54. La Antigua, Guatemala

As the name suggests, this city is old. Like 1500s old. It used to be the capital of Guatemala until a couple of earthquakes hit. After the second or third, they changed it to Guatemala City, which is less than 30 miles away, so I don't fully understand the logic. Anyway, when the moved they just left the ruins so the city is full of partially crumbly buildings, mostly churches, cathedrals and convents. There are so many that after awhile, we're like oh, hey, look, another crumbly old building and we keep walking.



The streets are uneven cobblestone. Cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks and buses bounce down super narrow streets. When it rains, the streets fill up with muddy water and you have to be careful to not get splashed. The city buses are old school buses, fantastically colored with the guy that collects the money hanging out the door yelling the route. Guate. Guate. Guate. To Guatemala City.



I don't love it here. It has a bit of a seedy feel to it. It's very touristy and because of that it's expensive. What I do love, though, are the indiginous little girls. We've seen so many in San Cristobal and here that you just want to take home, give a bath and a hot meal. We haven't been able to take any of their photos, but the Mr snuck this one this morning as she was walking away. I was writing down phrases for Yoda to translate for us.