La Antigua, Guatemala

So eventually we did get to La Antigua Guatemala and it was absolutely stunning. A couple of the local team offered to take us to dinner with another colleague from Honduras. After a 40 minute drive from Guatemala City we arrived at the Santo Domingo convent, inaugurated in 1530, and now a unique hotel and restaurant. Before dinner we went for a short walk through the candle-lit grounds of the convent (below) which, although in ruins, were impressive all the same.

The guidebook I bought at the airport tells me that La Antigua Guatemala was the first planned capital on the American continent and remained the most important city in Central America for the next 200 years. In 1773 a series of earthquakes which lasted months left the city in ruins and in 1776 the Spanish Crown decided that Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción (now Guatemala City) would be the new capital. La Antigua is now a tourist destination with lots of cafes and restaurants but still has many of the beautiful colonial buildings. It’s a gorgeous city and has now been added to the ever-growing ‘places to visit with Anna’ list.

The next day flight to Nicaragua was spectacular as the plane wasn’t flying too high and we were able to see some of the volcanoes that form part of the ring of fire.
More on volcanoes later.