My flight from Flores was so quick, it felt like it was over before it began. Less than an hour after take off I was on the ground in Guatemala City. After a quick lunch at the airport I was in a car on my way to my next stop, Antigua. Despite Guatemala City being the capitol and the most populous city in Guatemala, Antigua is the epicenter of the country, at least as far as tourism goes. With it’s cobblestoned streets, relaxed peaceful vibes, and ridiculous amount of history, Antigua is a really pleasant place to spend a few days.

I checked in at the Hotel Monasterio and started exploring with the Convento Santo Domingo right around the corner. Antigua is filled with ruined churches and monasteries, but Santo Domingo is the only one as far as I can tell that has been privately bought and renovated into a hotel. This makes it one of the least interesting sites in the city, but it’s still worth a look. The most interesting part was the tiny one room Mayan museum. There were a couple of small art museums as well.

Antigua began as the Spanish capitol in Central America. Then it was known as Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala and during the 17th and 18th centuries it was one of the most important cities in all the Americas. The catch? It’s surrounded by volcanoes and it’s ridiculously earthquake prone. There have been many many earthquakes here, but the devastating earthquake in 1773 pretty much ended the cities importance, as well as most of it’s important buildings.

The closest and most visible volcano is Volcán de Agua. They say it’s inactive and that the last eruption was around 11,000 years ago, but I don’t buy it.

Next up was a quick visit to what’s left of the facade of the Iglesia de Candelaria next to a basketball court.

The other two volcanoes in the immediate vicinity are Fuego and Acatenango. Acatenango is the tallest in the area and is supposedly inactive as well, but the smaller Fuego is a temperamental brat. It last erupted in 2018 and killed 160 people.

The partially restored Convento de Capuchinas was founded in the early 18th century by a bunch of nuns from Madrid. They looked like they were setting up for a wedding when I visited. The wedding planners, not the nuns.

The room in the pic below had some really crazy echoes. My voice, even the sound of my footsteps echoed back to me from a thousand different directions. It was kind of disorienting.

Nearby, was the small Templo Santa Teresa. There wasn’t much to see, though. They’re in the process of restoring it after having used it as a prison for many years.

Closer to the center of town is the Iglesia de la Merced. It was supposedly built to withstand earthquakes, but it was built 300 years ago, well before the 1773 quake that destroyed the city. Why didn’t they just build them all like that? I don’t get it.

The claim to fame of Iglesia de la Merced is that it boasts the largest fountain in all of Central America.

The view from the roof is not the best view to be had in Antigua, but it is pretty stellar. In addition to the volcanoes, you get a pretty good shot down the street to the Arco Santa Catalina.

Speaking of the Arco Santa Catalina, let’s walk down the street, have a look and take one of the most iconic pictures you can take in Antigua. The arch was originally built in 1694 to be a crosswalk for nuns, so they could cross from the attached convent without being seen.

The center of everything in Antigua is the Parque Central. This is where the whole town comes to see and be seen. Right next to it is Antigua’s main cathedral. The working part of the cathedral is pretty modest, but behind it are the ruins of the original cathedral that in its day must have rivaled all the great cathedrals of Europe.

I’m also finding random ruined churches that I haven’t read about. There’s history on every corner here.

The next day I woke up at the crack of dawn to head to another volcano, Pacaya, about halfway between here and Guatemala City for a little hiking.

Volcán Pacaya is very much an active volcano, last erupting in 2021. The hike up is only about a mile and a half, but they do rush you up and down. I was huffing and puffing when we got to the top, the top of the hike that is. They don’t let you up to the cone, something about being too hot and melting the flesh off of your bones yada yada, whatever!

The views of Fuego and Acatenango, and the town of San Vicente Pacaya were really incredible too. I think I would find it unnerving living this close to all these volcanoes.

Even where we were in the “safe” part of the lava field there was plenty of heat coming up from the ground. So much so that we roasted marshmallows. Yup, I roasted marshmallows on a volcano. Just for reference, the heat was enough for the roasting, but not enough to light a cigarette (one of the guys on the hike gave it a try).

The lava field where we roasted the marshmallows was from the 2014 eruption. On the way down I got some good views of the lava field from the most recent 2021 eruption.

Back in Antigua I took a walk up to Cerro de la Cruz, a nice little viewpoint where everyone goes to watch the sunset apparently. This is probably the best view in the city. All three volcanoes in one shot, awesome!

No matter where your day takes you, somehow you always end up back at Parque Central.

In my opinion, two of the best ruins in Antigua weren’t even in my research. I found them randomly while perusing the map online. First was Iglesia de San Francisco el Grande. Like the cathedral, it’s a smallish modern church with the ruins of it’s once grander self in back.

Iglesia de San Francisco el Grande is also the final resting place of Hermano Pedro de San José Betancur, or just Hermano Pedro (seen above). Born in the Canary Islands in 1626, he made his way to Guatemala where he joined the Franciscan order and eventually came to be thought of as the Saint Francis of the Americas. He lived right here in Antigua, died in 1667, and was made a saint in 2002. He’s kind of a big deal around here.

The original Franciscan church was destroyed in the earthquake of 1773 like everything else in town, but this is the only one where I found some of the original artwork.

Right around the corner was the beautiful Convento Santa Clara.

The central cloister at Convento Santa Clara was just incredible! After wandering around the amazing ruins, I just sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a while.

The cavernous cathedral has been partially restored. Along with the cloister and the numerous passageways, this was probably my favorite place in Antigua.

Another interesting landmark right next to Parque Central is the Real Palacio de La Antigua Guatemala. This was the royal palace and the seat of the entire government of Central America in the 17th and 18th centuries. Inside is a small modern art museum, but not much else to see. The outside is something special though.

Antigua has been a really pleasant stop. In addition to the sights and ruins, I’m going to miss the many good restaurants and getting ice cream everyday during my wanderings. I’ll be passing through Antigua again though. It turns out that most of the transport around Guatemala starts and ends here, instead of in Guatemala City like I originally thought.

Tomorrow, I have an early bus to the next stop where I’ll continue to avoid being boiled alive in lava. Wish me luck…