Pushing Pesos: Grabbing a Bargain in Antigua

Travel tips for Antigua, Guatemala.

There are plenty of hostels in the area but stay at Black Cat hostel. It is $9.00 for a dorm bed but the breakfast included is very, very good!
Watch out for the tax added in the restaurants, try to eat local and grab a menu del dia which is very cheap without the added tax. This comes with a big meal and a drink for around $3.00 each.
Head to the Market, here you can buy all your fruit and vegetables, battery's, blankets, watches and cheap food. Everything and anything! They also have a second hand clothes stall which is so cheap. I found some real vintage designer clothes here for very cheap.
Visit the Artisans Market next to the local market to buy all your presents for home. Haggling is the aim of the game here, the first price will always be too much but if you bargain you will be able to buy a lot more.
The key is just to walk around Antigua, its a lovely city with plenty of little alley ways and courtyards to venture into.

Colonial Antigua - Ducks, Markets and more Vintage

After two border crossings and a flat tire later, we finally arrived to our first destination in Guatemala, Antigua. Antigua is Guatemala's third largest city and is known for its colonial architecture making Antigua a tourist honey pot site. The cobbled roads and the one floor multicoloured houses add to the a certain charm to this Spanish Baroque influenced city. Not to mention that its back drop is a towering Volcano called Volcan de Agua (Meaning Volcano of Water) which makes for a picturesque setting.

Keen to head south to visit the Mayan Ruins of Tikal we only spent one night in Antigua. We spent the day walking around the city then found ourselves in the local market where we got trapped. If you ask me I think it was the best of what the city had to offer, away from the tourist trail we interacted with the locals and experienced the real Antigua.

The local market was bustling, selling everything you could ever possibly want to buy. Knock of converses, knifes, curtains, clothes... anything! You could even by live ducks for food for 10 quetzals which is equivalent to $1.50. Deeper into the market we found lots of second hand clothes stalls much like Masaya Market in Nicaragua and we were in heaven. We stayed there for hours just routing through the piles of clothes and got some great buys.

After than we had a menu del dia near the market which cost $2.50 each. This came with some tortilla maize wrap ( these maize tortillas are eaten widely in Central America) and a lovely sauce and a drink which was a bargain. Also it comes with frijolos which is black beans which is also common.

Passing by the local bus station we took pictures of the many pimped out old school buses all parked in a row. In Nicaragua and Guatemala these are called chicken buses. They are the old yellow school buses from America and they get sold onto Central America where the drivers pimp them out and its almost a competition. Who has got the coolest looking bus.

They pile everyone in these chicken buses, people, luggage and livestock. Its comical being on the chicken bus as they wont leave till the bus is full so in the meantime your sitting there and you get a conveyor belt of people trying to selling you everything and anything, ice cream, medicine, noisy toys, books etc. They come on the bus and leave at the other end, its endless, they just keep coming like a Benny Hill sketch, I can almost here the soundtrack playing as they pass through. Then of course you end up buying crap because your there, bored and waiting and also curious. Just like when your in the Primark que waiting and you end up buying a lip gloss and a pair of socks that you don't even need. Brilliant!

So anyway, we had a lovely time in Antigua albeit short. Here are some pictures ......