Antigua to Panama

Antigua Festival City

We started our last day of the trip with a late breakfast at a cafe near the hotel. Antigua is just row upon row of cobbled streets with relatively basic front entrances that lead to the most gorgeous cobbled court yards....entrances can certainly be deceptive. We then met some of our depleted group who mentioned a bread festival in the main square.

For lunch we walked up to this and had a sandwich. The fair was fun, with entertainers as well as bread of all derivatives being sold on the stalls.

We don't know if we hit Antigua at the right time or if there is always something happening here. Yesterday as well as the evening Christmas procession, there had been marching bands throughout the day. Then today as we left a pub the roads were closed for a religious (catholic we imagine) procession. With statues of the holy family being carried with bands and the congregation following. We think it was for the first Sunday of advent. As with everything we'd seen the roads we're closed to allow the procession. Random firecrackers go off from about 6am to late so always noise somewhere.

With the volcano walks, it meant only 4 of us went for tea tonight but still nice. In fact it was the 4 oldies, with the Karen the youngest!

Taxi for the travellers

In the morning we shared a taxi to the airport and set off for Panama. The airport at Guatemala City was amazingly calm and easy to get through. When we arrived in Panama it was slightly more confusing as we arrived at terminal one, but Copa Airlines are based in terminal 2, so we had a long walk to go through customs. When we got to baggage reclaim there was nothing about our flight luckily, before too much panic we asked someone and they pointed us to the right carousel and our luggage arrived immediately.

Arriving into Panama city, wow what a change from what we've been used to! It felt like a proper big city. On the way in we noticed houses with 2 stories. As soon as we hit the city it was high rises. Completely different to where we have been in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.

We found a Cuban restaurant near the hotel for tea. Lovely food and drink. We were the only people in with about 7 waiters. On the stroke of 7pm we asked for the happy hour offer but we're told it had finished at 6.59pm. I could feel the TripAdvisor review writing itself!

It's goodbye from Belize and goodbye from Guatemala

We both loved Belize ang Guatemala with Caye Caulker and Antigua being particularly beautiful places to stay. We're unlikely ever to return but would definitely recommend these two as places worth visiting. Friendly people, great food and places and top value. More on Panama to follow....