Antigua City Tour

This morning, we had a leisurely breakfast inside the walls of our quiet little 16th century monastery hotel, and then were off for our half-day tour of Antigua. The town where we are staying was founded in the mid-1500s and has quite the colonial charm. Cobblestone roads around an old square, which has a cathedral on one side, is the typical setup for towns like these, and Antigua is no exception. We started our town in the city center in the plaza grande. In the middle of the square was a fountain with several mermaids lactating water.






After talking about the history of the town and the buildings surrounding the square, we made our way to the municipal building where we talked about the social structure of Guatemala and other stuff, while having an amazing view of the main cathedral and plaza area.






After that, we walked all around town and very quickly felt the town getting crowded by hundreds and hundreds of people wearing stickers. We soon realized that a Celebrity cruise ship had docked in Guatemala and 10 groups of their passengers had descended upon the town. We visited the back, ruined part of the cathedral.



Afterwards, we continued walking, visiting a jade processing factory and finally ending at our hotel, which is also a museum. After the tour, we decided to go shopping around town and ton check out more of the town that we didn't see while on the walking tour. We were looking specifically for the famous yellow arches of the town, and eventually found them, and more.















Just a gorgeous town, and a great day visit most of it's beautiful sites. Tomorrow it's on to Chichi, the largest market in Guatemala for shopping!




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Location:Antigua, Guatemala