Antigua has its fair share of bars and late night venues catering for all different tastes. There are for example, your typical backpacker (or language student) hang outs, including the bar attached to hostel La Terraca; with a great view from the terrace & good happy hour drinks. Or the famous Mono Loco, where on ladies night, ladies drink free until 11pm and then pay Q4 (less than 40p) for any mixed drink, so the place resembles a frat party at 2am regardless of the time you walk in the door. So if this is your thing Antigua certainly has many places to party for cheap until 4am almost any day of the week. I however distinctly remember thinking if this is Antigua- count me out! Fortunately there is much more to Antigua night life. There are many other bars ranging from fine wine bars, restaurant/bars with live salsa bands and more chilled bars.

One of my favourites included Café No Sé; this little gem is made up of 3 connecting rooms, each with their own character. All are dark, smoky (smoking is illegal in public places, but after midnight rules go out the window in many places) with a few scattered candles creating the atmosphere. The first room usually has some type of live music, the last bar is slightly quieter, more for having a chat & a drink, but it is the middle bar that is most famous. You enter through a dwarf sized half door to the 'secret' Mezcal bar.

Mezcal, like Tequilla is an alcohol made from the agave plant. The process and therefore the alcohol are similar, the difference being that Tequilla can only be made from the blue agave in the state of Jalisco where the town of Tequilla is. The rules for Mezcal the similar alcohol made in the state of Oaxaca are a bit more relaxed. To be honest I'm not a massive fan of Mezcal but to say that aloud in this bar is like pissing on their chips, so I kept it under wraps. In fact I probably blame my dislike of the stuff on this bar. This is one of the few bars in town that do lock ins, however they have some strict rules for entering this 'special' bar. Mainly, you have to drink the stuff and they only serve it in double shots. So I had many a good night (and hangover) thanks to this place!

A cool little Jazz bar that was the dream child of a fantastic Mexican-French couple was another after hours hangout. The wife was an architect and designed the place and the French guy had a love for Jazz so brought his expertise into the mix. It essentially was a hangout for a load of musicians so there was always a jamming session. It was also here that I tried the 'Black Bomb' a drink of Kahalua, Whiskey & Vodka. This was my drink of choice in the bar, so many memories are a little hazy lol! Unfortunately a clientele of aspiring musicians doesn't pay very well and the place has since closed.

O'Reilleys was another regular haunt. Now normally I try to steer clear of Irish bars when I'm travelling- obviously I have enough of those at home, I don't need to trot round the globe to try them there. And to be fair there was 'the old O'Reileys' which I did not step foot in. However when the new one opened up it was 'the place to be' so I couldn't resist. And they did a good job, it's a really nice place based around a courtyard and usual 'Irish' décor. But more importantly it's now probably the biggest place in town, which is both good and bad- depending on how many people are out on the town on any given night. A Tuesday night for example can feel a little empty but when it's full the place is a lot of fun!

A new specialty beer bar that was proving popular popped up in my last few weeks there called Los Encuentros with a good range of artisan beers from across the globe. But it is certainly the décor that was the clincher for me. In the center of the bar they have a stage area for live music with the backdrop of the rear end of a real chicken bus fixed to the wall; working tail lights and opening back door and everything. The theme is continued with bus seating throughout the bar.

Most of Antigua's nightlife is centered around 6ta Calle so for the leaving party of my amazing friend Anup we decided it was a good idea to organize a pub crawl here. The first 'bad decision' of the night (which we then turned into a drinking game) was me opting for a margarita to get things started. The second had to be the girls getting cajoled into dancing on the bar (in my defense the place was still empty) with the promise the boys would do tequila shots in return, not realizing girls get 'rewarded' with tequila shots for dancing on this bar here- big time hussled! We only managed six bars; Rainbow Café (also good for open mic nights on Mondays), Traveler Menu (where our only non drinker fell off her bar stool) La Sala, O' Reileys, Café No Sé and el Santo Perdido, but many 'bad decisions' & lots of laughs! Just a standard night out in Antigua!