Shuttle Panajachel to Antigua Guatemala

Antigua Guatemala

Now commonly referred to as just Antigua (or La Antigua), the city was once known as La Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Los Caballeros de Guatemala, the name given to several cities which served as the capital of the Spanish colony of Guatemala. Originally, this name had been associated with the Kaqchikel Maya capital Iximche but after the Kaqchikel rebelled against the Spanish, the capital was refounded near the Volcán de Agua in what is today Ciudad Vieja.

After a collapse of the crater of the Volcán de Agua, the city was destroyed by flooding and refounded in what is today known as Antigua in 1543. It was the capital until a disastrous major earthquake in 1773 damaged most of the city. The Spanish Crown ordered the Capital to be moved to a new location, which by the name “Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción” became the modern Guatemala City. In 1776 the old capital was ordered abandoned. Not everyone left, but from bustling capital it became a provincial town, filled with the ruins of former glory. It became known as “Antigua Guatemala”, meaning “Old Guatemala”.

In the 20th century there was increasing appreciation for the large amount of preserved colonial Spanish architecture here, development to host visitors, and the city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

The city’s streets are mostly laid out in a rectangular grid aligned with the compass, with the Parque Central as an origin point. North-south roads are avenidas or avenues, numbered from 1st to 8th from east to west. The avenidas are further divided into sur (south) and norte (north). East-west roads are calles or streets, numbered from 1st to 9th from north to south. The calles are further divided into oriente (east) and poniente (west). The street intersection at the north-east corner of the Palace of the Captains-General, i.e. at the south-east corner of Parque Central, is the origin of this division. Avenidas are sur south of 5a Calle, and norte north of it. Calles are oriente east of 4a avenida, and poniente west of it.

Some roads have names that don’t follow the avenida/calle numbering scheme, and some roads away from the center don’t follow the grid. Most corners do not have signs showing the name of either the street you are on or the one you just came up to. All are cobblestoned and sidewalks are generally not very good.

Addresses are numbered sequentially outwards from the origin point. Even-numbered addresses are on one side of the street and odd numbers are on the other. Street addresses are written with the street or avenue number first, followed by the letter “a” (because 1a signifies “primera”, 2a is short for “segunda”, 3a for “tercera”, etc); then “av.” (for avenida) or “Cle / C.” (for calle), then “ote” (oriente, east), “pte” (poniente, west), “sur” (south), or “nte” (norte, north); then the street address number. For instance:

“5a av. nte #5” is address #5 on 5th Avenue North. The small number shows it is just a little north of the north-south divider, 5a calle.

“3a calle ote #28” is address #28 on 3rd Street East. The relatively large number shows it is some ways east of the east-west divider, 4a Avenida.

It’s helpful to memorise that the north and south sides of Parque Central are 4a and 5a calles, and the west and east sides are 5a and 4a avenidas respectively. Parque Central is the reference point for east, west, north and south in street addresses. “5a av. nte #5” is north of Parque Central. “5a ave. sur #5” is south of Parque Central. Essentially, if you understand which way is north of Parque Central, you can find anything in the city.