City overview
Guatemala packs volcanoes, Maya cities and colonial streets into a country you can cross in a day. Antigua's cobbled centre sits beneath three volcanoes, Lake Atitlan fills a crater ringed by Maya villages, and Tikal's temples rise out of the Peten rainforest. The Jewish community numbers under a thousand people, almost all of them in Guatemala City, where an Orthodox congregation and a Sephardi society have both been established for a century. Three Chabad houses serve travellers - one in the capital, one in Antigua and one on the shore of Lake Atitlan - and each of them cooks. Kosher food, Shabbos meals and a minyan are all reachable on the standard Guatemala route.
Iglesia y Convento de La Merced
Antigua
The mustard-yellow La Merced is Antigua's most ornate baroque facade, and the ruined cloister behind it holds what is said to be the largest fountain in Central America.
Time needed
45 minutes
Tips
The church itself is free to enter; a small fee is charged at the side entrance for the ruins and fountain behind it. Climb to the upper level for a view over the rooftops to the volcanoes.
Phone
7832 0559Neighborhood
Antigua Guatemala
Activity providers
Kosher map of Antigua
Pick a place on the map or search an address or hotel to see what is kosher around it.