I took the relatively simple and cheap 45 minute flight from Flores to Guatemala City early in the morning. Most backpackers opt for the brutal 10 hour shuttle but in all honestly the flight was only about $30 more so I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t do that. Maybe I got the flight on a cheap day? Not sure, but time is money. One girl I met called me a ‘fake backpacker’ for taking the flight lol.
Antigua is a charming colonial city in Guatemala and is basically the backpacker hub for Guatemala. Unfortunately there are no airports here, the nearest being Guatemala City, the capital. Guatemala City is considered fairly unsafe with not much to do, so most backpackers , even fake ones, hop on a shuttle to Antigua upon landing which is about an hour away.
I arrived to my hostel at about 5pm and quickly sorted myself out as Antigua FC, the local football team here that plays in Guatemalas highest division, were playing. I walked to the stadium and got a home playing shirt and ticket to the match for about 20AUD. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going into this game, on one end, this is the highest division of football you can watch in Guatemala, but on the other end… this is Guatemala… a national team ranking of 108th and a team that has never qualified for a world cup.
The game was fun with Antigua coming away 3-0 victors. I’d say the quality was probably a good level NPL game, maybe slightly better.
Days 31-32 were mostly spent eating and walking around the different sites of Antigua. There is an abundance of nice rooftop terraces where you can see the different volcanoes and so many different food options. I walked to a nice lookout spot called ‘Hill of the Cross’ and had lunch there.
Kind of random but the McDonalds and Starbucks here are literally the nicest looking places I’ve ever seen. I heard from someone at the hostel that in order for Maccas to have a store in Antigua it had to ‘fit it’ with the colonial style look of Antigua and thats why its so nice. Look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVmAJtW2Vb8&ab_channel=BrentTimm
A fairly relaxing but enjoyable few days as I got ready to climb Volcano Acatenango.
Wow!😍