Things to do in Antigua, Guatemala

today we are in Antigua a beautiful Colonial City in the central Highlands of Guatemala the city used to be the capital many many years ago between 1543 and 1773 at that point there was a massive earthquake and it destroyed a lot of the city because of that the Spanish Crown who was ruling at the time decided to move the city 25 miles east to Guatemala City they also ordered that Antigua be abandoned and because of that most of the city and most of the ruins did not get rebuilt which is an advantage to us today because now we can explore the city and see those ruins as they were hundreds of years right after that earthquake hi I'm David Rob is behind the camera we are 10° warmer and welcome to the channel along with all the ruins there's tons of beautiful Baroque architecture and in 1979 the city was declared a UNESCO world heritage site another thing I love about the city is it feels so much smaller than some of the other big cities we've been to In fact Guatemala City has I think it's the largest city in Central America with about 3 million people here there's only 45,000 people it feels much more relaxed and small town we really love this city we're going to take you on a tour and we're going to show you some of our favorite sites so getting here from Guatemala City is pretty straightforward we flew into the airport in Guatemala City right outside of the terminal we were able to call an Uber uh and an Uber took us right here it's only about 25 miles away but because of traffic it can take you a while be prepared I think it took us almost an hour and a half to get here uh and then the Uber cost us about $47 as far as weather it's great weather all year round um it's about 50 to 70 degrees fah most of the Year their rainy season is in the northern hemisphere summer so be ready for that and another thing to be pay attention to are the cobblestones be ready with good shoes because they are everywhere the sidewalks are a bit uneven walking across the streets you can you can lose your footing so really pay attention to that can definitely be a bit of an obstacle course but definitely worth it so right behind me is probably where you're going to want to start your tour of Antigua this is the plaza mayor or par Central um it's always very busy lots of tourists lots of locals lots of vendors selling treats and clothes and walking tours in the center of the square is this beautiful Fountain this is the Fuente de las serenas or the Fountain of the sirens it was built in 1738 but has been completely restored since then one little detail that I just found interesting is that the original architect wanted to include dolphins in his design but wasn't quite sure what dolphins looked like so instead he used water buffalo the water buffalo lie pretty much below the water line so you can't see them but the women are sitting on them but if you come during on a weekday sometimes they will drain the fountain so that they can clean it and do maintenance and you can get a better look uh but it's just kind of a fun little tidbit so behind me over here is the palasio deos capitanes henales uh this is a beautiful 16th century building and with all those arches it makes for some great pictures it houses some tourism and governmental offices today and then behind you is a very iconic Cathedral here in Antigua the cathedral was significantly damaged by the earthquake in 1773 and most of it is still in ruin but the front part on the Square here has been restored it is a very active place of worship and it's just a beautiful facade you're going to want to take a look at but next we're going to go around to the back and look at the ruins so probably the most popular thing to do while you in Antigua is to visit the ruins so we're here right around the corner from the main square at the ruins behind the main Cathedral it cost 20 kitas to get in which is about $3 and totally worth it the ruins are just incredible the ceilings are all missing so it's just these tall beautiful arches you're going to walk through here and just take photo after photo after photo because every view is more beautiful than the last there's even a that you can go down into we spent probably about a half hour at this one we'll probably go to some more on this tour today uh but definitely a place you're not going to want to miss this is Merced church it's one of the prettiest churches you will ever see we come over here every once in a while just to stare at it there are a lot of vendors over this way on the sidewalk doing food and crafts there's also a um ruined section of the church that you can go in and visit also it's open Monday through Friday but for some reason it is through Thursday it's not open today we're not quite sure why but there's a massive fountain in there it used to be one of the biggest fountains ever and I think that'd be pretty cool to see so depending on what you're interested in this might be another place you want to come we have the San Francisco church right here which is a big working Cathedral very popular with the locals for actually going to Services here but then next to it is the ruins of an old Convent and it is a a really fun one to walk around there is a small Museum but mostly you just kind of get to wander around there are a few signs around most of them are in Spanish but there's a couple things in English to kind of explain but you just kind of get to wander through and see what things used to look like and we took a lot of pictures and a lot of video CU it's just a really cool place to walk around we really enjoyed it it did cost 40 Calis to get in which is about $5 we definitely thought it was worth it welcome to the public laundromat or what was the public laundromat many many years ago these different stations you see here were used to wash laundry by the people of the Town everyone would come here and gather together it must have been a very festive atmosphere when everyone was working