Our last days

We have been to a few very cool places this week. We went to a very good restaurant that had real Guatamalan food. La Fonda de Calle Real was so good we went there twice and enjoyed it both times. Another night we went to a young people's bar scene, El Barrio, expecting to watch the local soccer game. They are known for their sports viewing but they were having karaoke and no one was interested in the game. We left and went to Reillys to watch the first half of the game. The other cool place was a cocktail bar, Ulew meaning land in Mayan. Ulew is actually a speakeasy you enter through a British phonebooth at the Antigua beer company. If you don't know about it, you wouldn't find it, as it is hidden. They didn't have a menu but you tell them what you like and they will make a cocktail just for you. The bartenders spoke English and were a lot of fun. It was a very cool place.

Most of the hiking around here involves climbing volcanoes and many of them are hard, but after some searching we found a hike up Agua volcano that was all uphill but not too difficult. Corazon de Agua Park was about 2.5 miles and changed altitude of 1500 feet. It led to the De Agua Parque, an ecological park that was stunningly beautiful. There were great views of sprawling Guatamala City. They had picnic areas, lookout platforms, a swing, camping areas and just nice grassy areas. We had stopped at one of our favorite pastry places (Santa Clara) and got something for lunch that we ate at the park. We rode a chicken bus back into Antigua. Chicken busses are the locals means of transportation. They are old school buses that the people here have fixed up and painted wild colors. The colors often depict the town they travel to. They get their name because back in the day people used them to get to the market and they brought their chickens to sell so the chickens squawked on the buses, hence the name. People still use them to bring their goods to the market, just not live chickens.

There is another brewery that is about a 20 minute drive outside of Antigua - Cerveceria 14. We went there after our hike. They have large spacious grounds, music nightly, and often hold music festivals there. We had an appetizer, provided by Annie and Felix, with our beer while we just enjoyed being in the wonderful weather and watching the sunset.

The weather on our last day here was gorgeous. We spent time in the parks, walked the streets, and spent time on our rooftop enjoying both coffee and wine while watching fuego erupt and just enjoyed everything about this city.Læs mere