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Shopping Antigua Guatemala
3 Reviews If you go to Antigua, Guatemala, do not hesitate in buying some indian handcrafts. It is amazing how racist mexican population is. Despite our indian roots, we are taught since we are children, to...
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Cathedrals & Cloisters Antigua Guatemala
10 Reviews The cathedral located at the east side of the Parque central dates from 1680 after the first one was demolished a few years before. It's certainly not the most beautifull church in town, but it's...
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Santiago de Los Caballeros Antigua Guatemala
3 Reviews Antigua at its height was a very powerful and important city. Spain divided its conquests in the New World into three sections, and the part we now call Central America was all governed from the...
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Colonial Architecture Antigua Guatemala
7 Reviews For a nice walk and look at buildings, wander round the streets behind the cathdral on the main square. This is where the nobility had their houses and although you can't go in many of them (some are...
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Ruins Antigua Guatemala
3 Reviews There's many ruins to look at in Antigua Guatemala, it's absolutely fantastic to see the contrast of colors and the rustic of 'em next to newly sprout bouganvilia flowers.... very common in Guatemala!...
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El Parque Antigua Guatemala
2 Reviews Hang out in the central park and just watch the people. The park is full of vendors, locals, daytrippers from Guatamala city and foreigners on weekends. Fooling around with the vendors. Bargaining is...
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Business travellers, policy wonks, and the more than merely curious will find the CIA Guatemala page succinct and informative. COPY and PASTE THIS ADDRESS INTO YOUR BROWSER FOR THE CIA PAGE FOR GUATEMALAhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.htmlCATEGORIES:Maps and geographyPeopleGovernmentEconomyCommunicationsTransportationMilitaryTransnational Issues https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html
There's nowhere to file this fact so here it is:The relationship between mental retardation and iodine has been known for decades. Nearly all countries legislate that salt be iodized. GUATEMALA is one country that DOES NOT IODIZE SALT. Nor does Guatemala import iodized salt.Salt made from seawater is the only source of this important element available to Guatemalans.The discerning tourist will notice -especially in the country's mountainous interior- widespread evidence of retardation.
Before you clamber up a pyramid- Before you get too far up- Take a good look down and soberly consider your ability to get back down.You can see here that the width of the step is maybe 10 cm (about 4 inches)Your view looking up from the bottom is deceiving and you'll discover the view is dizz-ing-ly different when looking down from the top.The Maya bound prisoners of war and tossed them from the summit of the pyramid to their deaths- This photo is from IXIMCHE which is on the Pan American Highway about 20 kilometers east of Solola/Panajachel/Lago Atitlan. See the travelogue on my GUATEMALA home page.
We quickly developed a taste for the local beers. One, Gallo, is a light easy-drinking lager that went down very well with spicy food and in the hotter weather. But we liked Moza, made by the same brewery, even more – a dark beer (“cerveza oscura”) with bags of flavour but not too intense for lunch-time drinking. It gets rave reviews on some websites too, so it seems we are not alone!We sadly never got around however to trying the local “beer cocktail”, Michelada which is a mix of tomato juice, Worcester sauce, Tabasco, salt, pepper and lime juice with beer – a sort of beer-based Bloody Mary, it seems. I saw it on several menus in Antigua, planned to try it sooner or later, then suddenly found we’d moved on to the north of the country and it was no longer, it seemed on offer (or at least not in Tikal’s Jungle Lodge, where we stayed). Something to go back for ...
The colourful costumes and lively street scenes are not only a source of fascination but will also inspire you to want to take innumerable photos – or at least they did me. Bear in mind though that not everyone wants to be photographed just because of their interesting outfit – after all what fascinates us is just normal to them. Your options are:1. ask nicely and if refused walk away2. ask nicely and offer a small tip, or if your subject is selling handicrafts, make a small purchase in return for the photo3. photograph from behind, as the costumes can look just as good that way (see the photo in my “Carrying the baby” Local Customs tip for an example)4. use a good zoom and look for opportunities to take candid shotsI admit I did all three, and for option 4 I found the best chances came when people were absorbed in another activity, usually commercial – either selling their crafts to...
