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Oh, the Places We Stayed: Antigua, Guatemala

June 23, 2024

My toxic trait is that when I’m on an extended trip, I can’t commit to just one hotel. I’d rather Goldilocks my way around a city, getting a feel for different neighborhoods and various styles of accommodation.

For our trip to Antigua, this was compounded by the fact that I waited too long to book, so some places were only available for one night. I also had us leaving the city mid-trip to camp out on a volcano, and we returned during a busy holiday, which complicated some of our bookings.

The good news is that I have a lot of great places to recommend. Here goes:

Porta Hotel Antigua

After an abysmal Airbnb at Lake Atitlán that we abandoned after one night (more on that in another post), this was our luxury splurge. We stayed two nights in a deluxe garden room, and it was worth every penny. The entire site was decked out for Christmas, and the festive atmosphere felt pretty magical.

Plus it was just around the corner from a wonderful fair trade shop, and E loved the playground.

Earth Lodge

Earth Lodge is an eco paradise nestled in the lush mountains, boasting the best views anywhere. It was easily the most “me” place we stayed in Guatemala.

The accommodations at this boutique resort include private tree houses and cabins on an organic avocado farm. We stayed in the El Sueco tree house, built around an oak tree that grows through the floor and climbs through the roof. The loft bed offered the best sleep I had during the entire trip.

Just a short drive from Antigua, Earth Lodge strikes the perfect balance of rustic and luxury with delicious farm-to-table goodies, yoga, traditional Mayan sauna, massages, and more. I highly recommend hanging out in one of the hammocks and doing nothing at all. This is a place I would return to in a heartbeat.

Cacao Boutique Hotel

A romantic and stylish hotel with just six rooms for an intimate feel. Also it’s located on the outskirts of town, so it was quiet and peaceful. (If you’re looking to be immersed in the heart of Antigua, this isn’t it. But it’s within safe walking distance of town.) Our stay was far too brief, because we had to leave extremely early in the morning for our volcano trip.

Casa Santo Domingo

I knew I’d need a dose of luxury after camping on a volcano, so I booked one night at Hotel Museo Spa Casa Santo Domingo. (Prices were higher than normal because it was Christmas Eve, but I deliberately chose a room with a fireplace so Santa could pay a visit.)

The five-star property is built among the ruins of a 17th-century convent, largely destroyed during an earthquake in 1773. Lovingly restored, the bones of the original structures are still visible among the modern buildings.

The gorgeous museum on site boasts multiple galleries, including Indigenous art, Spanish Colonial art, and archeological finds. (Many tourists visit just for the museum, but as hotel guests, we had access to more art tucked away all over the property.) The hotel also includes the aforementioned spa, a couple of restaurants, and a chocolate museum. And my favorite amenity of all: a station with complimentary coffee just outside the door.

My other favorite thing was that after wandering the empty corridors of artwork and priceless displays, Everest whispered, “Mom, this is our Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler moment,” referring to the beloved E.L. Konigsburg book where runaway siblings stay the night in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It made an already memorable stay feel a little more thrilling.

Hotel la Galeria

I was originally so excited to share this place with you. This place was very comfortable and clean, great location, excellent bed and shower, budget price. We checked in late at night and had to leave right after breakfast, which made me genuinely sad — I wanted to stay longer. Then I received a WhatsApp message from the front desk clerk that accused us of breaking a lamp in the room and requesting an additional payment. We didn’t break a lamp, so I asked a hotel manager to show me the lamp in question. She said it had been sent out for repairs, but she showed me a photo of a broken lamp. Because I’m a weirdo who takes photos of every hotel room as soon as I enter, I knew the broken lamp had never been in our room — the one in the photo wasn’t similar to ours at all.

The manager finally said she wouldn’t charge us, but this soured what had been a good experience. Afterward, I found reviews that said other guests had issues with unusual or unexpected charges.

Of note

We didn’t stay at Good Hotel, but I really liked the aesthetics of it, and I appreciate their mission of doing good by investing in the community. They don’t allow children in the hotel, however, so we were unable to stay. If you’re traveling without kids, this one is worth a look.

Looking for things to do? I’ve put together a few recommended tours here through Viator. If you book any of those, I earn a small commission.

