Last day in Antigua, Guatemala

Today we went to our favorite restaurant for breakfast. It has really great music, nice decor and garden area, and great food at bargain prices. We shared granola, yogurt, and fruit, and the español, consisting of 2 fried eggs, hash browns and bacon, cole slaw, whole wheat bread, fresh orange juice and tea included for both. We have lately been avoiding the local cuisine, since we entered Chiapas and Guatemala. Not out of fear of getting sick, but because now that we are on a popular backpacker route (muchos gringos!), there are so many more options for food. We were really getting sick of tacos (and the many different forms of them) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So now we have been eating anything besides Mexican food if possible.

Today we went to a great museum in the nearby suburb opf Antigua called Jocotenango. It was a museum and coffee finca specializing in Guatemalan music and musical instruments, and, since it is also an active coffee plantation, there was an excellent demonstration of the coffee producing process as well. We learned that one coffee tree only produces a pound of roasted coffee per year! We also learned that out of every dollar spent on coffee the consuming country gets nearly 84 cents and the producing country only gets 16 cents!

Afterwards, we walked around a bit and looked at the old abandoned churches that were destroyed in past earthquakes. Antigua was the capital of Guatamala before they moved the capital to Guatamala City in 1776 due to a big one in 1773 shaking things up here.

Today is our last day in beautiful Antigua. Tomorrow we will take the 8-10 hour busride north to Flores, Guatemala, and hit the grand ancient Mayan city of Tikal.

Remember to buy fair trade coffee!

Luke relaxing in our great Posada, only $15 a night.