Antigua

We spent a few days after Christmas exploring the beautiful city of Antigua. It´s nestled in a perfect valley with mountains and volcanoes to be seen from every angle. Its location, combined with picture perfect colonial streets and incredible (though expensive!) restaurants, makes Antigua a pretty special place.



This church, La Merced, is so ornate it looks like a wedding cake, though Rob thought more a lemon meringue pie!



Antigua is dotted with picturesque ruins and on our self-guided tour round the sights, we stopped at Las Capuchinas convent. Very little remains to tell of the intriguing secluded lives the nuns had, but it was very atmospheric and the gardens were lovely.



This is a public wash house where local women bring bundles of clothes to scrub. It`s fascinating to watch, but I think the women know the tourists are interested as they tried to charge us 10 quetzales (about $1.30) to photograph them!



The crafts for sale in Guatemala are great; vibrant colours, rich embroidery and crazy animal figures. There´s a strong sense of value around traditional clothes and produce, which can be seen in the great number of people wearing Mayan dress in the streets. As soon as we arrived in Guatemala we noticed how much more prominent the indigenous population is compared to other countries in Central America.



A visit to Nim P'ot artesania shop was incredible. It´s full to the brim with crafts from all over the country, divided into different regions. I could have bought the lot if only I had room in my back pack!



We couldn't leave Antigua without having a shot at the famous Volcán Agua through the arch photo. As you can imagine, Rob spent a good while getting it just right. Not bad, though, eh?



Rachel x