Destination: Antigua, Guatemala

Guatemala was the result of a pivot we made while in Madrid. We had originally planned on going to Chelem, Mexico (outside of Merida on the Yucatan) in January, however having a few months of worldschooling under our belts, we realized that a month of seclusion (basically – we reserved a home on the ocean with a pool but in an area that wasn’t walkable with very few if any attractions to visit) would be the opposite of what our family needed. We thought we’d want some rest but the reality of it was that the kids don’t do well with boredom (do any?) and while the ocean and a pool would be fun, it would get old quick! With our only hesitation being that we LOVED the property we had reserved, we decided to visit for vacation someday and find a different experience for the month.

We needed structure. We needed predictability. We needed to mix things up. Enter Spanish immersion school. It turns out that not only is Antigua, Guatemala a popular and highly-recommended stop for explorers and worldschoolers alike, it has also drawn people from all over the world to attend their many Spanish language schools. We reserved spots for all 6 of us and attended 4 hours a day for 5 days a week. Alvaro taught Jay and I, Belen taught the girls, Tatiana was George’s teacher and Edward was paired up with Vilma. The girls and George spent most of their time playing games while speaking with their teachers. Jay and I spoke with Alvaro each day about our lives, our experiences in Guatemala, and the cultures of our countries. It was very natural and comfortable. Edward and Vilma worked on learning verb structure and tenses. He would have preferred a more conversational approach like we had but he learned so much.

Antiguena Spanish Academy is located in a central part of the city, but lessons were conducted in gardens about a 15 minute walk from our home. George, Harriet and Fiona studied in an open terrace surrounded by flowers while Jay, Edward and I spent our mornings around the corner under mango, orange, avocado, banana and lemon trees. Edward had a close call with a giant avocado during our first week and the last week there was a banana tree incident (nobody was hurt!). It was quite the place. Local women arrived mid-morning to offer snacks for our 30-minute break. Besides the learning, it was my favorite part. From bowls of fresh fruit to homemade taquitos, nachos, and more – we enjoyed our snacks every single day for about Q10 ($1.31) per person.

On Thursday afternoons the school offered a cultural presentation. Fridays we had field trips – for the most part it was Jay, Edward and I along with our teachers that would head out to explore locally (more on that later in this post). It gave us some “real-life” experience using our new skills out in the city with the support of our teachers. My favorite school related activity was when our teachers came to our AirBnb and made a traditional Guatemalan dessert with us! We practiced Spanish over stirring, shaping, and frying rellenitos (plantain dough stuffed with sweetened & spiced black beans). I will always remember having our first get-together with new friends!

Accommodations:

We arrived in Antigua a day before our AirBnb reservation so we booked 2 rooms at Selah Hotel & Coffee. It had such a quaint & quirky feel that we loved. The open atrium in the middle of the building let in a lot of light and the windows in the rooms opened to the hall. Free Guatemalan breakfast on the roof was the best part – views of the volcano and sunshine along with our eggs, cheese, fruit and coffee. We would definitely stay in this spot again, but not for more than a night or two because there is no kitchen or living space for our big family. Honestly it had more of a hostel feel, but we didn’t mind it for a short stay.

The AirBnb that we chose for Antigua was located in a small neighborhood called “mansion”, a small neighborhood in the northern part of town. It had two bedrooms and a large loft, a full kitchen, and our favorite – a rooftop terrace! It was our very first (and only) spot outside of the states that had an actual clothes dryer. I couldn’t believe it. Since our reservation was for a month, it included several cleaning days and replenishment of our drinking water supply whenever needed. Buying drinking water nearly daily in Lima was so cumbersome, so this was a huge perk!

Activities:

Finca la Azotea – On our first Friday of school, Alvaro and Vilma took Jay, Edward and I to Finca Azotea – a coffee plantation. Just a short walk away, we were able to see red ripe coffee berries growing on long rows of shaded shrubs. The berries were washed and fermented and then dried in the warm Guatemala sunshine. The experience concluded with the rich scent of roasting beans and a warm tazo de cafe! Azotea also offers a chocolate shop with a free demonstration explaining the bean to bar process and plenty of samples to boot!

