In May 2017, Escape ATX shared a deal for Austin to Guatemala for $300! I immediately jumped on it. Last weekend I visited Guatemala, specifically Antigua. This small town used to be the capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala (which included most of Central America) in the 1700s and is now UNESCO World Heritage Site. After the peace was signed in the mid 90s, Antigua started to boom with a lot of tourist but continued to maintain it’s small town appeal.
For me, the best way to summarize Antigua is the following: imagine a typical pueblo in Latin America (in Colombia think Villa de Leyva o Salento) mixed with the cosmopolitan vibe of Austin. Cobble stone roads, colonial style housing, park in the middle of the town with the cathedral in front, with high end luxury restaurants, bars with pub food, local craft beer, hole in the wall bars.
I observed three types of foreigners:
1) tourists
2) short term: foreigners coming for volunteering or “figuring what I want to do with life” who come for months and may end up staying for a year or two
3) resident immigrants: foreigners who have been living in Antigua for many years and are owners of a bar or restaurant
Antigua is a bubble within Guatemala. It is not cheap (same prices as in Austin). But it has a charm, a “no sé que” that wants me to come back. I can see myself going back and working from Antigua for a week or two (who would be interested?)
These are some of the places that I visited which I recommend:
Chermol: Argentinean restaurant. Wide variety of local craft beers
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ65dlOnc8M/
The Snug: Small irish pub with live music
Panza Verde: high end restaurant, romantic ambiance. All the food was delicious.
Cafe No Se: The famous Cafe No Se. It’s been featured in NY Time’s “What to do in 36 hours in Antigua Guatemala”. It’s a hole in the wall, mostly full of foreigners. In the back they have the a mescal bar where they only serve Illegal mescal and beer. Music is blues/soul which reminds me of Thursday night at Barberella in Austin
Caoba Farms: an organic farm where they have a farmers market every Saturday with local cusine. During my visit they had an Oktoberfest
Cantina Royal: cool bar
Saberico: Eat in a beautiful garden. Breakfast was delicious.
Whiskey Den: Whisky, why not? There are a bunch of other bars next to this one.
Angie Angie: awesome pizza! Live music. Outside patio is relaxing. On Sunday Pizza is 2×1.