Antigua, known as the city of ruins, located in the central highlands of Guatemala is rich with history, colonial architecture, picturesque sites, festivals, shopping, and wonderful food. You’ll also have some of the best coffee you have ever had the pleasure of drinking. We were fortunate to have friends living there and they were able to show us some of the best parts of this beautiful city. From a bird’s eye view, you can see the three volcanoes in the horizon and the steeples and domes of the many cathedrals.
Antigua used to be the capital of Guatemala, but numerous earthquakes necessitated the capital to be moved to Guatemala City. However, the earthquakes never totally destroyed the town, but left a history of ruins, all interesting to visit. Of note is the Catedral de San José. 
The original church was built around 1541 and suffered several earthquakes throughout its history. It was eventually demolished and rebuilt only to be devastated by an earthquake in 1773. The towers in the front still remain and it is a big tourist attraction to see. We were approached by an elderly man that gave us a tour. He was so friendly and charming and so knowledgeable.
One of the most unusual sites we visited was the Casa Santo Domingo Hotel, which was built around ruins of the Santo Domingo Monestary that was destroyed by the 1773 Santa Marta earthquake. 
The hotel is so much more than a place to stay. There are beautifully landscaped gardens with crumbling tombs, old fountains, shops that include a chocolate factory, a candle store, restaurants, event venues, and museums that include a colonial museum, archeology museum, museum of pre-Columbian art and modern glass, and a silver museum. 
There are even ancient Mayan heads that were dug up when excavating the monastery. 
Visiting this site paints an almost complete picture of Antigua’s past.
The restaurants in Antigua were plentiful and each one so unique in its architecture. 
You walk down cobblestone streets and see stuccoed walls with colorful doors behind which you have no idea what exists. Once entering you are treated to some of the most quaint and beautiful restaurants and shops ever. One of our favorite restaurants was Panza Verde, a name that would not bring to mind a 5 star restaurant, as it literally means green stomach! 
You enter elegant dining rooms through beautiful gardens. 
While many of the restaurants feature foods more associated with Guatemala, this one is more continental cuisine. I enjoyed the coconut prawns with sweet chili sauce and the duck a l’orange.
When it comes to food, Antigua has it all, from the traditional to the unexpected like sushi. Some of the traditional foods of the region are similar to Mexican food but with some twists. The plato tipico which includes a protein, beans, and rice is most similar. Jocon is a chicken dish cooked with tomatillos into a stew. Pupusas are in restaurants and are also a popular street food. They are thick corn tortillas that are stuffed with fillings of beef or beans or chicken. Kak’ik is a traditional soup made from turkey meat and seasoned well with an array of spices. If there were one signature dish of Antigua, it would be chicken pipian, a stew made with a red sauce of chilis, tomatoes and seeds. A fusion of Spanish and Mayan cuisine, it is one of the oldest dishes in Guatemala. We had our fill of it and make that dish in our home. I think of it as the red mole of Guatemala.
Let’s talk sweets. Not many people would guess that Guatemala is considered the birthplace of chocolate. The cacao bean was considered the food of the Gods by the Mayans. It was mostly consumed in liquid form in the beginning.
Not considered food, but paramount in my daily eating adventures is coffee and Antigua has some of the best. We visited one of their coffee plantations, The Filadelfia Coffee Plantation, and learned a lot about the bean and finished the tour with one of the best cups of coffee I have ever had. 
The bean itself is encased in a pod and surrounded with a layer of a jelly-like substance that is sweet and contains more caffeine than the bean itself. The plantation is on a luxurious, sprawling estate at the foot of Guatemala’s volcanoes and includes a hotel. The plantation is just one of Guatemala’s many coffee-producing estates, and was established in 1870.