Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
book,
Antigua Guatemala: The City and its Heritage,
is well worth picking up: it has ex-
tensive descriptions of all the monuments and neatly encapsulates the history and fiestas.
Bell and company also do tours to the nearby villages of San Antonio Aguas Calientes
and San Andrés Itzapa to investigate weaving workshops and Maya shrines, respectively.
der 13yr Q80/55; 9am-6pm)
runs a pseudo streetcar around town, hitting all the key sites from
Cerro de la Cruz to Parque Central.
As Green As It Gets (
Click here
)
offers tours of coffee plantations around San Miguel
Escobar, a suburb of Ciudad Vieja, with local growers demonstrating cultivation, harvest-
ing and processing techniques. Tours (Q200 per person) depart daily at 9am and 2pm from
the central plaza of San Miguel Escobar.
Agencies also offer tours to more distant places, including Tikal, the Cobán area,
Monterrico, Chichicastenango and Lago de Atitlán. Two-day trips to Tikal, flying from
Guatemala City to Flores and back, start at Q3000 per person. Two-day land tours to
Copán (some including Quiriguá and Río Dulce) run around Q1140 per person.
CATours (
Click here
)
offers two-day motorbike tours to Lago de Atitlán or Monterrico
from Q1175.
Festivals & Events
The most exciting time to be in Antigua is
Semana Santa
(Easter), when hundreds of de-
votees garbed in deep purple robes bear revered icons from their churches in daily street
processions in remembrance of Christ's crucifixion and the events surrounding it. Dense
clouds of incense envelop the parades and the streets are covered in elaborate
alfombras
(carpets) of colored sawdust and flower petals. These fragile works of art are destroyed as
the processions shuffle over them but are re-created each morning for another day of
parades.
The fervor and the crowds peak on Good Friday, when an early-morning procession de-
parts from La Merced (
Click here
)
, and a late afternoon one leaves from the Escuela de
Cristo. There may also be an enactment of the crucifixion in Parque Central. Have iron-
clad Antigua room reservations well in advance of Semana Santa, or plan to stay in
Guatemala City or elsewhere and commute to the festivities.
Processions,
velaciones
(vigils) and other events actually go on every weekend through
Lent, the 40-day period prior to Semana Santa. Antigua's tourist office has schedules of
