36 Hours in Antigua, Guatemala

For my first visit to Central America, I would be joining a 17-day group tour with G Adventures. Our tour started in Antigua, Guatemala, so I spent some time exploring the city on my own beforehand.

Day 1 – Arrival

I arrived in Guatemala City via a flight from Dallas, Texas. Before going through customs, everyone had to fill out an immigration form using a QR code. The form was easy enough to complete once I found the sign with the code. After completing the form, the rest of the customs process was pretty straightforward.

I had booked a private shuttle to Antigua, a small city surrounded by volcanoes, through the G Adventures website. My driver was waiting for me as soon as I exited the airport, and the drive from the chaotic streets of Guatemala City to the much calmer Antigua took about an hour. I arrived at my hostel without incident and then explored the downtown area for a bit.

The beautiful streets of Antigua

The city was full of Spanish colonial-style buildings and had a quaint feel to it. After walking around for awhile I went to El Adobe, a nearby Guatemalan restaurant, for dinner. I had a really good sausage, beans, and rice meal and the waiters were all really friendly. Afterwards, I headed back to the hostel and was entertained by the sound of fireworks going off in every direction. Apparently Guatemalans love fireworks and will light them all the time. Despite the noise, I had an early night in preparation for the next day’s early morning start.

Day 2 – Pacaya Volcano

I had to be ready at 6 AM for my hiking excursion. The driver didn’t arrive until 6:20 which was a little stressful, but soon a group of us were on our way to Pacaya Volcano. As soon as we arrived, there were people selling walking sticks and horse rides. I powered through and decided to complete the hike without help, although half of our group decided to hire horses to take them up the trail.

The hike was difficult for me, especially because of Antigua’s elevation (5,000 feet or 1,500 meters), but I made it through. We gained an additional 1,500 feet (450 meters) in an hour which was quite challenging. During the hike we could see the nearby Fuego Volcano erupting which was super cool! Many travelers choose to hike the more difficult yet rewarding Acatenango trail where you can see Fuego’s lava at nighttime. However, to summit this volcano you hike to 12,800 feet (3,900 meters), which I knew I wasn’t in shape enough to even attempt. If I ever return to Antigua, I’ll give it a try.

Views of Fuego erupting from the Pacaya trail

Pacaya base camp

We arrived to Pacaya’s “base camp” where there was a shop selling lava jewelry and trinkets. There were also dogs everywhere which was funny. We were able to see smoke coming from the top of Pacaya; the last eruption was in 2021, but it’s still prohibited to hike to the summit. Instead, we hiked over rough volcanic rock to a pizza stand that uses heat from the volcano to cook the pizzas. I shared one with two women from Puerto Rico and it was actually pretty good (the pizza cost a ridiculous $35, but not many people can say they’ve had a volcanic pizza!). We shared our leftover scraps with a few of the dogs, then headed back down the volcano which was much easier.

A $35 volcanic pizza

Volcano dogs!

I arrived back at the hostel around noon and spent the afternoon relaxing and chatting with a few travelers that would be on my tour. We had our welcome meeting at an outdoor table where we learned more about what the next 17 days would entail. We then went to La Casa de las Sopas, a Guatemalan soup restaurant, as a group; I had the pepián soup (a Guatemalan favorite) which was delicious! We learned that we had arrived right before a local election, and in Guatemala the sale of alcohol is banned the day before, day of, and day after an election. The waiters did at least let us order beer.

Soup from La Cosa de las Sopas

It was a nice evening getting to meet the group members that I would be spending the next two and a half weeks with! I was sad to be leaving Antigua so soon, but it was the perfect introduction to Central America.