Accommodations and Food

Should you need to stay here, your best bet is Hotel Hernandez (3a Calle 7-41 Zona 1, tel. 7942-0708), with various types of rooms ranging from $6–20 d. The most expensive rooms overlook the swimming pool and have air-conditioning.

A backup plan is Hotel Posada Perla de Oriente (2a Calle and 12 Avenida, tel. 7942-0014, $25–45 d), with tropical gardens, a swimming pool, and large, clean rooms with fan, hot-water bathroom, and cable TV. There are also rooms with air-conditioning. The restaurant serves decent food.

Other options for food include Pollo Campero, on the corner of 7a Avenida and 4a Calle, serving the fried chicken so beloved by Guatemalans in an air-conditioned environment.

A fancier option is Restaurante Chiquimulja (3a Calle 6-51 Zona 1), part of its namesake hotel, serving pasta dishes, grilled meats, and other international fare ($5–8) in an attractive two-story palm-roofed building. It overlooks the central plaza. Guatemala’s best-known supermarket chain, Paiz (recently acquired by Wal-Mart), is next door on the corner of 7a Avenida and 3a Calle.

Getting to Chiquimula

The town bus terminal is midway between the plaza and the highway on 1a Calle between 10a and 11a Avenidas. There are hourly buses to Guatemala City (3.5 hours) and Puerto Barrios (4 hours), half-hourly minibuses to Esquipulas (1 hour), hourly buses and minibuses to Ipala (1 hour) and the Salvadoran border at Anguiatú (1 hour). Buses to the El Florido border (1.5 hours, for Copán, Honduras) leave from a separate terminal one block north every 45 minutes until 4:30 p.m.

© Al Argueta from Moon Guatemala, 3rd Edition. Photos © Al Argueta www.alargueta.com