After nearly 2 amazing weeks in St. Vincent, we are on to the next leg of our travels. While lovely, St. Vincent is pretty remote (and very far south... way closer to Venezuela than the US!) so we had to fly to Trinidad, spend a night and then fly 6 hours to Houston then to Guatemala City. On our 7 hour US layover, we enjoyed our United Club passes (free wine!), USO (free food!) and our last bit of the US til May. We arrived around 10 p.m. but thankfully our shuttle was there to whisk us to Antigua, about an hour away. Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and famous for its well-preserved Spanish Baroque architecture and colonial churches. From the 1500's to 1700's, it was the capital of Guatemala and the population peaked at 60,000 until serious earthquakes in the early and late 1700's destroyed much of the city and they moved the capital to a safer location (where Guatemala City now is located) and thus, called this town Antigua Guatemala (Old Guatemala). Now it's the tourist hub of Guatemala. Which means there are plenty of yummy restaurants, travel agencies, beautiful hotels and a lot of gringos.
We are staying at Holistico Hostel in our own room (worth the extra few bucks). In the morning, I was perusing tripadvisor and realized there were yoga classes just a few minutes away starting in less than half an hour. So I finally stretched out after two days of travel and Mark enjoyed the amazing hostel breakfast.
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| The hostel desayuno (breakfast!) |
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| Street-side tortillas but I love the refurbishes US school bus in the back! They're so colorful! |
Afterwards, we went to explore this city. The market had plenty of beautiful paintings, bags, jewelry, etc. for sale and we sampled some of the small tortillas. We tried to find the most non-touristy lunch spot and had a delicious lunch of aquacates (avocado), huevos (eggs) and papas (potatoes) with a yummy rose tea bebida (beverage) for less than $3 each.
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| Yum.... initiating fruit coma. |
We also found the famous arch that showcases the ginormous Volcano de Agua rising up behind it, beautiful churches like La Merced and the quaint Centrale Parque.
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| Traditionally dressed ladies at the park |
An impressive stop was Casa Santo Domingo which was a monastery from the 1500's that was mostly destroyed in the 1773 earthquake and now served as a museum and fancy hotel. We sampled some locally made chocolate and toured the grounds. I then finally got my much needed pedicure (sailing barefoot for so many days took a toll on my feet!) which was an hour plus spa experience, all for about $20.
Dinner was a very touristy but oh so heavenly crepe place called Honeymoon (Luna de miel).
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| Nutella heaven. Notice the sign? Keep calm and eat Nutella. |
On Day 2, Mark joined me for yoga and then we worked out in the same galeria afterwards. I took this volcano pic from the hotel's balcony. I can see why lots of US and Europeans like to retire down here (there were lots of retirees in yoga and walking around) since its cheap, cultural and is the perfect temperature this time of year.
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| Showing off my new pedicure before yoga class |
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| That view! |
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| Meat anyone? |
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| Fresh piña and mango for less than $1? Sí por favor! |
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