How To Be A Digital Nomad in Antigua, Guatemala
The heart of adventure is not found within the high of an adrenaline rush, the fresh mud on an old hiking path, or the rumbling of your ATV in a remote pueblo. Although all are waiting in Antigua, the heart lies within the in-between moments of your day-to-day when you begin to live in a country which you have little knowledge of and little expectation.
It’s your broken Spanish conversing awkwardly with locals, the jagged cobblestones streets you trip on while getting groceries, and the anxiousness as you enter tiny, candle-lit hallways to find a bathroom. The adventure lies within the humorous, mini-successes of adapting to your new surroundings.
As you begin to live in Antigua, your senses become more alert and more confused, grasping to make sense of the surreal scenes of a city from the past. There is a sustained call to the present moment, not because you might miss something, but because every piece of your perception contains a subtle abnormality. The avocado trees are ripening, the mustard colonial walls have octagonal windows, and the air is one of eternal spring.
Although beauty is abundant, there’s discomfort in living abroad as a first time digital nomad. One must understand costs of living, create plans regarding personal safety, practice self-control around local pastries, and deal with the perpetual condition of not knowing what you don’t know.
However, my month-long stay in Antigua reconstructed my lifestyle in many ways I never imagined because of these challenges. From my relationships with locals, Spanish lessons, a community of curious travelers, and the access to adventure activities, I believe I began to approach the beginning of traveler enlightenment.
In hopes of giving an insight into living abroad in Guatemala and helping others take their first steps as digital nomads, I want to share how you can approach a lifestyle which seeks adventure within the in-between moments of a normal day.
Lifestyle
Rent — $600 for the entire month! — I booked through a good friend who started a travel company called TravelWorldCulture (TWC). You can find them here. At the time of writing, TWC had a partnership with Selina which made living expenses very cheap. 600 USD afforded me my own private micro-room which included a clothing rack, a full bed, and a side table.
Living with Selina was the best decision as a first-time nomad because it provided a co-living, co-working experience — imagine Airbnb quality, Hostel culture, and a WeWork co-working experience. The property included an outdoor kitchen, a co-working space with fast wi-fi, a beautiful garden, a full bar, a pool attached to a re-purposed school bus, and the Selina dog (Jegas). The small joys of reading in the hammock by the garden, playing with Jegas, and eating avocado toast while watching Volcan Fuego fume were my favorite parts of this lifestyle.
Food — Food FOMO is real — Your approach to sustaining yourself will depend on how much of your travel budget you prefer to spend on food. As a cheap backpacker, it was ideal to pick a few local spots for lunch, cook breakfast, and enjoy a nice dinner occasionally. Also, its helpful to have a staple for quick meals — avocado, toast, eggs, secret sauce (the amanacado) — when you’re short on time.
If you cook, you’ll get to experience the joy of shopping at local fresh markets and practicing your Spanish vegetable vocabulary. Another favorite lifestyle activity is trying out consumer products from Guatemala. During this time, I obtained an un-healthy addiction to Tortix Tacos Chileros — a Taki equivalent which some would argue even surpassed the predecessor.
For cheap & local eats, I would recommend finding places with Menu del Dias. A Menu del Dia is a “meal of the day” which local restaurants usually cook in bulk at the beginning of each day and therefore can discount the prices. A lot of the restaurants make their food in an open-air kitchen that you can see from your table. The two top Menu del Dia places that we frequented were Cus Cus — 20Qs or $2.50 and Rincon Tipico 30Qs or 3.50. The food is freshly made & its recommended to get there on time so that they don’t run out. All in all, my spend on food per day was about $10–$12 USD.
Laundry — Finding a local laundry place can be a daunting task but once you find a cheap spot, you begin to wonder why you would ever do your own. They usually weigh it by the pound and give you a standard price. Many times, my laundry was about 50–70Qs ($7–10) and was washed, dried, and folded better than I could have done it myself. Since these businesses are informal & family-owned, its easy to work with them on pick-up times, special washing instructions, and sometimes price.
Insurance — boring — It’s highly recommended to get travel insurance and health insurance. I won’t go into the details here because I never used it actively but I would recommend looking into this website to compare prices.
