it is a mix of a few partially restored cathedrals and monasteries, extensive ruins of old colonial architecture, and new buildings designed to fit in – a city full of preserved colonial spanish architecture!

Antigua also (supposedly) has more language schools than anywhere else in the spanish-speaking world.  you can go down for a week, or two, or more, and – except for airfare – get 1-on-1 spanish lessons for dirt cheap, including a place to stay.  

fountain in the central square

so we stayed in a really cool hotel and walked around the city a bit, including a historical tour chock full of details about the city and its history.  the central square is gorgeous, particularly all the trees and flowers around the fountain.  it’s bordered on one side by the grand cathedral (religion), on another by the “captain’s quarters” (military), on the third by government buildings, and on the last by shops (economy/commerce), representing four major aspects of a city’s foundation. 

the cathedral is restored only through about 25% of its original footprint, operating as a regular church.  the rest remains in ruins as it was after the big earthquakes.  they do restore it if things deteriorate or another earthquake weakens or dislodges something, but only back to its “ruin” condition.  the ruins are really something to see, and a near-seamless mixture of Christianity (as imposed upon the original peoples) and mayan beliefs.  interestingly, the Maya who were made to build the cathedral put in all sorts of mayan symbols and meaning without the church ever realizing.

La Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a huge celebration in Antigua.  there are huge, day-long processions through the streets, even in the weeks leading up to it.  “floats” are carried by 100 men through the city and sawdust “carpets” are laid in the streets.  we saw a little bit of the activity while there, including a gorgeous sawdust carpet laid in the functioning part of the cathedral.  as you can see, sawdust is supplemented with flowers, fruits, vegetables, and vegetation to make elaborate designs.

photo by Tom Egel

the city is surrounded by three volcanoes, Agua, Fuego and Acatenango.  one of them, as you can see in this picture taken by Tom Egel, was steaming while we were there.  you can climb the volcanoes (though we didn’t have time), but it’s recommended you go with a group or with a “tourist police” escort.

the whole town is filled with shops and especially maya women selling colorful fabrics.  it is indeed a place to shop, if you don’t mind being badgered a bit to buy something.  the restaurants that we went to were all awesome, and I even bought some local coffee to bring home.

there is a famous arch in front of which all tourist get their photos taken, and the whole town has cobblestone streets.  (this is a challenge for a klutz such as me.)  like the maya fabrics, everything is colorful and every street is a scene in itself.

for those of you who are not my friends on facebook, here are a few more pictures I posted there: