My first 24 hours in Guatemala were fantastic, as detailed in my previous post about discovering Culture and Connections in Guatemala City. After I had arrived into Guatemala City on Thursday evening, we were now heading to Antigua late on Friday morning after our visit to the Universidad de Francisco Marroquin. The shuttle we booked to take us from Guatemala City to Antigua late Friday morning picked us up at the university. The ride from “The City” to “The Old City” was a little over an hour.
Antigua was actually the original Spanish colonial capital of Guatemala from the early 1500s until 1767. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were a constant problem in and around Antigua. After the big big earthquake of 1773, the Spanish decided to move the colonial capital of Guatemala to its present location of Guatemala City in 1776. (A big year that 1776 was). Also, after spending two days in Antigua, you notice something: those volcanoes. They are just right there surrounding this city. They look ominous. The closest one (Agua) is supposedly dormant.
I’ll get back to the story of the revival of Antigua later, but here we were today in May 2019 making our way into Antigua. Once there, we checked into our Airbnb. We were staying in a 2-bedroom apartment, complete with a full bathroom and a small kitchen/dining area and a little patio. It was small and somewhat basic, but plenty of room for the two of us. One of the rooms even had a “bunk bed” so if we needed to slide a third person in, it would be easy. This cost us a total of about $28 (USD) per person, per night. We only stayed there two nights, so this was a nice place – especially for the price!
We stopped by Wicho and Charlie’s before and after lunch to plan out our Sunrise Hike of Guatemala’s Pacaya Volcano. After lunch, we walked around the Old City of Antigua. The city plaza was bustling by day and would be bustling even more when we walked around there on Saturday afternoon and evening.
For whatever reason, they had this traveling United Buddy Bears exhibit in the main plaza in Antigua when we were there. It’s a temporary exhibit and moves to different cities around the world promoting peace, tolerance, and harmony. There is a bear that represents each country, with its own artistic creations painted on the bear that gives each country its own flavor or contribution to the world community. It was great to see that the bear representing the United States was simply painted green and made to represent the Statue of Liberty. Kyle and I took photos of various bears and we took one together of the one representing Israel, since we had traveled together there last year and in fact that’s how we met as part of the Israel Collective organization. And here we were in another country, still celebrating Israel.
The next thing we did was to take a short 12-minute Uber ride to the La Azotea coffee farm. Yes, when in Guatemala, you want to stop and smell the coffee flowers. I have visited plenty of craft breweries in my time, but I had never visited a coffee farm, until today. And I learned why. Coffee is not even grown in North America. It is mostly grown in Central and South America, Africa, and a few parts of Asia. The climate has to be just right and the closer to the equator the better. We learned every step of the coffee-making process. It’s really amazing all that goes into providing us a morning beverage.
One coffee tree serves you about 32 cups of coffee. Your daily cup of coffee needs a whole tree every month. The flowers on those trees only last a few days after they bloom before they turn into coffee beans. They bloom so briefly there are even songs about it. It made me think of how much nature – and God – provide for us with constant renewals. It is such a beautiful landscape here. And seeing those who labor here to send that coffee out to the world made me appreciate just how productive and hard-working the people here are. The tour also ended with an opportunity to have some coffee samples… which certainly woke us up.
Once we were back in Antigua, we rested up a bit and then walked the old city streets and I was just admiring the architecture and the ruins. I didn’t stop admiring it for the next 48 hours. We found a beautiful Catholic Church, La Iglesia de La Merced (Our Lady of Mercy), which first opened in 1767. It had been repaired after multiple earthquakes including big ones in 1773 and 1976. I found a chapel within the church where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, and I was able to pray there quietly. One of the things I love about being Catholic, is we truly have a universal church, where we can worship in our tradition pretty much anywhere.
Kyle and I then met up with our friend Rossmary who was coming in from Guatemala City. She met us just in time for dinner which we had at Angie Angie Café Arte, which featured Argentinian cuisine. We sat in an outdoor courtyard where there was a nice fireplace in the middle of all the tables. The food and wine were fantastic, as was the ambience and fellowship. We then turned in early to prepare for our Sunrise Hike of Guatemala’s Pacaya Volcano, which I detailed in another post.