My mom has been gone for 12 years. Here’s how I’d like to mark her passing

January 12, 2023

When I was a teenager, and I got in trouble for smoking cigarettes at the mall, my mom grounded me. I remember curling up like a little shell on my bed, sobbing, as my mom gave me a stern lecture about the dangers of tobacco.

Suddenly, a sly look flashed across her face as she said, “But what kind of cigarettes were they? … I used to smoke Camels.”

Mine were Winston Ultra Lights, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that this story summarizes my mom. She knew the rules, and she played by them. But there was also a wild streak that she rarely indulged, a cheeky side that I only saw in bursts and flickers.

Today is the 12th anniversary of her death, and for some reason it’s hitting me hard this year.

I often wonder if she had known how it would end, would she have lived her life differently? I don’t mean smoking cigarettes or even tearing through a to-do list à la Queen Latifah in “Last Holiday.” But something in between. How would she have inhabited her days?

I think about how my mom occasionally took the long route home from church, the country road that meandered past a farm with peacocks, simply because she wanted to catch a glimpse of the colors. Perhaps she would have taken the scenic route more often. Maybe it would’ve been all scenic routes.

I remember how she denied herself pleasure simply to keep up appearances or to fit into a specific pair of pants or to follow someone else’s playbook, and none of that matters anymore. It never mattered.

Maybe today, in honor of my mom’s passing, you could indulge yourself. Eat a pastry you’ve never tried before. Play a new sport. Take the long road. Sing out loud. Wear something sparkly. Devour a mango and let it be juicy. Love something fiercely.

“We’re nothing but brief bodies,” writes poet Joy Sullivan, which is true, and we deserve to lead scrumptious lives. Do something wonderful and succulent today.

10 reasons why Belize needs to be high on your travel list

April 26, 2022

A woman and a boy standing in front of the Lamanai ruins in Belize. There is a gorgeous stone temple with a large carved face.

If you hate crowded places, you’re in for a treat. Belize is the least densely populated nation in Central America. For comparison, I live in the Coachella Valley, which has 463,000 residents. The entire country of Belize has roughly 412,000. (To give you an even better idea of what that means, my community has a density of 518 people per square mile. Belize has 45.)
Do you ever get flustered by currency conversions while traveling? No worries here. The money is a simple conversion of 2 Belize dollars to 1 USD. And most places will accept either.
English is the official language of Belize. So if navigating other languages intimidates you, you won’t have any problems. (Also many of the people I met were multilingual! I especially loved listening to the creole patois spoken along the Eastern coast.)
There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of Mayan ruins throughout the country, and new ones are discovered all the time. These sacred sites are magnificent, and I was surprised that I could get up close and personal with them.
Before this trip, I associated Belize with scuba diving. Since I don’t dive, I worried there wouldn’t be any activities for me. Wow, was I wrong. Belize is an active country full of eco-adventures. My trip included caving, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, cycling, tubing, swimming in waterfalls — plus just relaxing on the beach.
The wildlife is incredible. The country is home to the world’s second largest coral reef, plus jaguars, monkeys, tapirs, and iguanas. I particularly enjoyed the Belize Zoo, which is actually a sanctuary for native animals; some wounded, some donated, many rescued from the illegal pet trade.
Belize doesn’t feel overrun by tourists. With about 500,000 arrivals per year, Belize receives a low number of overnight visitors. To compare that with its neighbors, Mexico receives over 97 million tourists per year, while Guatemala gets more than 2.5 million.
Did I mention the most delicious chocolate you’ll find anywhere?
Belize is small, and its communities are strong. Early on in my trip, I visited a farm in the southern part of the country. Days later, many miles away on the island of Caye Caulker, I met someone who knew those farmers.
It won’t be like this forever. I cringed when I saw a huge billboard advertising a new Margaritaville resort on one of the islands. Not to bag on Margaritaville (okay, maybe a little), but I appreciated that Belize was free from most chain businesses and big corporations. The places I patronized were local, owned and operated by people within each village, which made everything feel intimate and special — uniquely Belizean.

Sign at the water taxi building on Caye Caulker

To Everest: Now you are two

August 13, 2016

I’ve seen you so often, but every day I catch myself marveling at the sight of you. You are part-boy, part-pony. Every morning you burst out of the room, spring-loaded with the energy of a horse emerging from a corral.

