Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 42 - Antigua, Panajachel, San Pedro La Laguna (Guatemala)

As we didn’t really know where we’d be on the 15th for my birthday we decided to celebrate it a couple of days early while we were in Antigua. The day started perfectly with presents in bed and breakfast at the hostel on our private terrace overlooking Volcan Agua. After breakfast we headed into town for some sightseeing. Antigua is a beautiful, atmospheric, colonial, cobblestone town speckled with grandiose ruins, remanents from the 1773 earthquake that destroyed most of the city.

Our first stop was at La Merced, a church with an ornate white and yellow facade and a pretty cloister with monumental fountain and a little garden. Just along the road from La Merced we stopped at Santa Catalina, an arch spanning one of the roads that was used by nuns to walk between two convents, neither of which remain. Our last stop of the morning was at the ruins of Las Capuchinas, once the largest convents of the city dating from 1726. The nuns living there weren’t allowed any contact with the outside world and the ruins, with fountains and courtyards, include a tower in the centre with little cells and stone recesses. There was also a little museum funded strangely by the Taiwanese government.

After Las Capuchinas we headed back to the hostel to pack our bags, chill for an hour on the terrace and check out. From the hostel we jumped in a tuk tuk and headed to Meson Panza Verde, a luxury boutique hotel and my birthday treat from Rhys. It was breathtakingly gorgeous and reminded us of the hotel in Morocco where we got married. We had a welcome drink in the bar area before being taken up to our room which had been upgraded from a double to a junior suite. The room was huge. We had the biggest bathroom i’ve ever seen with a bath tub you could actually swim laps in, candles and a cupola roof. The bedroom had feather pillows (oh how I miss feather pillows!) and the comfiest bed we’ve been in since the Hard Rock hotel for Rhys’s birthday. Then there was a living room with a leather sofa and huge TV and a log fire and then we had a private patio area on the terrace. Every little detail was incredibly beautiful and the hotel really was a little slice of heaven. Before we locked ourselves in our suite for the night we decided we should make the most of the day and headed back in to town.

After grabbing a sandwich and a slice of cake at a coffee shop on the main square we headed to the third ruin of the day, the Church of San Francisco, by far our favourite ruin of the day. The church must have been colossal, during the colonial period it served as a religious and cultural centre that included a school, hospital, music rooms, a printing press and a monastery, the church has been restored and the only ruins that remain are of the monastery. Once in the grounds we headed for a picnic bench where we sat and enjoyed lunch with the sun shining and the fallen arches and giant pillars laying around us. We spent some time exploring before heading back to the hotel to make the most of the facilities. Leaving Rhys to chill in the room I headed up to the roof terrace with the newspaper, a beautiful flower filled area with lots of little hidey holes and seated areas with views of the volcano.

Once I got back to the room we had a drink while watching some TV before Rhys went off to run a bath for me. It took forever, the bath was MASSIVE. It was worth the wait though, he’d lit the candles and sprinkled in rose petals and put some music on the speakers, gone all out in the romance stakes. I spent a blissful hour wallowing in the tub using all the posh smellies before it was time to get dressed ready for our dinner booking at the restaurant on the ground floor.

We had a table by the pianist and enjoyed an amazing meal and a bottle of wine listening to the music before heading back to our room. We ended the night with Rhys building a fire in our living room. The only shame is part way through the night Rhys woke up with his allergies playing up caused (we think) by the feather pillows and ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room. It was the best birthday ever (up there with my monster theme party when I was a kid), Rhys chose the most amazing hotel, I couldn’t even dream of a way to make it better.

The next day we woke and ate as much as we could at the delicious buffet breakfast before spending the morning in our room, on the roof terrace, in the onsite gallery and checking out literally 5 minutes before check out deadline. We walked back to the Yellowhouse hostel and checked back in to our volcano view room, glad we’d booked a nice place so we weren’t on too much of a come down after such a luxury hotel. We spent the day chilling at the hostel and wandering (Allie, I spelt it right for you that time) around the markets where Rhys bought a sack of strawberries for 90p. That night we ate at Ocelots again before heading back for an early night.

