NL Goes... | Guatemala

We think Guatemala is the BEST place in the world! We had so much fun on our trip there and brought so many little treasures home! Our favorite things we did were shopping around all of the beautiful markets, stopping at EVERY coffee shop, exploring the different villages & culture and eating the fresh, yummy food!

We started in Antigua, a small city with old cobblestone roads and surrounded by volcanoes. Antigua is known for the Santa Catalina arch…here’s a picture of our group in front of it! Antigua is also known for its preserved Spanish Baroque-influenced architecture, so we got lots of inspiration just from the buildings themselves! The incredible architecture, brightly colored homes and decorative store signs also really stood out to us…even the little corner laundromat had the cutest floral sign!

After exploring Antigua, we traveled to the Chichicastenango market, known as Guatemala’s most colorful market! Nicknamed “Chi-Chi,” we discovered so many treasures including colorful Mayan textiles, traditional wooden handicrafts, fun pom-poms and fanny packs, intricate jewelry, and more! But I think our favorite finds from Chi-Chi were the plastic-wired baskets, which got cuter and cuter the more vendors we visited! This was definitely one of our favorite experiences… really immersing ourselves in the Guatemalan culture and supporting the local vendors who were SO happy to finally have visitors back!

Next, we made our way to Lake Atitlan for the night, where we stayed in a beautiful villa with an amazing view of the lake. Lake Atitlan is in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range and is the deepest lake in Central America. We traveled by boat to several villages around the lake. Our first stop was San Antonio Palopo where they are known for their hand-crafted and hand-painted ceramics. We got to experience the whole ceramic-making process including wedging, forming, drying, and painting. We were so grateful for the opportunity to support these local artisans and they could not have been happier to welcome us in! After San Antonio, we boated over to San Juan, another village around Lake Atitlan. There we found more Mayan hand-woven textiles, bags, treasures and, of course, delicious coffee and pastries!

Guatemala is one of our favorite places to travel… not only for inspiration but to support the locals as we have developed such a close relationship with them! We can’t wait to go back!