Tuesday we got up in San Antonio and I went downstairs to use the internet. Basically the family unplugged their Ethernet cord from the family computer and plugged it into mine, which didn’t work so well, so I ended up on the family computer. The older of the two sons helped me with the internet while the younger one kept shooting at me from his imaginary gun (too cute). After we packed up the car and a short walk around town, we headed out toward Antigua. We got a little lost (navigating isn’t the same as in Mexico when we had GPS) but managed to get on the road to Antigua via a small town called Ciudad Vieja.
The landscape in Antigua is dominated by a large volcano, Volcan de Agua, which rises up just south of town. The city itself is all colonial architecture. It was once the capital of Guatemala, but after the devastation of several earthquakes, including a large one in 1773, the capital was moved to Guatemala City in 1774 and the people were told to abandon Antigua. Many didn’t so the city survived and now it’s a gorgeous little town full of church ruins and restored colonial buildings. As we drove in I was surprised by just how small the city is. We drove literally all over town looking for a hotel or hostel with parking (and failing) but town was only about ten minutes across (and this is on cobblestone roads with lots of stop signs).
We finally settled on a private room in El Hostal, and parked our car on the street for a few hours while we settled in and vegged out. We didn’t know at the time that we were required to buy a parking permit to park on the street and were pretty lucky we didn’t get a ticket. When we decided to go to dinner, we went to move the car into a guarded lot. The girl at reception had recommended parking at the service station up the road, so we tried that. The cars were all double-parked which would require us to hand over our keys, something we weren’t going to do, so we moved on. We tried at the fanciest hotel in town, but we couldn’t seem to find anyone to ask whether we could park in their garage. We tried asking a cop where we could park, and he got us a guy selling on-street parking permits. We asked him about purchasing one for the next day, and he told us we couldn’t and that we’d have to get up at 6 AM to buy a new parking pass. So we headed back to the hostel to regroup. After some internet searching and flipping through guidebooks and advertisements, we had a list of a few hotels with parking that we were going to try. We got to the first, and he said parking was for guests only. But he drew us a map of how to get to another hotel where we could park. After driving around a bit, we came to the conclusion that the place he pointed us to simply didn’t exist (a common theme in Guatemala). So we drove to another hotel with parking. I stopped the car and got out to ask about parking (for hotel guests only) and apparently left the car in drive. The cobblestone roads keep the car stationary pretty well, even when we’re in drive, so I guess I assumed it was in park. It stayed put for a while but then started rolling for a parked car. With a cop behind her, Janet managed to jump into the driver’s seat and stop it before any damage was done. From there we headed toward the market and finally found a public parking garage. We paid far too much to park the car on the opposite side of town from our hostel, but it was finally parked and we could head to dinner.
Dinner was at a great little French restaurant called L’Casserolle. The menu and conversation in the place was in three languages: French, English, and Spanish. It’s kinda fun ordering French food in Spanish. We split the rabbit in mustard sauce (conejo con salsa mustard) and salmon ala orange (which were great), a bottle of Chilean white wine, and a very rich chocolate mousse. (Apparently spelled muss in Español). After dinner we just took it easy and hung out at the hotel for a bit.
Wednesday morning I got up and went for a run. I literally ran all over the city, which is challenging because of the chicken buses (which I learned are called chicken buses because they allow animals on board as well as people) the cobblestone streets, the really uneven sidewalks (when the sidewalks even exist), and the altitude (we’re nearly a mile up). I ran 5.5 miles but it felt more like ten because of the lack of oxygen. After breakfast, we headed out to walk around the city. We went down and took pictures of the ruins of a church that have an amphitheatre built around them and now, I assume, hosts concerts. After that we went to a church that had been rebuilt time and time again and was host to Central America’s first saint, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003. Behind the church were the ruins of the convent, printing press, school, etc. that used to be associated with the church. After walking around the ruins for a bit, we went for lunch (highly recommended in the guidebook, but nothing to write home about) and then we just chilled out for most of the afternoon. Janet learned about a program to teach the children of the Guatemala City garbage pickers and I walked around town taking pictures.
Before dinner we went for drinks on the roof of Sky Café, a bar just across the street from our hostel. Janet had one of the best mojitos ever, and Sky Café became a new favorite. Dinner was at a Sushi restaurant that was also on our block. Failing to read the chalkboard out front, we sat down and ordered avocado tempura (excellent) and three rolls. The waiter brought the first two rolls, which were huge, and said he’d bring the third roll in a minute. The first two rolls were a rainbow roll (okay) and one called Mango No Come Mango, which was excellent: fresh mango and salmon. When the waiter brought the third roll (basically an eel roll covered in fresh plantains, also great), there were actually two of them. I asked but the waiter just said, yep, two. I figured it was fine and that we could finish four rolls, so we did. And after that the waiter brought out another plantain roll and another mango roll. Now we were really incredulous and asked why, and he answered simply: “Dos por uno” (2 for 1). Apparently it said that on the blackboard out front. We managed to pick at the last two rolls a bit (especially the mango roll) but we were stuffed. So yes, if you’re keeping track, that’s two dinners in Antigua and we’d had French and Sushi, both great.
