First Trip to Antigua

Last weekend with the aid of our new colleague/tour guide we ventured out of our bubble to a wonderful little city called Antigua. Our goal was to experience some of traditional Guatemala and that we did. The city is very old with coble stone roads and traditional style buildings. The kind of Guatemala I was hoping to find upon arriving here.

We started with a trip to the market. It was pretty amazing . . . one side of the market had all of your traditional Guatemalan touristy stuff . . . the other side had everything else . . . literally everything else. You need shoes . . . they got'em . . . phone cards . . . got'em . . . pants . . . got'em . . . fruit . . . got'em . . . they have a little bit of everything and a lot of others.

On a brief jaunt through the streets we stumbled upon this old ruined church.

They had added on an area to the side of the ruins which contained an art gallery. The art was all very MOD and didn't fit the feel but it was very cool anyway.

The inside of the ruins appeared to have been turned into a restaurant. It was not open while we are there but I snuck a brief peak and it looked pretty fancy.

We then ventured to a wonderful little restaurant that served fabulously delicious Guate dishes. I ate the "Souban-Iq", it was a stew like thing that contained pork, beef and chicken in a tomato type sauce. Very good, but beware of the bones!

Our next stop was a monument on the side of one of the hills that overlooked the city.

(Decroly ladies: Jimena, Jen, and Kara)

OOPS! Wrong one . . . we went to high . . . time to venture down the hill.

I am not sure what this monument was for . . . but it might have something to do with "God".

The view was spectacular.

Me and my P.I.A.C., quite possibly the two whitest people in all of Guatemala.

More of the view of Antigua.

In the Central Park of Antigua . . . such a funny fountain . . . the mermaids are lactating water. This country has some pretty hilarious monuments . . . and a lot of them.

After meeting up with some fellow N.B.'ers we head towards the Finca Filadelfia . . . a coffee farm on the edge of Antigua.

Let's just take a moment . . .

To honour the best coffee in the world. As I write this my mouth is salivating at the thought of this coffee. Seriously, I might need a napkin. Sorry Kevin, I miss Tims but Tims ain't got nothing on the Finca Filadelphia. If only I could get someone to bring me a cup of this every morning at 6AM.

(Kara, Jimena, Miguel, Jen, Curtis, and Carissa)

We shut the place down . . . they pretty much had to ask us to leave . . . I probably would have moved in if they didn't make me leave. Not only was the coffee delicious but the grounds were gorgeous.

There were even some Llama's for my momsie.

It's hard to see, but some timber post and beam for the brother.

I highly recommend this place . . . did I mention how good the coffee was?

I am sure over the next 10 months I will be returning to Antigua . . . it was a nice escape from the craze of the city and only 35 minutes away.

Tomorrow we have planned a trip to Zone 1 . . . perhaps a visit to the palace and the market . . . and hopefully we return home unscathed . . . we will have our tour guide with us so it is a little less scary.