Ruins – Multiple earthquakes in the 1700s were the fate of several beautiful buildings including many convents. As a family we visited the ruins of Santa Clara – a convent that was built around 1699 and established by 3 nuns from Mexico. The contrast of the ruins and the lush gardens made it an inspiring, peaceful place to visit. It was not surprising that it was being set up for a wedding that night! Another Friday field trip with Edward & our teachers (Jay was working), we visited San Francisco the Great Sanctuary – a large campus that includes the cathedral, a museum, the ruins, and a crafts market. The tomb of Santo Hermano Pedro de San José de Betancur (Saint Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur) is located inside the cathedral and because of this, it’s a pilgrimage site for those praying for miracles.

El Tenador (The Fork) – while El Tenador is actually a restaurant that we did not visit, it is also the site of 2 museums and beautiful views of the city. (Tip: If you go to Hotel Santo Domingo in the city, you can catch the shuttle up the hill and save your legs for visiting the sculptures – just make sure to tip your driver!). The main museum of Efrain Recinos is home to unique sculptures, sweeping views of the city below, and cozy little spots scattered around to take it all in. You can also visit Museo Juan Paulo II at the same location though tucked away under a hill – it documents the visit of the Pope’s visit to Guatemala. Both museums are free and would be loved by people of all ages. For the brave ones out there, there is also a zip line that we promised the kids we will visit next time we are in town – we heard it’s amazing!

Pacaya hike – Antigua is surrounded by volcanoes, so getting up close and personal with one was high on our list. Pacaya is known as one of the most accessible volcanoes and was a great experience. We hooked up with a group of worldschoolers and got to know them on the hour drive to the base of the volcano. Those that chose to ride horses were assigned a 4-legged friend and we headed up! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hike or ride, but was glad to have chosen the latter. The trail was pretty gravelly, spotted with horse poo, and quite crowded. All of us but Jay went up on horseback and were awed by the views of the valley below covered in black lava from the last eruption in 2021. Since Pacaya is an active volcano, we were not permitted to go to the top, so we enjoyed the views from the highest point we could visit. To make the experience even more unique, we had pizza cooked on the volcano as a snack! Pretty cool.

Lake Atitlan was “vacation” during our month of Spanish immersion school. We skipped out right after school on Friday and made it home late Sunday. Jay was out of town when the kids and I headed there so he missed out on the absolutely miserable 3.5hr drive. Between George, Edward and I, we had to have the driver pull over 5 times for us to empty our stomachs. The roads were not only very narrow, hilly and windy, but the driver was taking backroads and going through small towns so we were constantly speeding, stopping for speed bumps, then speeding up again. It hurts to even relive this experience in words – I felt like we were never going to get there. It was lucky we had a private shuttle because I would have felt so bad had other people been there to witness it!! Anyway – the lake did not disappoint! Surrounded by volcanoes, it feels nothing less than magical.

We stayed in Panajachel at the beautiful Hotel Posada de Don Rodrigo. It was a huge hit from the start – right on the lake with a crystal clear pool with a slide! The walkways are lined with lush greenery and hammocks just asking for you to put up your feet and take a breather. It felt like a true vacation for all of us there.

Along the coast of Lake Atitlan there are several towns that are only reachable by boat, so one day we hired a driver to visit a few of them. The colorful Mayan culture was abundant with many locals not speaking Spanish but only their native Mayan language. We visited Artesania Maya in San Juan la Laguna – a women’s weaving cooperative where we were able to see how yarn was (and still is) spun, dyed, and woven into the beautiful items in the shop. We walked along the vibrant streets window shopping while enjoying the scents and sounds of the city.

Arco de Santa Catalina – probably the most iconic spot in the city, Arco de Santa Catalina was originally built so that nuns could cross the street below without being seen. While I found the area around the arch to be very crowded and touristy, it’s definitely worth visiting!

Antigua GFC – You can’t go wrong when the mascot of the local soccer team is an avocado! Los Panzas Verdes (The Green Bellies) didn’t disappoint – we enjoyed this local futbol game so much. A short walk from our place, it offered a very local feel with the big energy you’d expect of a Central American team. Good family fun with the expected food, fireworks and fanfare.

