Antigua and Western Highlands Features

Antigua and Western Highlands Features

• Antigua, Antigüeno Style
  

  The city packs a plethora of monuments into a compact area, but we recommend savoring the city leisurely, the way locals do. (Don't take our suggestions... read more

• A Bell-Ringing Saint
  

  Guatemala points with pride and reverence to its very own saint, Pedro de San José Betancur (1626-1667), a native of the Canary Islands... read more

• Burning the Devil
  

  The night of each December 7, Guatemalan communities engage in the traditional Quema del Diablo ritual, a symbolic burning of the devil. The... read more

• Something Old, Something New
  

  Antigua's colonial magnificence disappeared in one day in 1773 following a massive earthquake. With the move of the capital to nearby Guatemala... read more

• Antigua's Volcanoes
  

  Four volcanoes make up this region's sector of a seismic spine that runs the width of Guatemala from the Mexican to Salvadoran borders, forming... read more

• All That Glitters
  

  Several jade shops and factories populate the streets east of Antigua's Parque Central. Although Guatemala's best-known gem is extracted in the... read more

• Weaving Culture, Weaving History
  

  It is said that the Mayan goddess Ixchel gave the art of weaving to her people. Today's Mayan descendents still make fervent use of that gift... read more

• I, Rigoberta Menchú... Mostly
  

  In 1992 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Guatemalan writer Rigoberta Menchú, raised in the tiny highland village of San Miguel Uspantán... read more

• The Heroes of Santiago Atitlán
  

  Oklahoma native Father Stanley Rother (1935-1981) arrived as a missionary in Santiago Atitlán in 1968. During his 13 years here, he translated... read more

• Drinking & Smoking with the Saints
  

  Arguably Guatemala's most curious object of veneration is the cigar-smoking, rum-swilling deity Maximón. He is still actively idolized... read more

• Market Days in the Highlands
  

  Believe it or not, highland markets mean more than Thursday and Sunday in Chichicastenango. Most towns hold a market one or two days a week... read more

• Dancing with the Dead
  

  Colorful cemeteries, with their turquoises and pinks, mauves and sky blues, play an integral part in the living fabric of contemporary Guatemalan... read more

• Coffee? Macadamia Nuts?
  

  The northern Las Verapaces is the country's area most culturally and historically tied to coffee, but Guatemala Antigua gets rave reviews as... read more