The View from the Roof Garden of My Hotel

My 2019 vacation in Guatemala started out on a promising note. Instead of staying in Guatemala City, I immediately took a van to Antigua Guatemala, a beautiful city a scant thirty minutes from the capital that is surrounded by active volcanoes and the ruins of churches which collapsed during the disastrous 18th century, which required the city to move several times in its history:

• The San Miguel Earthquake of 1717
• The San Casimiro Earthquake of 1751
• The Santa Marta Earthquake of 1773

When I was in Antigua in January 2019, I spent most of my time visiting ruined churches.

Ruined Church with Collapsed Roof

In the end, I got as much fun from visiting the ruins of Spanish Catholicism as I did the Maya cities like Copán in Honduras, and Quiriguá and Tikál in Guatemala’s Petén jungle.

Although Guatemala is not known for its cuisine, the food I had was uniformly good, particularly the beans. I wouldn’t mind going again, if that is in the cards for me.