After 4 months in Antigua, we are making a serious attempt to leave this little oasis. We are continuing our trip going to El Salvador and Nicaragua within the next few weeks. For those of you who will one day come to Antigua, we have compiled a list of some of the best places.
The best place to stay is Bonita Casa, 5a. Ave. Sur #21, tel. 832-0182, Bonitacasa(at)hotmail(dot)com. Rooms cost 80 to 100 USD per week for singles and 120 to 140 USD for doubles. Has real hot water (which is rare here) and a swimming pool (also rare). The staff and the owner, Claudia, are extremely friendly, stay too long and it will feel like home.
The best Internet Cafe is Café Internet Telgua, 6a Ave. Norte #21, get an account and pay 50 GTQ for 7 hours (which comes down to 0.85 EUR per hour). It is not only the cheapest in town, but also the fastest. The place is clean and smoke free (nothing as horrible as when your neighbor starts to puff away cigarette after cigarette, as happens in many other Internet Cafes in town).
Second best Internet Cafe: Funky Monkey, 5a. Ave. del Sur They play good music but this can make it a bit difficult to concentrate. Cheap place to read your digital camera's memory card and place the contents on a CD. Cost: 50 Quetzal (5.50 EUR).
The best place to watch movies is Cinema Café Bistro, 5a. Ave. Sur #14, it has 3 theatres with 4 showings per day for 15 GTQ (1.75 EUR). The owner, Vini, is very friendly. Seeing him start the movie can be quite entertaining in itself, especially if there is a little problem he needs to solve.
The best disco is Casbah, 5a. Ave. Norte (near the arch), Wednesday is one of the most popular nights. Thursday is gay night. Entry is quite expensive at 20 to 30 Quetzals (2.35 to 3.50 EUR), at least it is for Antigua. Upside is you get one free drink and they are not focused only on salsa and merengue.
The best place for pies, is La Cenicienta (which means Cinderella), 5a. Ave. Norte #7, my favorite is their strawberry cheese cake.
The best bakery is Doña Luisa, 4a. Calle Oriente, has nice freshly baked bread.
One of our favorite restaurants is Beijing, 5a Calle poniente, which unlike the name suggests also serves Japanese food. Not only is the food great but it is very affordable, especially for Japanese food.
Story: Otto de Voogd
Photo: bbc.co.uk
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