Vegetarian/Vegan options — I’m not vegetarian but I started eating a portion of my meals without meat because options were plentiful, delicious, and healthy. A few of our favorite spots included Samsara & Toku Baru. Many restaurants also have a vegetarian menu option with substitutes. My friend has a blog that you can check out where she documents her experiences, favorites, and work-arounds when eating vegetarian around the world. The veggie burrito at Cactus Bar and the small restaurants next to Luna De Miel have a special place in our hearts — usually only 60Q per delicious burrito.
Cuisines from around the world — Guatemala truly has an incredible diversity of cuisines. If you stay close to the central square, you will find many western fast-food chains. However, on the outskirts, you can find Italian, Indian, Mediterranean and many other cuisines sprinkled in mom & pop restaurants. A few recommendations here: Crepes — Luna de Miel, Mexican — Cactus bar, Italian—La Pasta Nostra.
Traditional Guatemalan Foods — El Chapin, Pepian, Ka’kik are all classic Guatemalan dishes that I had the pleasure to chow down while abroad. If you’re a foodie, you can’t miss these dishes below.
El Chapin: This traditional Guatemalan breakfast comes with refried black beans, sunny-side-up or scrambled eggs, chirmol (tomato sauce), fresh cheese, fried plantains (platano or platano macho), cream, tortillas or pan francés (French rolls), and coffee.
Pepian (Our favorite at Cus Cus) — This is the traditional Guatemala Meat Spicy Stew, which is seen by most Guatemalans as the national dish. It is basically meat and vegetables in a thick and rich sauce, with a combination of roasted spices like pepitoria and sesame seeds and many others very well blended together.
Ka’kik — The key ingredients of Guatemalan kak’ik turkey soup include dark turkey meat, aromatic cinnamon and cloves, fresh red tomatoes and peppers, tomatillos and the smoky Cobánero chile.This traditional Q’eqchi Mayan dish, which dates to pre-Hispanic times, is one of the most famous Guatemalan foods. A cross between a soup and a stew, it’s so special it was even deemed a cultural icon by Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture and Sport!
Coffee — I have never drank so much coffee in my 25 years of living before Guatemala. Cortados are now a personal favorite (Thanks TWC) and only cost 20Qs ($2.50) per coffee. Guatemala’s highlands are famous worldwide for growing top-notch coffee & to say we indulged in this coffee-haven would be an understatement.
Much of the coffee you will drink is grown and processed only a few minutes away. Our group took a trip to Finca Filadelfia where we visited a coffee plant nursery, tasted sweet, red coffee seeds, watched farmers dry and rake batches, and ended the tour with a taste test. I would highly recommend doing at least one coffee tour while in this heavenly region. Considering growing coffee requires altitude between 4000 and 5000 feet, rainfall between 40 and 60 inches, and mean temperatures in the high 60s, finding the ideal conditions for farming is not easy. Antigua’s got the good stuff.
It’s no surprise then that Antigua is home to beautiful coffeeshops which are perfect for remote work and many specialty coffee roasts. La Parrada was my daily go-to, Buena Vista features grand views of the city-scape, and Union Café has a calm indoor garden which is a popular among digital nomads. Take a seat in the garden, order the coffee of your choice, and be as pretentious & slow as your heart desires with this purist-only experience.
Health — I worked out at the Antigua Gym for $30/month. Stone cold iron & distressed machines made the grunge environment the dreams of any gym bro. Waking up at 6AM every morning to walk led to empty cobblestone streets that drew your eyes to the edge of the city and then upwards to a clear sunrise view of Volcan Agua. Simple things. I’ll be writing a post about working out in Central/South America as I continue to train for my summit to Rainier soon.
Adventures
Sunset ATV Ride — Simoon Tours & Rentals — The highlight of my time in Antigua was taking an ATV from the cobblestone city streets to the mountain-top pueblos for a sunset view. Our ATV’s roared through traffic & high hills as we arrived at Earth lodge, an eco-friendly restaurant, avocado farm and yoga spot overlooking Antigua at 6000 ft. above the highlands. On our way back down, a few village kids hitched a ride on the back of our ATVs as they yelled to their friends & sold me chicletes for a discounted price. The tour ended with a trip to our guide’s hometown — San Juan del Obispo. His parting gift was teaching us how to drift an ATV & we ended the tour doing donuts in a sandy alleyway underneath a flickering streetlight. The tour cost about ($440 Quetzals or $57 dollars).
