Antigua

Lordy! I had to think for a minute there to try and remember where I am. So much travelling in the past week, with no more than one night staying in one place.

We left San Marcos by boat for Panajachel (Pana to the locals), where C and B were treating us all to a night in an outrageously posh hotel. Swimming pool overlooking the lake, hammocks, amazing rooms, enormous gardens, outrageously priced bar and restaurant etc. I really like Pana. It's main street is full of stalls selling the traditional weavings, and we spent many a happy hour wandering up and down, honing our haggling skills. I bought loads of pressies, and some for me too!

For lake Atitlan pictures (not mine!), click here:
http://www.travelsinparadise.com/guatemala/atitlan/index.html#pa270037atitlanflowers

Then yesterday morning, we jumped on a bus bound for Antigua, and here we are. Of all the places that don't really feel like that Guatemala I know (San Marcos, Panajachel) this is the least Guatemalan. I keep thinking I'm in some swanky part of Europe somewhere. There are trendy coffee bars and restaurants everywhere, enormous shops selling really fine quality things. No beggars or people with missing limbs, the grinding poverty of Guatemala seems to be hidden here. The buildings are all colonial and beautiful, painted yellow or white. Each has an immaculately kept courtyard inside with flowers, trees, water features and shimmering fairy lights. You can find whatever you want to eat, and you don't feel like a freak being a tourist. It's all very very strange for me.

For pics of Antigua (again, not mine), click here
http://www.travelsinparadise.com/guatemala/antigua/

We're staying here tonight, and then tomorrow we fly to Tikal, where we can see the ruins of Mayan temples (and possibly get urinated on by more howler monkeys). One thing I'm not looking forward to is the heat, and the mosquitoes. I'm already covered in bites, akin to my flea-ridden first few weeks in Xela (sigh).