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Showing posts with label Antigua. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Antigua. Show all posts

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Antigua (Guatemala) - Finding the 'Melbourne of Central America'

ANTIGUA (GUATEMALA)
16 February - 18 February 2017

Guatemala imbued me with a sense of unease and fear. Inoculated with the biases of their ardent neighbours, the answer to the initial question of ‘where we’d be travelling next’, (Guatemala), would often be met with the response, ‘Cuidado, Guatemala es muy peligroso’. Admittedly this related more to the capital Guatemala city than anywhere else in the country, but you know what they say about mud, it sticks.

Arriving in Antigua after the dusk, we were in the ‘witching hours’. It’s the term I associate with arrival at a new destination when all things you believe to be sinister about a place are hidden in a cloak of darkness, just waiting to threaten and harm.


Antigua - Guatemala

Antigua - Guatemala

Antigua - Guatemala

Taco time! Getting close to Mexico, taking in a taco treat - Antigua - Guatemala


So what is Antigua really about?

Cobblestone lined streets, beautifully vibrant and coloured colonial buildings, ancient Spanish baroque style architecture whose unique character and charm has of course prompted this city to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Then, when you get to accepting the beauty of the city itself you discover a nightlife like no other we encountered in Central America. There’s a bar scene here that reminds me of both the quality and style of Melbourne, speakeasies that could be picked up and translated to any other capital in the world. Great restaurants and casual eateries. Here was yet another Central American surprise packet of gravity.


The bars in this town are seriously cool - speakEASAAAY - Antigua - Guatemala

Antigua - Guatemala


Antigua - Guatemala

Antigua - Guatemala



We have you surrounded

If this city were the main protagonist in a hold-up then it would be in trouble. This gorgeous little town is dwarfed by the main players in the landscape, Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes in Central America and constantly billowing smoke from days of internalised frustration can be viewed from a park at Cerro de La Cruz.  Fuego probably occupies a space in every second Instagram photo of this great city, but hey, you play to your strengths.


Antigua - Guatemala

Antigua - Guatemala

Antigua - Guatemala


The lesson learned

Biases, fear and anxiety, they’re constructs of the mind. Fear is what you allow yourself to feel. Inga and I have travelled all over the world and have probably been more fearful and at risk in our home environments than any foreign city we’ve been in. I believe more through good management and understanding we’ve not deliberately placed ourselves in situations where we could become victims. I think as a traveller once you become conscious of this is when you really can immerse yourself in a place and enjoy it.  It’s also the point in time that you discover that more the most part, ‘danger’ is just a relative concept.