Our last day in Antigua we had a leisurely start to the day before heading to one final ruin, the Colegio de San Jeronimo. Considering the price was 8 times the price of most of the other places we visited we were unimpressed, it’s quite small and there’s not much to it. It was originally used as a church for the friars of the Merced order and is just a little cloister centred around an octagonal fountain. We didn’t stay for long before heading back to our favourite sandwich shop on the Plaza and back to San Francisco for a picnic lunch. After Rhys headed back to the hostel I hung around the central plaza waiting for Casa Popenoe to open, a renovated colonial mansion open to the public. I got some bargains at the artisanal market (if we could carry more or had someone visiting us soon we’d have bought ridiculous amounts of cloth and cushion covers, it’s so beautiful here), and explored the ruins of the Cathedral de San Jose, which were spectacular with the towering arches and sections of the domes still standing. The house museum never opened so I gave up and headed back to the hostel. We met up with Adrienne (who we originally met in Nicaragua) and spent the night touring the pubs and dancing salsa with a Guatemalan surgeon and his group of friends.

Needless to say we weren’t too bright and cheery the next day but we were up early for a shuttle bus to Panajachel, a town on Lago Atitlan. I think it was only the first or second shuttle we’ve got since we’ve been away but with the alternative being 4 chicken buses we thought the $10 was well worth it. The lake located in the western highlands is set between three volcanoes and steep hills and the lake shore is dotted with traditional Maya settlements. We arrived just after lunch and headed out to explore the town, one of the most cosmopolitan on the lake. It’s a busy market town aimed mostly at tourists but we quite liked it. We stopped for a drink at a lakeside restaurant before exploring the markets some more, stopping for coffee and cake and heading back to our hostel.

The next morning we were up early and took a tuk tuk up to a mirador on the way to Solola. The view was spectacular and the walk back into town wound down passed a beautiful waterfall. Back in town (dog in tow) we picked up our bags from the hostel and headed to the dock for a boat to San Pedro La Laguna on the opposite side of the lake, the backpacker hub of the area. We checked into a hostel and headed out to get our bearings and to visit the weekly BBQ at a pool bar near the docks. We ordered a meat combo to share and I have never seen so much food. It was a meal for 1 and it came on 3 plates and we had enough left over for dinner later that night. We spent the evening playing pool at the hostel and chatting to other travelers before a bonfire was started in the garden.

We woke up on my actual birthday having intended to do a 6 hour hike along the the lake shore and decided we’d only attempt half the walk. It wasn’t as scenic as we’d hoped and lead along a road from San Pedro to San Juan La Laguna, San Pablo La Laguna and ended in San Marcos La Laguna. San Juan is a small village with lots of little shops selling local weavings. The next village, San Pablo, was a little more off the tourist trail and the kids would giggle and wave to us as we walked by. After San Pablo we ended in San Marcos, a bohemian, hippy village with a definite spiritual/holistic lean. We stopped for a falafel lunch before wandering through the dirt streets down to the dock for a boat back to San Pedro. Back in town we grabbed dinner and got an early night.

We were up the following day at 3:45am for a 4am tour to Indians Nose. After a 45min drive we were at the trail head in Santa Clara. It took us about 45mins to hike to the first viewing platform where we sat and watched the sun rise before heading up to the second viewing platform a little higher. It was one of the most stunning views we’ve had since we’ve been away with the three volcanoes around the lake and further away, Volcan Fuego near Anitgua. After about an hour we headed back to the car for the drive into town. Back at the hostel we jumped in to bed for a quick nap. That afternoon we decided to walk the other half of the hike we’d hoped to do the day before. We took a boat to Santa Cruz La Laguna where we walked along the wooden walkway at the lakeshore to a lovely little tranquil, ecochic resort with a cafe, called Isla Verde. After another healthy lunch we started the hike. It was so much prettier than the previous day. We walked on footpaths most of the way following the lake shore and passing over the hills. The trail passed first through Jaibalito, an isolated lakeside settlement which remains resolutely Kaqchikel before passing through Tzununa, another small cluster of buildings where we picked up the dirt road back to San Marcos. From San Marcos we took a boat back to San Pedro and back to the hostel.

Our last night in San Pedro we had a few drinks and games of pool in the hostel before heading to ladies night at a bar on the lakeshore. We didn’t stay late and headed back to bed before the after party started.