Atitlan to Antigua to Monterrico
I enjoyed my last few days chillin’ in San Marcos la Laguna but I knew I needed a jump-start and decided to move-on. There was no need to go back to pana to get to Antigua, as I thought when I first arrived. For $8 one can get a shuttle (van) to Antigua. It takes an incredibly beautiful and winding road around the lake. Don’t know if I mentioned it, but sak’cari gives a decent discount for a 1 week stay. Their posted rates for single occupancy of a room, private bath and no tv was $18 per day. I got mine for $13. Like I said, it was a great big, clean place with an awesome view and location (and plenty of hot water).
When I got into Antigua I went to a place I had dinner previously and noticed they had nice rooms around the courtyard of a beautiful colonial building right on the calle del arco (the main street from the square to La Iglesia de la Merced). Posada Asjemenou,,,,with prime real-estate. I asked for and got a big room with shared bathroom (and wi-fi) for $22 – which includes breakfast. A girl working there had told me about these rooms. They do in-suite bathrooms for $29 and I think those have cable-tv. While staying there I heard several people walk in and inquire about prices and they only mentioned the $29 rooms. When I checked in this time I had to remind them ☺ of the others and they were fine with that. I don’t imagine one often has to share the bathroom with an arrangement like that. I was certainly the only one in a room without a bathroom.
I have found that Antigua is an easy place to toot-around for the day. I shopped around for the best shuttle price to Monterrico, a place not too far away on the pacific coast, that had been recommended by several travelers. I’d heard it was mellow during the week and on weekends gets jumping with guat-city weekenders. Prices fall during the week so I thought it would be a good place to chill for several days before I come back to Antigua and plan my launch to tikal. Antigua is a great place to do this stuff because of all the competing travel agencies. One does need to shop around. The agency in Posada Asjemenou quoted me $15 one way to monterrico, the one across the street (not in a hotel but on the main tourist drag) quoted me $12 and the agency I chose, club viajeros nearish The Yellow House Hostal, charged me $10. All the shuttles leave at 8am each day so as far as I know we were comparing apples to apples.
I once again had dinner at Hector’s (the no-name restaurant I mentioned earlier) and tucked myself away to prepare for my trip the next morn. The shuttle trip was uneventful except for the boarding of 4 strange quebecois after me. I was the only one in the van when they arrived and 2 of them insisted on squeezing onto my short bench seat with the other 2 behind them on another bench – leaving 2 empty rows at the back!! About 20 minutes into the trip when it came time to take off my jacket and I didn’t have the room – I took the opportunity to move back ☺.
Tags: antigua, central america, guatemala, guatemala, monterrico, Travel
Peggy Rehm