I remember two years ago at the hospital, holding you during one of our first days together. We didn’t know each other then. Not really. I stared at you that day, and I wondered who you were – who you would become.

Well, every day you reveal a little more, and I am delighted with each discovery.

You are curious. You want to know every color, every feeling, every animal. You try to read all the books, and sometimes you surround yourself with big stacks of cookbooks and Baby Lit books and travel guides and picture books, and you want to devour them all. It makes me so happy.

You are hilarious. You play jokes, like surprising me by hopping out from behind a door or forcing me to sniff your stinky feet. If I don’t laugh, you laugh anyway and insist, “Funny.” You always ask for a sip of my coffee, wait a beat, then collapse in giggles. That joke slays you.

You have an endless capacity for singing “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” When I sing about the wheels on the bus, you joyfully chime in with “All through the town!”

Your mind is a sponge right now, and I am charmed by the incorrect words you’ve acquired for everyday objects. Telephones are hellos, a bridge is an uppy-downy, and mountains are “the big.”

You scale the furniture and leap up the stairs and somersault across the floor and hop hop hop all over the place and run circles around the dinner table. We gave up baby gates months ago, because it’s useless to try to contain you. When we go outside, you shoot me a sideways look and say, “I run?” – then you’re off, sprinting down the road. I’m exhausted and awed by it in equal measure. I love your energy for life and your sheer physicality, and I hope I can keep up with you in the years to come.

You have no fear, so I hold it all for the both of us.

You love airplanes and elephants, monkeys and watermelon. You are on a desperate mission to hug all cats. And I can say from personal experience, your hugs are the greatest. My favorite thing is when you hold my face to carefully kiss my forehead, my nose, my chin, and both cheeks.

Most of all, you are kind. I’m overwhelmed by your generosity, patience, and compassion. You are gentle with animals. You wait your turn with toys. When you’re playing with a ball and another kid swipes it, you shrug and move on to something else. If you have two crackers, you always try to feed me first. You talk to everyone, including the homeless people at the library – especially the homeless people at the library – and it does my heart good to see all the smiles you leave in your wake.

You are just two, but you have already made my life richer, fuller, better. I still don’t know exactly who you’ll be yet, only that I’m so happy you’re mine.

Little Man: The One-Year-Old Update

July 21, 2015

How are you a 1-year-old already?

It wasn’t so long ago when I would place you on your tummy and coax you to roll over. And now you’re running.

It’s so bittersweet. I love how quick you move, how much you learn every day, your fierce and wild independence. Yet the faster you walk, the more I feel you pulling away from me. You’re becoming a little man already, and it stretches my heart out like salt water taffy.

Most everybody tried to warn me. “Enjoy it!” they said. “It goes by so quick!” Even perfect strangers said, “You’ll miss this when it’s gone!” I hated those people. But I was delirious from a lack of sleep, my body was sticky with spit up, and I often felt like I was stuck at the bottom of a long well with a purple eggplant. A purple eggplant that screams.

If I’d realized that someday you’d stop falling asleep on my chest, I’d have relished those long, lazy afternoon naps. If I’d known how you’d leap from infant to pre-toddler, I might have appreciated those early newborn days a little more. I still wouldn’t have enjoyed the colic, but overall I might have cried a little less.

Anyway, now you are one. But it won’t be long before you are two. And then 22. And then I will die, because ACK! Too soon. I can’t handle it.

Likes:

Frankie the Fox. Oh my god, do you love Frankie the Fox. In fact, one evening as I put you in your crib, your eyes searched the mattress, your breath quickened and you started to panic, right up until you saw Frankie in the corner. I thought, “This is foreshadowing,” and that very night your dad bought a backup Frankie for us to keep in reserves.

You also love playing outside. Your family. Lemon and Kung Pao Kitten. Duplos. Swings. Bruno Mars and Daniel Tiger. And books — it makes me proud to see how much you enjoy turning the pages to see what happens next.

Favorite foods:

Watermelon. Kiwi. Mango. Banana pancakes. Homemade oatmeal “cookies.” Peanut butter. Sweet corn on the cob.

Dislikes:

Bubble bath. Swim class. Diaper changes, which are like trying to pull the skin back on a snake after he’s already shed it.

You also weren’t crazy about your birthday cake, which made me happy. That’s your last taste of sugar until you turn 18. I hope you enjoyed it.

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