My trip from New Jersey to Guatemala was rather uneventful. Plane travel itself has become just a hassle rather than an adventure, and when you can do a trip entirely within one day the travel doesn't even seem that long anymore. In this case just over ten hours from the when my first flight took off in JFK to when my second one landed in Guatemala City. I flew both legs on COPA, a Panamanian airline, so had a layover of about two hours in Panama City, an airport I was in once before in 1995 on my way to and back from Ecuador, my first developing country travel destination. To think that was just over twenty years ago – Wow!

I booked an inexpensive hotel room at a place called Hostal Los Volcanes, literally within walking distance of the entrance to Guatemala City’s international airport . After clearing immigration and customs, though, I decided spending the equivalent of $6 on a taxi was a worthwhile investment around midnight given Guatemala City’s reputation for crime.

I the morning I actually did walk the five blocks or so back to the airport and lucked out in that there was a shuttle van leaving almost immediately on the one hour trip to Antigua. My fellow passengers were a stereotypical assortment of Gringo travelers in Latin America including an older couple who spends several months in Antigua each winter, an artist looking for studio space in Antigua, a young woman planning to study Spanish in Antigua, and two college students from California volunteering on an engineering project with and NGO in a nearby village.

I arrived in Antigua about a day and half before my volcano hiking tour with KE Adventure Travel was to begin to give myself some time to relax and get acquainted with a town that’s one of the most popular in Latin America with travelers . I arrived in Antigua on Friday morning and spent most of the day and Saturday checking out the town. I was happy I got in early to see some of Antigua’s sights because the "group walking tour" of Antigua mentioned in the tour itinerary for Sunday mostly involved the local guides taking us to their agency’s shop and then pointing out the location of some ATMs where we could withdraw Guatemalan currency.

The first official full day of the tour involved a couple long group meals at restaurants picked by the guides, one of my less favored aspects of group travel since restaurants in developing countries can rarely accommodate groups of (in this case) thirteen passengers without messing at least a few peoples’ meals or timing the food so that one person is finished with their meal before those of others have even arrived. It seems like main courses for quite a few of the meals on this trip are included, so it makes sense to stick with the group, especially since the local tour operator discourages eating at unapproved restaurants because of the risk of getting sick from the food and having diarrhea on the trail on hiking days. I think it’s a bit of overkill since I almost never have an issue with getting sick from food when I’m travelling.

Well, it looks like I’m the only single passenger who did not pay a single supplement to have his own room. That means I get a room to myself without having paid extra for it . WoooHooo! It’s a strategy that seems to work. I had the exact same experience on my last group trip in the Balkans last summer. And while I had been scared at the prospect of climbing so many steep mountains with a group of people, seeing the rest of the group completely changed things. Most people in the group are significantly older than I am, and one guy close to my age is a smoker with a gut. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about everyone smokin’ me on the trail.

I’d say that Antigua well deserves its popularity with tourists and its UNESCO World Heritage Site status for its attractive architecture and pleasant location surrounded by several towering volcanoes, the most prominent of which is the hulking mass of Volcan Agua a few miles directly south. Antigua’s historical claim to fame is that it was Guatemala’s original capital and one of the main cities in Central America during Spanish colonial times. The area, however, is very prone to earthquakes and after one of the most destructive earthquakes in 1773 the capital was moved to Guatemala City . Antigua declined to a fraction of its former size and entered a long slumber which contributes to its current museum like state.

The current town is still only about 10 blocks by 10 blocks with some outlying colonias. Antigua’s town center is charmingly antique with almost no modern buildings or buildings more than two stories tall. As is quite typical of Spanish colonial cities, most of the facades that line the cobblestone streets are quite plain, with life focused on interior courtyards that include fine architecture and beautiful gardens. With an altitude of around 5,000 feet, Antigua is one of those low-latitude, high-altitude places of “eternal spring” with a comfortable climate rather than tropical heat. The daytime temperature was mostly in the low to mid-70s during my visit with slightly chilly nights that were great for sleeping.

I found that there’s not too much in the way of sights in Antigua itself unless you’re interested in the ruins of old churches, since most of the churches destroyed in 1773 were not fully repaired after Antigua began its long decline. Foreigners go to Antigua more to use it as a base for adventure sports in the surrounding countryside, to use as a second home during retirement, or to study Spanish since it has one of the densest concentrations in the Americas of schools geared toward teaching Gringos Spanish. I suspect I’d go a little crazy if I were going to spend an extended amount of time in such a quiet town, but there’s no shortage of restaurants serving local and international cuisine, bars of all types, and even a good wine bar.