Volcan Acatenango Hike — Speechless — This is hands down the best hike I’ve ever done & deserves its own blog post. Volcan Acatenango is the highest volcano surrounding the city of Antigua and is attached to Volcan Fuego — the active volcano that explodes every 10–15 minutes. Most days you can see Fuego fuming from the city streets but the view from the top of Acatenango, (especially during sunrise) is one that you will never forget. Don’t get me wrong, this is a difficult hike for most people & I would recommend being in some sort of shape with proper hiking shoes. You will walk 6 hours inclined in sandy mountainous terrain, camp near the top where temps reach below 20F, and wake up at 3 AM to summit the volcano at sunrise. However, watching Fuego explode in all its fiery glory amongst a sky glittered with stars is undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can check out a few videos & pics below. Our tour company was able to offer us a guide, tent, lunch, and dinner. You also get the chance to “ski” the sandy volcano trails as you race downwards after the summit. Be ready for this one but DO. NOT. SKIP. You won’t regret it. This cost about $52 USD/person.
Lake Atitlan Excursion — Sunset party your heart out, you animal — The deepest lake in Central America, this natural beauty sits in the Guatemalan highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Ringed by geographically isolated pueblos, the vastness of Atitlan provides a safe haven for indigenous culture. Since many locations are only accessible by small boats, each pueblo fosters a unique identity. You can walk with the locals in San Pedro, chill with the hippies in San Marcos, or catch a party sunset in Panajachel. You can read more about Atitlan, how to get there, and prices in my friends wonderful blog here!
Spanish
Antigua is one of the top cities in the world to learn Spanish since the Guatemalan’s have a clear and slow dialect that allows foreigners to pick up the language through immersion. They are also incredibly nice people who are patient and love to see you trying to improve your Spanish. This was undoubtedly my favorite daily adventure while living abroad as I took lessons at the Antigua Spanish Academy everyday after work from 5–7pm. My teacher, Victoria, was fantastic and although I was attending during COVID, we managed to make the environment safe for all through protective screens and masks. I learned so much about Antigua, Guatemala, her life, and local culture through casual conversations in Spanish with Victoria. Often times we would dive into religion and values to understand each other’s worldview. I’m proud to say that my Spanish was conversational again after 1 month and I hope to be back to study again.
It was the awkward moments using Spanish that taught me the most about the kindness of Guatemalan people. Watching Monsters Inc in Spanish with the Selina staff was the final exam of my lessons and I’m glad I’m now able to say more than just “Arriba, Abajo, Al Centro, Pa Dentro”. Check out Antigua Spanish Academy here & ask for Victoria when you visit! Did I mention that my one-on-one lessons were only $9.25/hour?
Community
Although wandering has always been my lifeblood, this experience living abroad brought a new element of travel that I had never experienced in longevity — the fostering of community. Using my newfound Spanish, I became a local at the La Parrada coffeeshop where Leo & Maria greeted me for my daily cortado. The bartenders at the Selina became our neighbors and joined in on conversations about Guatemala and our experience living abroad. My conversations in Spanish with locals also helped to form bonds quickly as I asked for directions when lost, ordered dinner, and tried to make my way around a fresh market.
Most importantly, the community of fellow travelers within my TWC remote work group was the social atmosphere I was craving after a long bout of COVID lockdown. Although we all worked different jobs, we were all working full-time which gave us a common lifestyle schedule. We would do coffee breaks, grab a Menu Del Dia lunch, and even cook dinner together. Water cooler talk became avocado tree musings, a workout became a highland run, and our conversations revolved around history, culture, travel, and the future of work. This group activated both my curiosity and served as a sounding board to make sense of my experiences. Although I expected to solo travel after one month, the learning and growing aspects of this community naturally made me extend my time. You can find travel groups all around but TWC will give you the cheapest/best experience with an age group of intelligent 20–30 somethings. You can find them here.