I also love the square if you look out this way it is a small square but it is very active there are always lots of people here with a little pretty little yellow Church down at the end one of my favorite places so here we are at probably the most iconic photo spot in all of Antigua the Santa Carolina Arch uh the arch dates back to the 1600s there was a Convent with a group of cloistered nuns and they ran a school that was across the street and to get back and forth between the two since they were cloistered they couldn't be seen by the general public they constructed this bridge for them to get across uh since then they've added a clock on the top of the arch we did here that this clock has to be wound by hand every 3 days which is kind of interesting but it's a great little place to come there's lots of shops and vendors selling Trinkets and snacks and then lots of tourists and locals alike all getting pictures of the vcan auwa which is right behind us it's just a great place you're going to definitely want to come here and get some pictures if you're enjoying this video and would like to support our channel the best way you can do that is to hit that subscribe button we've got a lot more content plannned and on the way so you want to make sure you don't miss out okay we are a little bit sweaty cuz we have just walked up the hill to s De La Cruz just look at the view you can see the entire old city this cross which was put up in 193s and the volcano behind us just spectacular this hill you can get to by car also the road goes right up to the very top and at the very top of the hill there's another statue of a Saint on a horse that I think it's the patron saint of Spain that was gifted to the city back in the' 70s 10 years ago when we were here people said it wasn't that safe to climb up the hill well last year they renovated the entire area here it's terrific there's vendors there's people passing through all the time even when we're here at 6:00 a.m. there are children passing through on their way to school so it feels very safe I wouldn't come after dark but this is worth every step right across from the arch is this little Craft Market now there are a lot of markets in town There's the main one there's little artisanal markets but at most of those places you're going to be expected to haggle on price if you are uncomfortable with that this might be the place to come because everything has a price tag on it so you're probably going to pay a little bit more than you might if you're a good Haggler um but if that makes you uncomfortable this might be a good place to come they've got everything here from fabrics and clothes they've got Chach keys and figurines they got these masks behind me they've got some artwork it's just kind of a great place to you know look around very low pressure because no one's hovering over you because it's just a regular store um and a great place to look around so you might want to come check it out okay let's talk volcano Guatemala has 37 volcanoes that's a ton of volcanoes in a fairly small country the ones that you can see from Antigua are right over here you have akatan Ango which is one people take tour two they climb to the top mostly to look at other volcanoes right next to it is fuego fuego is one of the most active volcanoes in the world it's currently erupting right now it spews Ash up into the air about four to nine times every hour and then on our other side we have AWA it is the centerpiece of Antigua it's absolutely gorgeous it looms over the city and you can see it from almost anywhere so if you'd like to come for kind of a traditional local Al moo or lunch uh one good place to come is right behind me this is the ring con antiguo this is a great little restaurant they've got a big wood stove that cooks chickens and you can kind of watch the process they do have other things on the menu uh but we all stuck with the chicken because it was looked delicious and it actually was delicious it comes with potatoes and a salad it comes with a whole bunch uh fresh corn tortillas that they are cooking right inside the front door and then you get a juice of the day uh today we had some lemonade last week we came here and we had a pineapple juice and it's free refills on the juice which is nice you don't always get that the whole meal is about 40 Calas it's a set lunch and that's about5 us a little less maybe $450 definitely worth it it's a fun atmosphere one thing I will say is that it's the the word is out on this place it gets very very popular we tend to eat early uh in the day you know 11:30 12 and so we didn't have any problems but if you come on a weekend or if you come later in the afternoon just be prepared that there could be a line out the door if that's the case and you don't want to wait right across the street is another local place um it doesn't have the attention that the other one does but we went there one afternoon and it was just as good maybe not as cute of a place but we really enjoyed it so either way you're going to get a good local lunch for a good price definitely check it out while you're here right behind me is La conion a great little restaurant that serves local food things like pepan and Boo assado and plenty of other stuff meals are around 40 catala seat so not too expensive it's a little bit out of town in fact it's right on the edge of town heading out this road goes towards Guatemala City Rob love the vegetables um so we highly recommend this place so David and I are not Foodies we tend to think of food as fuel and less as entertainment but every once in a while we do like to splurge and we did so this time with really great results so I'm standing in the Santo Domingo Hotel it's a pretty fancy hotel that was built out of the ruins of an old Seminary definitely worthwhile just to come and take a look the grounds are beautiful you can walk around they do have a a museum that you can go through but I'm here to tell you about the restaurant so