As we only had two weeks available in which to see something of both Guatemala and Belize we decided to pre-book accommodation and transfers rather than spend valuable holiday time making arrangements on the ground. OK it can cost more that way, but at least we would know for sure what our costs were going to be (apart from the inevitable shopping and even more inevitable drinking!)Through UK-based Journey Latin America we were able to access the services of tour agency STP in Guatemala, and we were so pleased with everything they did for us. If we return to the country we will certainly use them again, and will book directly with them. In fact I would say that STP were probably the best local tour company we've dealt with during many years of travelling. All their representatives were polite, friendly, informative and couldn't do enough to help. They had helpfully changed our Lake...
Guatemala is a land of volcanoes, at least in the south, where the Guatemalan Highlands form part of the Ring of Fire along the Pacific Rim. Some are extinct, some dormant but some very definitely active. In May of this year Pacaya erupted, killing at least two people, injuring more than 50, and covering parts of Guatemala City in ash up to 7cm (2.7in) deep. Although we didn’t experience anything that dramatic (thankfully) we did see Fuego, near Antigua, puffing away quite vigorously at times – this photo was taken from the road to the north of the city. When not posing a threat, Guatemala’s volcanoes are beautiful additions to the landscape. You will see three of them encircling the old city of Antigua, offering tantalising glimpses from almost any street corner (see photo two), and another three standing guard over Lake Atitlàn (photo three). Antigua’s threesome are Acatenango, Agua...
The unit of currency is the Quetzal, plural Quetzales. When we were there (November 2010) the exchange rate was roughly 10 Quetzales to £1, making quick calculations about costs very easy for us. However taking sterling isn’t a good idea as few places will change it. Indeed, one of our local guides asked if we would do him the favour of changing some pounds he’d been given as a tip by previous British clients into Quetzales as he hadn’t been able to do so (we were happy to oblige, simply withdrawing some Quetzales at an ATM and bringing the sterling home with us).It’s better instead to take US dollars. They are easy to exchange, and many places that cater to tourists will accept them as an alternative to Quetzales, although at a rough and ready exchange rate. In Antigua we changed money in a bank on the Playa Union, in Panajachel we used the exchange facility in one of the small shops on...
My recommendation would be that you study Spanish in the city of Quetzaltenango rather than Antigua. Quetzaltenango or Xela (as it is known locally) is a great place to study, a lot less touristy than Antigua, and much more 'real Guatemala'. It's much cheaper to study in Xela and they say that Guatemala in general is one of the cheapest places to study Spanish, so great if you are on a budget.I have studied in both cities but much prefer Xela. In Xela I studied at Utatlan, a smallish Spanish school right in the center of town (http://www.xelapages.com/utatlan) I totally loved it, I had great teachers, and we did loads of other great activities in the afternoons and weekends like hikes and visits to other towns and villages.Quetzaltenango is a city of 200,000 people and is very diverse, there are a lot of things to do and you can travel to some other, equally beautiful, areas of the...
Fellow Travelers,There is no doubt that Guatemala is a very rich country in history, traditions and arts. In October 2009 I traveled to Antigua, Tikal, Chichicastenango and other places. In all you can find all sorts of insteresting things to enjoy.Something you may not like however, is the very "inflated" fees the visitor has to pay to visit some of the sites and museums. In some instances up to 10 or more times the fees pay by the locals. These may not bother many people, and in many cases when you travel in organized tours, you may not even notice them. But the independent traveler will certainly be aware of them. It is understandable that some benefit should be obtained from the visitors, but the tourists should be "squeezed" in such ways.The fact that these differences exist is annoying enough and the excessive amounts only agravate them. I wish these small bothersome details did...
Palacio de Dona Leonor Antigua Guatemala
6 Reviews and 42 Opinions On a business trip we stayed at the Palace Hotel Dona Leonor. I really liked the decoration of the...
Jungle Lodge Parque Nacional Tikal
4 Reviews and 154 Opinions We stayed two nights here, choosing it because of its nearness to the ruins. The plan was to be able...
Barcelo Premium Guatemala City Guatemala City
1 Review and 198 Opinions Nice hotel in a comfortable safe neighborhood in Zone 9. An easy walk to the Los Procures Mall and...
Reviews and photos of Guatemala attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Guatemala sightseeing.
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Q: My husband and I want to go to Guatemala for 5 weeks starting the last week of March 2012. We had planned to travel all over and...
A: I have two good friends that travel to Guatemala frequently. One supports an orphanage, the other does general social work with kids in the area. Both find the...
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