Thousands of tourists come and go each year and many fall in love with the city and stay to earn a livelihood. The whole place looks like a movie set for an Ivory-Merchant film of genteel by-gone Latin American life. At the core is Central Park with its dribbling mermaid fountain surrounded by palatial arcaded buildings, a downsized wedding-cake cathedral and horse-drawn carriage taxis. This former capital city is clearly a destination place for locals and foreigners, for craftsmen, laborers, big spending visitors and Mayan vendors. Woven into the charm is a small gay community of friends. Antigua, Guatemala is more like an outdoor museum than a living city, overloaded with colonial Spanish architecture, yellow-ochre-blue walls, tiny specialty shops full of artwork, paintings and local jewelry, touristic but charming cafes serving quiche or dark chocolate drinks and dozens of old church ruins–and functioning ones as well–rough cobblestone roads constantly under repair, high-end and low-end hotels.
