They only charge the entrance in Antigua for cars during Semana Santa. Is that what you were asking for??
lucy, I wish I could tell you when this happened, but I can't recall the year, nor did I ever know for how long they kept it in force. Must have been about 4 years ago, just not sure. Good chance it was about the same time the town powers were shutting down a bunch of bars and clubs, and made other bars stop serving hard liquor. The town powers were upset with the large influx of car fulls of young city males, many teenagers, coming into town on Saturday night, getting drunk, and racing around the parque central. Plus, a bunch of them were probably Carrie Nations about any sort of drinking. At various times they did a number of things to stop it. One was the noted bar and club closings. Another was passing rules that imposed early curfews on the bars and clubs. I remember when they, without any prior notice, made Mono Loco and others close on Sunday nights at some ridiculous hour, something like 8 o'clock. Another was charging a fee to come into town on Saturday nights on the road from the city. I think the start time for charging was 7 or 8pm. Residents were probably expempted. In fact the fee collectors probably let lots of people through if they didn't fit the profile. There was a little guard house on that road right at the edge of town. I'm also trying to recall how much the fee actually was. Seems like 25Q?
That town power clique is the same group that ran the mayas out of all the parks and open church yards. Now they have tuk-tuks and giant baby strollers all over place. That is God's way of punishing them for their actions......;-)
CAgal.....Maybe the cab driver was veering off the road to stop and receive his "gift".Just like a man!
oh yeah! his gift woulda been a knife stab in his ¨family jewels¨.
the last thing in the world i´d do if i´d never been to GT before is take a cab ride to a city i´d never been before to stay in a hotel i´ve never stayed before nor have any clue where it is (that i may or may not have reservations for- not that that matters here - as on many previous posts many people have noted that it doesn´t matter if you have a res or not if a big group comes to town your little res gets ¨lost¨) schelepping around at night for a hotel when most hotels lock up their doors at 9pm- it´s on any recommended list especially when you can´t even see the signs for hotels in antigua. the tiny signs (because of historical designation) are hard to see in broad daylight 4 feet away!
If you really want to be safe- contact Christian- Servicios Turisticos Christian- Cell 58986846. Email gerardos_christian@hotmail.com. We have recently returned from Guatemala- had to spend a month in GC to await recovery of son to return to Aus. We stumbled upon Christian at the airport in the middle of the night after a very long flight from Darwinand he is marvellous. Obviously will cost a bit more than public transport- but he is a totally trustworthy person with all the local knowledge and is passionate about tourism in his country and about tourists having a very positive experience whilst there. He has contacts and knowledge about accomodation all over the country- and travels wherever you want to go. We were a mother and daughter travelling and Christian and his contacts helped us enormously. Cheers Jacky
trusted partner
