Antigua has been the highlight of my trip to date, for so many reasons. First and foremost it is a stunningly beautiful UNESCO protected city. It's very manageable size makes it easy to get around (although of course I still got completely lost on many occasions). Its cobblestoned streets are filled with gorgeous perfectly restored colonial buildings. And behind each of these huge wooden doors lie some new gem to discover; cafes & restaurants set in beautiful gardens or amazing art galleries.

Location wise it's not too bad either, surrounded by three active volcanoes and a number of interesting little villages, there are lots of opportunities to go trekking or cycling nearby. Or right within the city itself you can climb (10 minutes) up Cerro de la Cruz for great views of the city and its volcanic neighbors.

There are a number of museums from art to chocolate (where you can take classes to make some of the magic stuff yourself) but one of my personal favourites included La Antigua Galeria de Arte with a fantastic collection of art from Guatemala and Central America ranging from paintings, sculptures, ceramics. They had a large collection of work from Rogelio Barrillas when I was there. His work includes beautiful paintings of very large men and women celebrating their voluptuousness; the ladies in ballet tutus etc. - very apt in Guatemala where 28% of people over the age of 15 are considered over weight! (www.lath.com)

Another fantastic place is the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española. It's worth a look for the restoration of the building alone. The center is used to host various cultural activities with a rotating calendar of events and a kids library. However when I went it also had what seemed to be a more permanent exhibition telling the history of Guatemala throughout its civil war (1960-1996). Some very thought provoking images & stories to be found here and for me at least went some way to explain why there is still such a prevalent violent gang culture in some areas- well worth a visit.

With over 30 stunning churches in the 10 blocks squared town you can fill your boots on religious visits. The city is not short of religious festivals either so if you stay long enough you're bound to catch one, the biggest being Semana Santa (Easter week) when Antigua has huge processions with literally thousands of people taking part acting out the scenes from the bible. People from all over the country flock not only for the processions but for the beautiful, intricate carpets of brightly coloured saw dust & flowers on the roads for the processions to walk on.

I happened to be in town on 15th September when Guatemala (along with Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador & Nicaragua) celebrates its independence from Spain back in 1821. The whole weekend was filled with cultural activities with people in traditional dress performing local dances and all sorts of crazy traditions including having teams of people competing to climb up a 20 foot greased pole in the main square- the attempts were very entertaining! The focal point was however the huge parades with the local school's marching bands. It was great to witness one of their festivals and if your dates in Antigua don't happen to include a festival in the city, don't worry every surrounding town has their own feria (festival) with celebrations lasting from 1- 5 days, so you're never short of a hooley!

One excellent feria I went to was in San Miguel Dueñas which has a reputation of being a narco town. I have no idea if this is true or not, however every year a different local 'businessman' foots the bill for the festival which lasts five days, so the town certainly has quite a lot of people who aren't short a bob or two! The festival involves the entire central plaza around the church being filled with stages which have some of the best music groups in Guatemala performing, amusement rides for kids, food stalls & pop up bars. Every night there is a procession to celebrate the patron saint of the town, a mass and a number of houses nominated to host the revelers after the parade providing free food and drinks. The pop up bars are also subsidized as they have the largest selection of tequilas I have ever seen, all at a fraction of the normal cost. I was drinking Patron Café Tequilla for about Q5 (50p) plus amazing aged Tequilas, crème de Tequilas… you name it, it was there (and I was drinking it). The whole festival had quite a nice family atmosphere, with lots of young kids enjoying the festivities which culminated in a firework show at midnight. At this point the families started leaving which I took as my cue to leave too and leave the tequila bars to the professionals i.e. men in full on cowboy gear.

It's not only the traditional festivals that cause a stir in Antigua; people are always looking for a reason to throw a big party. I was only there about a week when the guys from Pappy's Grill restaurant and some French guys who own a human sling shot (what, you mean you don't have one?) decided the fact it was summer was reason enough. So they got some of the bars in town to operate bar stalls, arranged a BBQ, got some volleyball teams together, dusted off the sling shot and we were good to go! They had also promised a swimming pool- however it was more of a large pond and looked to me like it had missed out on the 'dusting off' process so I gave it a wide berth. However others couldn't keep out of the thing, through their own choice or not! Unfortunately it was the only day for weeks that it rained. And when I say rained, it poured solidly for hours. But everyone entered into the spirit and partied on regardless.

I'd decided to pass on the sling shot but then my FOMO (fear of missing out)kicked in and decided I needed to get involved… and the fun began. I got all strapped in, they even decided to film my big adventure, they counted me down 3,2,1…. Nothing. Second attempt…. Nothing. Something was wrong, all the team gathered around chatting in French, pulling at ropes and harnesses and poking at buttons. There was still a large line of people waiting in the rain to have their go so I was the now the main attraction hanging in what was essentially a large baby bouncer! They eventually figured what the problem was and they knew how to fix it. It was only when I saw them attempting to SELLOTAPE the release catch that I freaked out. I was certainly not up for getting hurtled into the air at a rate of knots with sellotape as my security. I was hopped out of that harness faster than the sling shot had promised to fire me! To be fair they then tried something else and got one of their friends in as a guinea pig to prove to me it was all good and I tried again. This time we had lift off, and it was fun- worth all the drama!

The event had only been billed as a daytime event, but no one wanted to leave. Unfortunately mother nature seemed to have the final say as the place was a little far from town and so when the sun set there were no lights around and so left dancing in the dark most people started to take the minibuses back to town. However for a few of us still refusing to leave the ambulance came to our rescue; driving to the DJ box & using its flashing lights as disco lights keeping the party going just a little longer. One of many great days in Antigua!