A week in the beautiful city of Antigua

After spending a few days in the mountains at Lanquin, we took another long bus ride to the city of Antigua.

Exploring Antigua:

Antigua is a city surrounded by volcanoes, sitting at 1500m above sea level. It has beautiful old and colonial buildings, cobblestone streets, and a really relaxed vibe! You can walk everywhere in the city, and there are lots of restaurants and bars. Antigua was the capital of Guatemala until 1773 when an earthquake destroyed most of the city, we enjoyed exploring some of the remains of the destroyed buildings, and some of them are now under restoration. We enjoyed a few days wondering around the streets of Antigua, exploring the craft shops, and trying some lovely food! 

Exploring around Antigua:

We took a day trip to a village in the mountains surrounding Antigua to visit the Earth Lodge: an eco lodge, avocado farm and cafe. We enjoyed walking around the farm and had a lovely lunch in the cafe. 

We also took a trip out on a chicken bus to a local village to visit a macademia farm. We enjoyed a tour of the farm and learning about the macademia nut (there are lots of different varieties). Ash had a macademia oil facial, and we both sampled some macademia flour pancakes! They also had the lost beautiful toilet full of plants!

Climbing Volcan Acatenango:

Whilst in Antigua we went on a two day hike to the top of volcano Acatenango, and slept on top of the volcano with views across to the nearby Volcan Fuego - an active volcano which erupts every 30 mins or so. This was a real highlight of our trip so far!

The hike was really hard, we both suffered with the altitude - Acatenango is the third highest volcano in Central America at 3976m above sea level (the highest I have ever been, though Ash has been higher before). It took about 4 hours rough hiking to reach the base camp, through four different terrains: farm land, cloud forest, alpine tree forest and volcanic. 

We hiked to a spot for the sunset, and we were rewarded with a beautiful cloud inversion around the volcano. We slept in a tent on Acatenango, with a view across to Fuego volcano, so we could see, hear and feel the eruptions throughout the night - it truly was the most awesome experience! After watching the sunrise and having breakfast at base camp, we hiked down the next morning (a much easier hike!), and went back to Antigua to rest (our legs were sore for days!). 

Overall, we both enjoyed our time in Antigua. Ash enjoyed it so much he plans to return in a few weeks. The highlight for me was the hike to Acatenango, it was such an awe-inspiring experience to see Fuego erupt at night, and to feel the ground shake with each eruption. 

Next stop: Lago Atitlán