A walk through Guatemala's former capital city :) (Day 189 of the world trip)

03/11/2020

Last night, Jonas got into a conversation with another guest instead of our hosts^^

The gentleman is probably 70+ years old and a true anarchist, as he calls himself. He does a lot of research on the internet and comes across some things that he believes are covert and secret operations. He told us that he had discovered that there have been more and more earthquakes between southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala for about three months now, and that, as he believes, they are preparations for a new "Panama Canal." He added that there are only a few months left to prevent a huge catastrophe before the landmass between the three countries cracks open... Let's see :D So, he has a lot to criticize, most of which may be good and important things, but I felt like he was getting a little too caught up in it.

He doesn't even trust regular toothpaste anymore because it's supposedly poisoned, and he claims that he has never paid taxes because it is actually "voluntary" and nobody knows that :P

Jonas couldn't find a way out of the conversation, and when I joined in, we continued chatting until dinner was served.

The "dinner" consisted of half a corn cob, two lettuce leaves, one egg, and three or four spinach leaves in onion sauce.

The family here lives very simply and apparently very frugally ;-) But still, after our whole day on our feet, we had expected a little more from the homemade dinner :D Well, the selection was maybe okay, but the quantity was smaller than the free appetizer salad at our Greek restaurant :(

Pretty hungry, we went back to the room, where I saw Jonas hangry for the first time :D :D

We considered walking the half hour into town to have a real meal at a restaurant for only a slightly higher price, but it was late, we were tired, so we just had a few slices of bread and then went to bed for a well-deserved sleep^^

This morning, we had the last four slices of bread and half a banana each before doing a bit of computer stuff and then heading out into the city :)

Antigua is the former capital of Guatemala, and as mentioned yesterday, it is surrounded by several volcanoes. The city center itself is also worth seeing because the houses are colorful again and everything is built in colonial style.

Churches dominate the cityscape, and there are also several monasteries here, some of which are still in ruins and can be visited <3

We created our own "city tour" based on interesting points and spent the following hours admiring the beautiful buildings.

We spent the longest time at the Iglesia de San Francisco, where a Franciscan order used to be located, and today the remains of Saint San Pedro are there, who had worked here in Antigua for children and the poor.

We didn't actually visit the church, which is mostly intact, but only the ruins of the monastery and the museum of San Pedro himself.

Especially the ruins were really cool with the garden and yeah... Since it was almost noon, we even enjoyed our lunch there :)

After this visit, we passed by the bouldering hall, which we wanted to visit in the afternoon, and then walked across the city, passing several churches, the main square, and the famous arch, but we only saw everything from the outside^^

After a total of two or three hours, we were already done with the visit to the small town, which has just under 34,000 inhabitants. Even fewer than my hometown! :D :D

We bought fresh mangoes at the street corner and then went back to the hostel, where we waited until 3:00 PM because that's when the bouldering hall opens ;-)

Oh yeah - before that, we booked a tour for tomorrow to one of the volcanoes, for which we have to be in the city at 6:00 AM (so we have to wake up at 5:00 AM at the latest :O :D). When we entered the tour office (which is the same one we were kicked out of yesterday morning), we ran into the two New Zealand girls from Flores :D :D What a coincidence!

And then, when we came back to the hostel, we met the two Turks here, with whom we had gone through the border crossing from Mexico to Belize together :O

Central America is really small among backpackers, isn't it?^^

Did I mention that we met the two Germans in Tikal, with whom we shared the hostel in Hopkins??

That's a lot of coincidences all at once :D

Well. In the afternoon, we went bouldering as I said :)

The hall is quite small, and I asked cautiously if there would be something for beginners. The employee assured me that this was the case, so I decided that I wouldn't just watch but also try a bit myself ;-)

The difficulties ranged from V0 to V8, and even though I started with V0, I never managed to complete the routes :(

Jonas, who is much better than me, had difficulties with some V1 routes, but then worked his way up to V2 over time^^

So, the difficulty level was much higher than it appears in the rating. The employee, who apparently is the owner and also sets the routes himself, comes from the outdoor area and at the end of the conversation, he even announced that he doesn't know any other bouldering halls, so he has no comparison ;-)

I suppose that if you're as good as he is, you don't have a good sense of what moves beginners can handle^^

We'll probably go there again, but I'll probably just watch :p

After bouldering, we went to a super cool restaurant where you can order bowls that consist of several layers, like a sub sandwich.

There are options for a base like vegetable noodles, basmati rice, or quinoa. Then there's a vegetable filling, a protein filling, a salsa or pesto, and then an "extra" in the form of nuts or seeds.

There are ready-made suggestions for a bowl, or you can put it together yourself, and yeah. We were thrilled!!! <33

The bowl is small but quite filling, and they serve free water, and it's so healthy, delicious, and above all nutritious because it covers all the nutrient groups. I think we've found our restaurant for the rest of the week :D

Because with the combination options, you can have something different every day and really have fun with it^^

Now we're back at the hostel, and tomorrow we have to get up early. We bought bread, which strangely cost 40 Quetzals (yesterday it was only 12.50), and now we're afraid that it might be cake instead of bread :D :D

That will be funny when everyone takes out their sandwiches and we're eating cake :p :D