A Long Stay in Antigua

I have been in Antigua, Guatemala for about 10 days now. This is a long stay. I do not even know how I have spent these last days. Antigua is a beautiful little colonial town, but it feels stale. There are so many tourists that I see more white people daily than Guatemaltecos. The tourists have over saturated the town with money as well, so everything is way overpriced. There are swanky craft shops, expensive European style bars, and every comfort one would find in the modern world. I cannot afford to eat in this town as a result, and I definitely cannot afford to party either. One beer costs more than lunch and drinking would leave me in the poor house.

(Venders in Antigua and a woman carrying baskets on their heads)

I found a hotel that includes breakfast and wi-fi internet for around $7 a night/person. Hotel Shalom. If you can bear Israelis it ain’t a bad place. Breakfast is filling and the internet is fast. The employees are friendly and the place is clean.
It was a nice place to sit for a while. I think I had my head stuck in my computer the whole time researching and writing for my portfolio though.

(Photo of indigenous women selling fruit in the streets on Antigua)

This town is rather boring to do anything else. It is too expensive to buy fun and it is too gentrified to experience anything. It is a tourist bubble. I am ready to leave, heading for Lake Atitlan.