The Perks:

Culture rich – The Mayan culture is still very rich and present in Antigua, and I’m sure most of Guatemala. Many women still dress in traditional clothing, tortillas are sold (fresh, 3 times a day) on every block, and you see women walking aroundwith baskets of fruit on their head like it’s no big deal (it’s impressive!!)…it’s just normal life. I loved how different it felt to us. While Europe is across the ocean, it still has a very familiar feel; Antigua was the opposite of that. Being enrolled in school allowed us to learn a lot about the culture. We were surprised to learn that most homes in the area don’t have hot water, living rooms are not a normal room in a house, and that many families still do laundry manually in a pila (see photo above – found in our rental). On our way to Pacaya, we saw a common laundry spot with a crowd of women working together among piles of vibrantly-colored wet laundry and playing children. The simplicity was beautiful…but it also made me very grateful for our washing machine!

People – Over the course of the month there, we got to know not only our teachers, but became familiar with the women serving food at school, the people working at the corner store near our home, and the same people we’d pass every day on our walk to school. We felt much more a part of a community here than we did in any other spot so far and that was because of the people.

Geography – Like the difference in culture, the landscape was new to us as well. Instead of mountains like in Vermont, we were surrounded by volcanoes! This probably makes no sense, but there was a bit of comfort that the volcanoes gave. Acatenango “greeted” us every morning with plumes of smoke and later in the day we’d hear her grumble during our lessons. We enjoyed the view from our AirBnb every night (see above)!

The Not-So Perks:

Water/Plumbing (see Lima) – In short, you can’t drink the water and you can’t flush the toilet paper. It is hard to get used to and not my favorite.

Rabies – There is a stray dog problem in Antigua and while I’m sure most of the dogs do not have rabies, it is still present in the area. Jay got bitten on the leg by a street dog (unprovoked – it came up behind him after we passed by) one night. It was not a dog that we knew or recognized, so there was no choice but to make sure he was treated for rabies exposure. Since it was later in the day, the free clinic was closed (once we finally found it), so we spent a couple hours and $$$ at a hospital for his first dose. After some research and speaking with a friend that’s a physician, we decided it was important Jay get the immunoglobulin vaccine. Since it is common for the local population to get vaccinated preventatively for rabies, the immunoglobulin ($$$$) was not available anywhere in the country. Jay ended up flying overnight to an ER in Houston to get it (which is why he didn’t make it to Lake Atitlan with us that first night) and back the next day. He had to get the second shot in the series while at the lake (the free clinic wouldn’t give it to him so more $$$), the third back in Antigua (free!), and the fourth once we were back in the states (not free). It was an expensive, unexpected experience that we will never forget.

Challenging place to walk – With Antigua being a Unesco site, there are strict regulations in place to preserve every quirky thing about it. While I fully appreciate that and loved the look of the cobblestone streets, they were very hard to walk or drive on. Picture cobblestones of Europe and then pretend there was a giant earthquake that messed them all up (that’s probably in fact a factor). It’s not surprising the state of many vehicles that drive on these streets as anyone’s suspension is pretty much doomed after driving here. The sidewalks are similar. Ten to 12″ above the road and very narrow, we had to walk in a single file line to school every day. Giant holes where utility access covers used to be, broken off chunks of concrete, and due to the stray dog issue, a significant amount of poop make walking on the sidewalks quite the adventure. This would in no way be a reason not to visit Antigua, but if you are handicapped or in a wheelchair, you would unfortunately have to be prepared for some significant challenges. Final note: a ride in a tuk-tuk in Antigua is a riot! Edward and I took one after visiting the San Francisco ruins and we giggled the whole time. As long as your back can handle the bumps, it’s quite the ride!

Wrap It Up Amie:

Antigua, Guatemala is one of my most favorite experiences of this whole trip. The color, the people, the volcanoes, the wide variety of foods, and the opportunities to explore outside of the city altogether makes it a place that I would highly recommend and definitely go back to!

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