A small bookshop in the entrance of this well-known Antigua establishment stocks a good number of titles, and a gamut of seating arrangements provide the ideal spot to curl up with your new read or discuss it with new friends. To keep you fueled, the menu offers a variety of cuisines (including plenty of vegetarian food), such hummus and falafel, traditional breakfasts, and plentiful drink selections. Happy hour runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. every evening, with live music most nights and lectures about local history and environmental initiatives every Tuesday.
Amongst the beautiful gardens of Antigua, Escalonia offers a particularly enchanting seating area. Tables are sheltered by umbrellas lit with strings of white lights in the evenings, or sit under a vine-filled arbor with flowers dangling overhead like living ornaments. The restaurant serves a menu focused on lovely desserts, coffee drinks, and breakfasts. The establishment is also a plant nursery, and customers can carry home a variety of floral, artisanal, and culinary souvenirs, as well as their memories of the time spent in this lush garden.
Passers-by peering through the open doorway of El Telar get a tantalizing glimpse of gorgeous tasseled hammocks, one example of the textile creations sold here. The artistry and quality of these products is impressive; each design is testament to months of work by hand. The emphasis of the merchandise is on home accessories, such as carpets, cushions, table cloths, and pillows.
The impressive market occupying a swathe of the western edge of Antigua is the place to go find whatever you need, particularly on Saturday, Monday, and Thursday, the big market days. Cross the Alameda Santa Lucia from any mid-town spot; the market's edges trickle imprecisely into the bus terminal, envelop the Mercado de Artesanias, and sprawl into the parking lots behind the covered stalls, out to the Avenida de la Recolección. By far the best place to look for fresh produce, the market also contains clusters of comedores or food stalls, bakeries, clothing, watches, CDs, craft supplies, cosmetics, meats, and the odd basket of live chickens.
An abundance of interesting books line the walls of this liberal-minded bookshop. The space is small, comprising four walls of books around a table, but it connects with Café No Sé in the back and customers are welcome to bring a coffee or snack to enjoy with a good book or a game of chess at the table. Information is also available on the projects of the Fundación Nahual, a Guatamalan-run human rights organization active chiefly in this region.
Slip past sparkling jewelry displays in the front of this group of stores to access a dense selection of well-chosen books; world-traveling guidebooks are joined by literary treats like Isabel Allende novels and Harry Potter translated into Spanish. The shop also sells textbooks, magazines, calendars, and will gladly place special orders for other requests.
Vending folk artwork from the highlands of Guatemala, Casa de Gigantes grabs customers' attention immediately with two huge carved wooden statues of a man and a woman standing midway through the store. They are traditional artifacts from the Baile de los Gigantes of the Fiesta de Corpus Christi, celebrated 60 days after Easter each year. Founded in 1963, Casa de los Gigantes is proud to offer both traditional and original designs of furniture and home accessories in pine wood, as well as providing a retail venue for women from around Guatemala who work in other materials. Textiles, pottery, beading, and carved stone crafts are available in the store.
One of the largest bookshops in the city, Sophos is a great place to spend an afternoon browsing through their extensive collection. From novels to manga, history books to art books; it's all available in a bright, modern store. Located on the second floor of the posh Plaza Fontabella, it's one of the few places that stock a good selection of English novels and books. The store has a glamorous coffee shop, where you can have a gourmet coffee while reading a novel from its wide selection of publications by Latin American authors. At Sophos you can also find your favorite music. The cafe terrace is quite a pleasant place to spend a few hours.
Amongst the many, many artesania shops in Antigua, Nim Po't clearly stands out, even at the first glance inside from the street… an enormous circular kite, traditional during the Santiago de Sacatepéquez celebration of Día de los Muertos, occupies the foreground of the deep warehouse space. It is a combination retail showcase for craftspeople, retail stores, and consignment shops. Nim Po't collects their products with care, including some of the bags, wooden carvings, bracelets, and many other items that are commonly sold in town, but also including previously worn huipiles (woven and embroidered blouses), cortes (woven skirts), fajas (woven and embroidered belts), and all the other textiles making up traditional indigenous clothing. These last are remarkable portrayals of traditional life in Guatemala because the traditional garb is hand-woven in patterns unique to each town, which each woman carries out according to her individual creativity. The weaving of a huipile, unlike the multitude of items for sale to tourists, can take months of work. Nim Po't is engaged in a project chronicling the materials and design motifs of villages throughout Guatemala, and is worth visiting both to explore their samples of textile work and to find some souvenirs of your trip. Prices are set fairly, as a visit to the Mercado de Artesanias will quickly demonstrate.
The Mercado de Artesanias, or Handicraft Market, first opened its doors in 1974. Since then, this enclosed market has been a popular haunt for tourists seeking out authentic Guatemalan crafts to take home as a souvenir. Just a hop, skip and jump away from the Main Market and the bus terminal, the Mercado de Artesanias is a flurry of colors, with shops stocked to the rafters with traditional masks, textiles, jewelry, candles, leather goods and more. The selection on offer spans the length and breadth of the country, sourcing handicrafts from every region of Guatemala. Stop by for a quick taste of local culture. Bargaining is the norm so don't hesitate to ask for a better price.
The original market, designed by Miguel Rivera Maestre, was located at the Plazuela del Sagrario where the first cemetery of the city used to be. Throughout the years it has been used for different purposes. In 1871, it was used as barracks, but due to the earthquakes of 1917 and 1918, the building started deteriorating. After the earthquake of 1976 it was declared a dangerous building, and it was re-built underground. At present, it offers a wide range of products, including foodstuffs such as grains, fruits and vegetables, live animals, and a great variety of handicrafts made of textiles, silver, leather, wood, maize leaves, bamboo, clay and many other materials.
A small bookshop in the entrance of this well-known Antigua establishment stocks a good number of titles, and a gamut of seating arrangements provide the ideal spot to curl up with your new read or discuss it with new friends. To keep you fueled, the menu offers a variety of cuisines (including plenty of vegetarian food), such hummus and falafel, traditional breakfasts, and plentiful drink selections. Happy hour runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. every evening, with live music most nights and lectures about local history and environmental initiatives every Tuesday.