Remote Work
Take your zoom meeting in the gardens, work out of the refurbished school-bus, book the conference room in the co-working space, or explore a coffee-shop around town. There are an incredible amount of options when working remotely in Antigua. One of my favorite parts of working abroad was finding different locations with strong WIFI, good coffee, and a beautiful view. Once you start running meetings 6000 ft. above city-level nestled in the mountains, you’re capacity for what’s possible expands. Granted, you have to be someone who is okay with working in different environments and there will be times where it is hard to find a quiet spot to take a meeting or plug into a power outlet. However, the power of a simple WIFI-connection is all you need if your work is online and I hope to continue to explore this leverage and the freedom the internet can provide.
My go-to remote-work spots were the Selina co-working space, my micro-room for high-importance meetings, the patio of Union Café, and the highlands of Earth lodge. A special shoutout here again for Earth lodge for its quiet working environment, the best guacamole I’ve ever had, and the view of two volcanoes intersecting the valley city-scape. Remote working seems scary at first but once you connect to WIFI and realize you can do everything you are able to do in-person, it’s time to explore.
Safety & COVID-19:
Strict & enforced, the Guatemalan norms around COVID made me feel safer than when I was living in Texas. With temperature checks, hand sanitizers, and disinfectant shoe mats at every location, it was clear that Guatemala was taking COVID-19 very seriously. You will get arrested if you are found not wearing a mask in the Antigua streets. Their cases have rested around 500 new cases per day and continue to fall.
It’s a sad reality that much of this town runs on tourism which has led to a collapse of local businesses and the loss of jobs. With a lack of government aid, many businesses had to close down and we were consistently approached for extending Spanish lessons, tours, and excursions with stories about how their businesses had down-sized because of a lack of customers.
It’s a double edge sword because although it is sound advice to reduce travel to avoid infecting others, the travel industry actually helps some of the poorest in the nation due to its low-skill labor force. The key here is to make sure you practice the highest level of safety in order to respect the local communities in your new destination. For us, this meant traveling in a pod of people we chose to have exclusive social interactions with. We also helped keep each other accountable for following the rules — Mask up, sanitize, and don’t be a social butterfly this time around.
Si Se Puede.
Built in an earthquake-prone region alongside the Ring of Fire, Antigua Guatemala was founded in 1524 as Santiago de Guatemala. It was subsequently destroyed by fire caused by an uprising of the indigenous population, entirely buried as a result of earthquakes and an avalanche in 1541, and after it was rebuilt, continued to survive natural disasters of floods and volcanic eruptions until 1773 when the Santa Marta earthquakes destroyed much of the town. At this point, authorities ordered the relocation of the capital to a safer location region, which became Guatemala City, the county’s modern capital.
However, some residents stayed behind in the original town, which became referred to as “La Antigua Guatemala”. Due to these stubborn souls, the city’s 16th-century Renaissance grid pattern and Baroque-style monumental buildings and ruins have survived along with cobblestone streets, plazas with fountains, and domestic architecture.
It’s the resilience of this city to retain its identity despite the modern tides of “the future” that create its charm. You are transported back into the world of a 16th century Antigua through its authentic churches, indigenous Mayan people, and the peace of its central town square. Living here as a first time digital nomad felt as if I had stumbled into a secret city that wished to remain hidden from flashy consumerism and unnecessary innovation.
The simple life here is all that is needed. It points attention to the small, organic adventures that arise from your relationships, your daily walks, and your desire to understand the slow pace of living among your new neighbors.
Its a different lifestyle that you can also seek out if you choose to live in Antigua. Remembering that the adventure can be found beyond the high of a cliff jump or a drifting ATV will allow you to recognize the thrill of slow travel and find your own version of sustained bliss. For me, it was the in-betweens, and for you, you’ll only know if you go out there.
If you don’t think you are prepared or have concerns about living abroad, reach out to me and I will do my best to help you out! The only Spanish phrase that I had learned before Antigua was “Si Se Puede” and it turned out to be all I needed. I’ll give you the same advice & show you where to continue your own nomadic journey in Latin America.