we went to the restaurant and everything we ate was amazing it's a little more pricey than at some of the other places you might eat at it you know a hamburger is going to start at like $15 and it goes up from there but everything we ate was amazing I had a pepper incrusted chicken that came with a puree of butternut squash and pineapple that was just delectable like the entire meal was amazing we had a really good time so if you are looking for that little bit of a Splurge here in Antigua this is definitely a place you might want to check out right now we are up at Santo Domingo deero it's a beautiful cultural park right up on a big hill next to Antigua it's a big open area with lots of sculptures and galleries featuring a lot of Guatemalan artists mostly this guy right here ephren rinos you'll see tons of his work and it's really cool also up on the hill there is a restaurant that you might want to go to it has View of all the volcanoes and a Great Buffet on Sunday mornings it's a little tough to get up here the hill is long and steep we've walked it a couple times so it's possible but you'll probably want to take an Uber to get up here so if someone asked me where I would go to see a hobbit town I would have said New Zealand but as it turns out there is one right here in Antigua Guatemala who knew it is about 5 miles from town you can take a taxi here although we did hear some of of the taxis don't like to come here and we'll try and charge you extra to it's a really narrow steep road but there's a they have an office in town and there's a shuttle you can get it cost 50 petalas which is I don't know about $6 per person for a roundtrip shuttle so not too bad once you get here to admission is 45 Calas so you know another four or five dollars there um and then once you're here everything is free there's activities they've got lots of places to take pictures they've got a swing [Music] they've got a big Goblin hand or troll hand I guess that you can take pictures on one recommendation is to get here early it is amazing we are pretty high up and there are some amazing views we've got three volcanoes in the background it is gorgeous as the day goes on the clouds kind of come in and at this point it's like 2:00 in the afternoon and and I can't even see any of the volcanoes they're all completely covered by clouds but when we got here at 8:30 we had some really great views so get here early is my recommendation if you want to get good pictures they've also got like some mini golf you can throw some axes we did some cornhole you can do some archery so there's just little fun things like that to do but mostly you just kind of wander around they've got these little hobbit Huts that are pretty nicely decorated you can get some food up here and eat one of these they do have a few rooms if you want to stay here we didn't really look into that but they do have a few rooms up here one recommendation is we decided to come for lunch and you never really know what to expect at these kind of touristy places what the food is going to be like they often tend to be very underwhelming and overpriced but I have to say the restaurant here was excellent my mom got a plate of nachos for it 100 KET Solis so it was probably about $11 and it was massive and delicious like that could have fed at least two people just by itself we got some burgers that were all also very big very good they have a extensive drink menu with like some Lord of the Rings inspired cocktails we didn't get any in the afternoon but if you wanted to do that they've definitely got the options and it's really just a fun place there's somebody dressed up like gandal there's lots of cute little puppies running around um not a place to spend a whole day but if you wanted to come up for a couple of hours uh I think it's definitely a place you might want to check out thank you for joining us on this tour of antiqua Guatemala we really love the city and we think you might too we've been here a month now we're leaving today I'm kind of sad about it uh but it is just a great place one of the things that we really love so much about it is how warm and welcoming the locals are everywhere we walk we get lots of smiles everybody you know is buendia and buen Tardes when we you know they get up and leave a restaurant we're in they'll stop at our table and say when PR and it's just they're very open and just say warm friendly people it makes it very welcoming and a good place to be uh one thing I did want to mention just to take me seriously and be very careful about the cobblestones the streets can be very unwieldly sometimes especially in the dark we had one night just a couple of days ago where all three of us tripped and my mom actually fell over and hit her head there was blood it was a whole incident she's totally fine and everything's okay but just to be cautious especially in the dark um walking on those sidewalks cuz they're very uneven but even with that you know consideration this is a great place I think you're going to love it um thank you for being here with us and we release a new video every Sunday we will see you next week um it has Galleries and open spaces with lots of sculptures sculptures what's a sculpture hi I'm Rob and open air areas a put open air open air open air today and the Tomorrow there's no down Barrow

Channel: Ten Degrees Warmer

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Keywords: Long term travel, Expat, Expat Couple, Travel, Nomad, slow travel, Rob and David, Robb and David, Ten Degrees Warmer, 10 Degrees Warmer, travel tips, travel tips and tricks, retire early, FIRE, Repositioning Cruises, travel abroad, retire abroad, sabbatical abroad, travel safety, budget traveler, retirement destinations, Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala travel, Things to do, nomad, long term travel, best cities, Hobbitenango, Cerro de la Cruz, Santa Catalina Arch

Id: k3d8w5w1cik

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2023