We were picked up for that hike at our Airbnb at 2:00am and returned at nearly 10:00am. Once we did, we all took showers and short naps. Rossmary headed back to Guatemala City and Kyle and I were left to enjoy the rest of our Saturday in Antigua.
We met up with our new friends from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in the early afternoon. They invited us to a private lunch at Casa Popenoe, a historic home restored by an American businessman and philanthropist, Wilson Popenoe back in 1913. I didn’t know anything about this home or about Wilson Popenoe until we visited. But I soon learned that the restoration of what came to be named Casa Popenoe (where we dined in an outdoor courtyard on this beautiful day) led to many other wealthy Americans coming down to restore homes and old buildings in Antigua, thus creating a new interest in the Old City for decades to come. About a decade or so ago, the descendants of William Popenoe donated the house to UFM. They are the custodians of it today and one of the staff there gave us a brief tour.
Another member of the UFM staff, Lissa, who we had met at the university the day before, invited us to tour her family’s home. Her father bought that home about 15 years ago. It has been owned by many Americans over the last century, including Gore Vidal. Prior to that, it was an 18th century convent that is situated right next to a very large old church, Monumento De El Carmen, which dates to 1677. The wall of that church forms the property line of her home, where her garden has many beautiful flowers growing. It was really quite something!
We spent the remaining part of the late afternoon and early evening walking around the city, admiring the architecture of old buildings, some restored and in use today, and others just sitting as ruins. We found some ice cream, smoked a Cuban cigar on a rooftop bar which was part of the El Barrio venue (which had multiple bars in one structure), had a few tastings of the famous Guatemalan rum, Zacapa, and enjoyed some Texas BBQ for dinner at Pappy’s BBQ.
As I mentioned earlier: Antigua was the first capital of Spanish Guatemala until a series of earthquakes, including the big one in 1773, caused a movement of the capital to present day Guatemala City in 1776. But thanks to those Americans of the early 20th century, such as Wilson Popenoe, this city was reborn and today is the most frequently visited by tourists – from Guatemala, Central & South America, Europeans, and the United States. It’s truly a gem. On the weekends, some of the more affluent and middle-class Guatemalans come in from “The City” (Guatemala City) as a weekend retreat.
On Sunday morning, we went back to La Iglesia de La Merced and celebrated mass. I first saw this church on Friday night, but now on Sunday morning the bells were ringing and the place was pretty packed. The congregation seemed very participatory. Guatemala is a very religious country and it was a blessing to be able to attend mass here this morning. I thought it interesting that during mass when the Eucharist is offered, people don’t leave their pews in an orderly fashion, row by row. They just all go up at once. I whispered to Kyle: “I guess it’s a free for all?” He smiled and nodded. After mass, this happened very similarly again as many in the congregation go up towards the altar area to receive Holy Water from the priest. I don’t know if this is normal all times of year or simply because we were still in the Easter season.
After church, we checked out of our Airbnb and then took an Uber up one of the mountains that overlooks Antigua so that we could reach a very famous restaurant called Cerro San Cristobal, which gives you a wonderful view of Antigua in the valley below. Luckily, I was able to take my small luggage piece and camera bag with me into the restaurant, which was an outdoor style open air seating.
Most of the food menu was highly loaded with seafood, surprisingly. Since I don’t eat seafood we ordered the nachos which were huge and some of the best order of nachos I ever had. Tons of ingredients in it and it filled me up for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t eat again until we were at the airport for my 5:30pm flight (which was delayed a few hours – Guatemala didn’t want to see me go so fast).
Guatemala has so much history. From the Mayans to the Spanish to the present day. As I ended my time here, looking at Antigua below and venturing back in an Uber to Guatemala City, I reflected on the 72 hours here. I feel like in just a short time, I was able to get to know and feel the essence of this country well. My friend Kyle has really gotten to know it well. At the point of my departure, he had been here for four months and will be staying for the foreseeable future to work on his Spanish (which is great so far!) and continue to soak in the Latin American culture. I made friends with his friend and colleague Rossmary Cassola and am blessed to have hiked Pacaya Volcano with her and Kyle.
Guatemala is just a short nonstop flight from Florida and so I hope I can make it back here soon. There is much more to explore, and it was a very low cost. For all I did, with my flights included, I spent less than $600 here for 3 nights. More people should come here and get to know the wonderful people and the amazing sights and sounds. Me gusta Guatemala!
