Prepare your payment to enter La Antigua Guatemala

All the weekends of Lent (Cuaresma) and during the Holy Week La Municipalidad de La Antigua Guatemala (Municipality or City Hall) imposes an entrance fee to all the visitors on wheels.

So on top of all the traffic, crowds, processions, carpeted streets, you have to bring spare change (lots of it) to pay to visit La Antigua Guatemala. Fortunately, the locals (and I mean the villages around LAG) don’t to pay to enter the city.

The sign reads: Prepare you payment for parking and demand your ticket (3 Km ahead). Fine you say, I don’t mind paying for parking, except once you have paid, you entered the city and you realized there is no special parking or anything of the kind; only the same unsafe streets. 🙁

9 Responses to "Prepare your payment to enter La Antigua Guatemala"

Lessie says:
March 12, 2008 at 11:08 am
This is smart of the city. Why shouldn’t they “tax” the people that use their infrastructure? Esp. when there are so MANY of them coming to visit! 🙂
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Claudia says:
March 12, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Somewhere there should be a disclosure though that states it does not in any way infer that there is assigned parking.
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Manolo says:
March 12, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I believe London (England, not Ontario) charges cars for entering its downtown area. Here in Toronto it is always something people think about in order to reduce the amount of cars downtown and generate some revenue for the city. Maybe the misleadingness comes from calling it “parking”, it is just a toll or a tax (arbitrio, pues) for enjoying LAG and its picturesque characters, like General Girón 😉
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Ann (Mobay DP) says:
March 12, 2008 at 9:43 pm
LOL.
Shhh! Don’t tell the local authorities in Montego Bay about this!
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Edgar Carias says:
March 12, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Vos Rudy, y si llego con mi B-2 en la mano, tambien salgo clavado?
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patsy poor says:
March 13, 2008 at 6:03 am
who collects the money?
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Rudy says:
March 13, 2008 at 8:41 am
Lessie, I guess you are right, but should call it a toll tax or something less deceiving.
Claudia, that is exactly my point. Don’t call it parking fees.
Manolo, you are always so quick to see the right way and propose a feasible solutions. Two thumbs up!
Edgar, depends where you B-2 is from. If your B-2 is from La Antigua, its villages or the sorrounding municipalities, then you’re free from paying the toll fee, but if your B-2 is from San Lucas, Santiago or any other municipio of Sacatepéquez, you’d better have cash on hand.
Patsy, the workers hired by the Muni (City Hall government).
Everyone else, the Guatemalan National Identification document is called Cédula. They are extended by the local governments or Municipalities. The cédulas are numbered by two pieces: the first piece states which Departmento (State) you are native from or live at present if you have updated your cédula. For the Departamento de Guatemala is A-1, for Sacatepéquez is B-2 and so on. The second piece is the actual progressive number of the document as being extended by a given Municipalidad. So the actual Guatemalan National Identification Document is numbered by a combination of the code for the Departament and the progressive number of cédulas extended by one particular Municipality.
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Edgar Carias says:
March 13, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Good! I was not about to pay to get into my own town. Saludos y te encargamos los zapotes y los chicos… 😉
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Herber says:
March 14, 2008 at 10:13 am
It’s not that much thou. I believe it’s only Q 2.00 (US$ 0.25)
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Prepare your payment to enter La Antigua Guatemala

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