The town of Antigua or officially “Very Noble and Loyal City of Santiago de los Caballeros of Guatemala” sits an hour west of Guatemala City in the central highlands and was once the capital of Guatemala until an earthquake destroying it in 1773 for the third time in 100 years. The major drawcard of Antigua is the old world colonial Spanish charm and the remnants of an earthquake ravished empire. The pastel colours of the city streets are backset by a number of massive and occasionally active volcanoes, creating postcard perfect views.

The volcanoes that sit around the city are best seen however from the nearby “Earth Lodge”, an organic avocado farm/sustainable lodging set into the side of a hill with a perfect outlook of three of the major volcanoes that surround Antigua. The accomodation at the lodge is a number of tree houses and cabins dotted along the slope giving epic sunrise and sunset views. The forest surrounding Antigua can best be described as temperate, making the area perfect for growing avocados, corn, coffee and the areas biggest crop – cut flowers. Poinsettias, Agapanthus and Lavender grow in rows and are carried down the steep hills and paths strapped around the forehead of hardworking farmers. During the ‘Day of the Devil’ the local people collect all of their unwanted clutter from their houses and make huge effigies that they burn altogether on the street. The story goes that last year there was a clash between the new female mayor and the villagers as she confiscated a huge devil effigy that they made of her, however later succumbed to the masses and allowed it to be burnt alongside a huge Donald Trump and other devilish characters.

So on 20.12.2016 we were finally off on our first overseas venture in almost half a decade. We were to stop over in LA for an 18 hour transit that was squashed in between two long haul overnight flights. We learnt some very important lessons about travelling across the globe and certainly tested the limits with two or so dodgy three hour naps on bumpy flights over the space of about 50 hours. Luckily we managed to break away from the chaos and unhelpful legions at LAX to visit possibly one of the most surprisingly strange places we had ever been. For the grand sum of US$0 you can catch a small tram up to the modern architecture, artistically designed gardens and extremely old renaissance art of The Getty Centre, just a one hour drive NNW of LAX*. The best way to convey how cool this place is is to show you the following stream on photographs.

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Even in our sleepy daze we were able to appreciate the many delights that the Getty has to offer and a good layover day was made even better when we caught up with our buddy Vu for a couple of beers and a wine at LAX’s ‘Planet Hollywood’.

50 hours later after one domestic flights, two international flights, two 90 minute cab rides, and a one hour collectivo we fell into bed at our first port of call in Guatemala – Antigua’s ‘Hostal Antigueno.’

*We probably wouldn’t attempt this day trip with less that an 8 or 9 hour layover in LA.