"En route Guatemala"

"09/07/2010"

We spent today meandering around Antigua and trying to keep our costs as low as possible.
Antigua's cobbled streets and pretty houses are somewhat reminiscent of the love affair we had with Copan, although the place is a lot bigger, and in a way a lot more touristy.
Having spent the previous couple of days exploring further afield, we decided to visit the main sights in the city; cathedrals, churches and monuments. As usual, the weather did not oblige, and we were quickly seeking cover (in the vegetarian restaurant) as we waited for the storm to pass.

We had an evening bus back to Guatemala city, just an hours journey, but a bus ride that neither of us were looking forward to, judging by the previous minibus journey's we'd encountered. We were also extremely aware that we were travelling in the evening (i.e. it would be dark, there'd be more traffic, and there was a greater chance of rain).
Complete with the ever traffic and road dodging manoevres, we made it safely into Guatemala City, although the area that the minibus left us was exceptionally run down, and was one that we'd definitely not walked at the start of our trip.

We had a hostel/hotel booked for this leg of the trip, but as had been discovered on numerous points, a booking reference didn't necessarily mean that the hostel actually still existed.
We were releaved to find that the hostel (it was more of a hotel really), materialised and was really quite upmarket considering some of the places we'd been in.
The downside was, that we failed to highlight our low budget and were put in a high end room on the first night, with two double beds - a gorgeous room, and one we would have dearly loved throughout the stay in Guatemala. Having splashed out on this room, we had to make do with the low budget options for the remaining couple of days. It was a good nights sleep, and a lovely lie-in.