Travel Guide

By deciding to live in Antigua, Guatemala I sometimes feel like a successful businessman dating a gorgeous but dim supermodel. I know I haven’t found a soulmate, but for the moment I am not sure I care - there are times in your life when all you want is to wake up to something beautiful.

Antigua is VERY beautiful. A jewel of Spanish colonial design, walking its cobbled streets is an unfailing delight. The essence of Antigua’s beauty is its ability to bend space and time - traces of 20th century architecture are hard to find in this city, making it a sedate refuge from the frenetic lifestyles of modernity.

There is a well preserved dignity about the in-numerable ruins throughout the city. These ruins possess an almost photographic ability to freeze individual moments of unimaginable terror. The empty shells of these buildings are reminders of the awesome natural powers that surround Antigua.

In 1543 the Spanish felt they had found a perfect spot to found a new capital for their Central American possessions - a place of great beauty that was 4,500 feet above sea level, surrounded by forest and nestled between three volcanoes. However, a high price has been exacted for Antigua’s impossibly beautiful location, with the city regularly reminded of the tectonic fault-lines just beneath its surface with earthquakes such as the major cataclysm of 1773 (which ended Antigua’s 230 year stint as the nation’s capital) and subsequent, lesser but still destructive quakes like that of 1976.

That the people of Antigua survived the terrible challenges of nature to continually rebuild and repopulate a vibrant, beautiful and prosperous city is a great tribute to human resilience. So it is odd that there is an air of flimsiness permeating the city. And it is uncomfortable to admit that I contribute to it.

Antigua, because of its delights - food, culture, architecture and surrounding natural beauty - has become an established part of the Gringoverse, that bubble of unreality that floats throughout Latin America, yet remains seemingly untouched by Latin culture. Although many gringos have settled in Antigua and own many of the restaurants, cafes, hostels and other tourist serving businesses, most are here for short term stays of days or weeks. So an air of impermanence and rootlessness imbues almost every part of this city.

I love Antigua and am having fun here - but already feel that for all its delights Antigua will remain a relatively brief, passionate fling. I am still looking for “The One.”

Other postings relating to life in Antigua include:

Don´t Let Me Be Misunderstood - my arrival and early struggles to escape the anglosphere

Ring of Fire - climbing a nearby volcano and engaging in some high-stakes flirting

Neon Bible - floating in the religious currents that flow through Antigua

Ground Beneath Her Feet - encountering some of the people who pass through the Gringoverse