Trust me, I'm A Londoner...

Rather than head back to the gorgeous Lake Atitlan, we thought we should get our asses in gear and headed straight for Antigua, the old capital before a big earthquake destroyed much of the city and they moved it a whole 50km down the road !

Talking of distances, we had a whopping 60km as the crow flies to travel... and Google says 2.5 hours! As it happens it was an easy drive down the Pan-American highway, and barely a tope (or tomulo as they are now called) in sight. On the way into town we called into the badly named Agua Caliente, which we found to be barely lukewarm let alone hot.

We got to Antigua, and parked up at the Tourist Police place. It might sound a bit weird but it's FREE camping and it's actually a lovely tree covered garden... plus the security is amazing! Also we ran into a lovely Bulgarian couple we first met many months before back up in Mexico, and it was really nice to chill out with them and their home schooled kids.

The town itself is a lovely old colonial place, with cobbled streets everywhere and loads of collapsing churches. It's loomed over by the massive Volcan Agua, which seems to get into very photo you take.

It's pretty touristy, which we haven't seen much of and we would normally avoid, but after so long on the road we are absolutely loving it. In the first 48 hours I think we frequented 2 Irish bars and an authentic English pub (The Londoner, run by full on cockney Martin from Rotherhithe).

We somehow blew through the 5 days we are allowed to stay at the Tourist Police place but just milling around town and enjoying the perfect climate (~1,500m).Read more