After dinner we walked around and took more pictures of the ruined churches that were lit up at night. We came across Reilly’s, the Irish pub, and decided to stop in for a beer. Soon we made friends with the table next to us and a beer turned into a night at Reilly’s. Our new friends were three Brits and one Norwegian girl who had been traveling with them. They were all a lot of fun and the bar was absolutely packed (on a Wednesday night, no less) and was playing good music. We stayed out till the late (by Guatemalan standards) hour of 1 AM.
Thursday morning, again after breakfast, we went and paid for another day of parking (since we had decided to stay another day) and then walked around town (sensing a theme?). We had lunch at a typical Guatemalan restaurant (so-so) and then went for massages at a spa across from our hostel (our street was the best). It was raining pretty hard and we were in little huts, so the loud noise of the rain was pretty relaxing. Two hour long massages for a grand total of $50. Not too bad. After our massages we headed back to Sky Café and watched the rain while we had some delicious drinks. First was a round of mojitos (not quite as good as the previous day’s because they had a bit too much lime, but still better than 90% of the mojitos we’d ever had. The next round we ordered a Fidel Castro (white rum, anejo rum, fresh squeezed lemon, grenadine, and sprite), which tasted mostly like fresh lemonade and was excellent, and a sangria (made with anejo rum, honey, and very fresh strawberries). I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to sangria, and this stuff was great. So good we ordered another round of sangria.
Dinner on Thursday night was at a little Italian place called El Mediterráneo that the guidebook said was a favorite of resident foodies. Again we had fun ordering Italian in Spanish, and had mozzarella and tomato brushette, penne with fresh mushrooms in a white wine sauce (delicious) and rigatoni with calamari in a picante tomato sauce. The dishes were simple in their ingredients, but were all fresh and excellent, and we agreed that it ranked up there with some of the best Italian food we’d had in New York. We finished up with gelato with espresso, which was just that: vanilla gelato drowned in a shot of strong espresso and topped with a bit of chocolate sauce. So yes, three nights in Antigua and we’d had French, Japanese, and Italian. After dinner we went back to Reillys and had a couple of beers while we talked to the bartender and then turned in early-ish.
Friday morning we packed up the car and headed out to Guatemala City. We grabbed some sandwiches from a great little deli on our way out. We had three goals in Guatemala City: the embassy (to get more pages in my passport), a camera shop (to fix my stupid lens which is broken for the third time), and an auto shop (because the brakes are acting up). We did a lot of research before we left and had names and addresses for all of the above, including two camera shops and two auto shops. We tried several places to find a map of the city and failing at that (Fail #1), we navigated using the crappy little maps in the guidebook.
First stop: the embassy. Closed for the 4th of July (even though this was the 3rd of July). Fail #2.
Second stop: Frank’s Auto Repairs. After driving in several circles, we got to the address. It was a public parking lot. Apparently Frank’s used to be there, but that was several years ago. Fail #3.
Third stop: camera shops. We parked nearby the two shops and I walked to find them. After asking several times for directions , neither shop materialized. Fails #4 & #5.
Fourth Stop: Andy’s Auto repair. Again, after several circles and some fun driving (it was now rush hour) we found Andy’s. And it was open (just barely, they were closing). Success.
Andy, as it turns out, is an American from California, son of an Englishman who had lived in Belize when it was a British colony, and Andy had lived in Guatemala for 20 years. His accent was an interesting mix of American, British, and Guatemalan. He took a quick look at the brakes and said the pads needed replacing but also that the rotors were warped and that they needed to be machined. Which would have to be Monday. So Monday it would be. Andy also does all the work for the US Embassy cars, so he said he could help us out getting the right people at the Embassy. Offhand, Janet asked is he happened to know of a camera shop in the city, and he got on the phone and called a photographer friend, who came over immediately on his motorbike to look at my lens. The photographer recommended waiting until we got to Panama to have it fixed because Panama is the Canon headquarters for Central America and they were more likely to be able to fix it there. Andy gave us directions back out of town (and even offered to let us camp on his farm) and we headed back to Antigua.
We found a room at a cute little hotel with a room on the third floor with a view of Volcan de Agua and La Merced (a gorgeous restored church). We headed out to dinner again at El Mediterráneo, and had another excellent meal (mushroom bruchette, pasta with arugula and fresh parmesan, shrimp with radishes and carrots, and dessert of pana cotta and another round of the gelato with espresso). We went back to Sky Café for drinks on the roof: a piña colada made with fresh blended coconut, and a strawberry margarita, made with freshly blended strawberries. Both drinks were great, but the margarita was most definitely the best strawberry margarita I have ever had. After drinks we headed back to the hotel and watched History of the World Part I, which is even more enjoyable with Spanish subtitles. In the middle of the night we were both awakened by a crazy rooster who thought it was morning (it was not) and who crowed every ten seconds or so for a few minutes, then stopped just long enough for us to fall back asleep, and then started up again. He did this until it was actually morning.
This morning I got up and found a parking employee to buy today’s parking pass. He seemed shocked when I asked to buy one on foot. Surely someone else had parked their car overnight and needed a new parking pass, right? We had breakfast at a place next to our hotel that had excellent coffee, and now we’re getting ready to hike Volcán Pacaya, an active volcano a couple of hours south of here.
So that’s the news here.
(The map below sucks, but the yellow line is roughly where we've driven so far (since we crossed into Mexico)
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