Our departure from the Rio was beyond beautiful. Nicholas arrived in his lancha about 6:30, we enjoyed a coffee with Casey and then piled our bags in the boat and headed out of the bay. The water was flat calm, the mountains rose softly around the lake, and the last few fishermen returned home from bringing in their nets. We just gazed around in awe at how absolutely gorgeous this area is.

About 50 minutes later, Nicholas pulled up at the dock in Fronteras and we dragged our bags up the hill to the Litegua station. We bought our tickets and boarded the bus (sitting back a few rows just like my walking partners suggested - so a) we wouldn't be as aware of erratic driving and narrow misses, and b) we would be less likely to be killed in the event of a head on collision). The bus rattled away across the bridge to Morales and on to the big city.

The scenery changed dramatically from the serene blue water we had started out in, to forested slopes and shabby towns to arid hills and eventually the drab, grey, dirt-poor outskirts of Guatemala City. Colours changed from blues to greens to browns and greys. Meadows and orchards gave way to steep hills with cinderblock buildings jumbled like mono colour Lego blocks. It was easy to see how earthquakes can cause so much destruction in places like this. Traffic came to a standstill for more than an hour and we never did see what caused it, and by the time the bus crawled through the narrow, dingy streets of the capital city to the bus station, our connecting bus to Antigua had long since departed.

The agent I tried to talk with spoke no English and my Spanish wasn't up to arguing that I had a ticket for the 2 o'clock bus that had left and what were they going to do about it, and we didn't want to wait for the 6 pm bus, so we shared a cab with two young women who were also headed for Antigua - paying 100 Q each and forgetting about the 45Q we had already paid for the bus.

By the time we got to Antigua, we were 5000 ft above sea level, out of the dinginess and into a beautiful colonial town nestled in a valley between three volcanoes. It was once the capital of the country, a lively political and cultural centre and home to a huge number of churches and monasteries, but after a series of earthquakes, it was pretty much abandoned in the 1770's. Buildings were evacuated and plundered and residents were ordered to move. For the next couple of hundred years, it was mostly squatters who stayed. In the 1800's a coffee industry began, but it wasn't until the mid 1900's that anything really changed. Then, the city was designated a national monument, efforts at restoration began and parts of the city returned to their former splendor. But then came the devastating earthquake of 1976, when thousands of people died and buildings came crashing down.

Antigua was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1979 and work began again. The Lonely Planet Guide says: " Perhaps the real miracle of Antigua is its resilience. Despite the destructive forces that have conspired against it - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods, followed by virtual abandonment and centuries of neglect - it's reemerged with a vengeance, buoyed by the pride of its inhabitants."

La Antigua is now home to more than a dozen Spanish language schools, the wedding industry is big, tourism booms, many glorious buildings have been restored and the ruins of others are charmingly integrated into the streetscape.

We didn't see much of it by the time we arrived on Friday evening but we grabbed a quick dinner and fell into our bed at Hotel Entre Volcanes. This restored colonial hotel is near the market and a few short blocks from the central square. Jeanette and her staff took very good care of us, and the fact that all of them speak English as well as Spanish was a great help.

I had read that Elizabeth Bell gave excellent walking tours of the city so we headed for the fountain in Parque Central at 9:30 on Saturday morning. To our delight, we were the only ones to show up so we had a personal tour from this excellent scholar and historian. She is American by birth but has lived and studied here since 1969, is a cultural historian who is passionately interested in sharing the story of this city with visitors, has written several books including "Antigua Guatemala; the City and its Heritage" and gave us one of the best tours we have had. We highly recommend her tour to anyone who really wants to know some of the historical and current story of this city (and country).

We visited the Catedral de Santiago, and learned of the stabilization efforts and restoration plan. We viewed the architectural style, "Earthquake baroque", paid a visit to Jades SA to learn a bit about the jade industry here, and ended up at the Casa Santo Domingo Hotel which is built around the ruins of Iglesia Y Convento de Santo Domingo - once the biggest and richest monastery in the city. The site is also home to several museums, only one of which we had time to visit - but which was fascinating. It houses a collection of contemporary glass pieces and the pre-Hispanic ceramic art that inspired them. We loved this place!

In the afternoon, we viewed intricately embroidered and handwoven textiles that women from outlying communities brought to the city to sell. We bargained for and bought a few things, fended off hordes of folks selling wooden flutes and jewellery and scarves. One particularly insistent (and not typical) woman called out after Jim "You very cheap man!" when he refused to buy his wife a table runner!

We ate at Frida's that evening, enjoying very good Mexican food at a little table under an original Frida Kahlo painting. A walk home through the cobble stone streets, people watching all the way brought an end to our first - and definitely not the last - day in Antigua. As much as we hated to leave the Rio, we are really glad we made the decision to spend a couple of days here.