In April 1920 , during the very last days of Manuel Estrada Cabrera regime , prince Wilhelm of Sweden visited Antigua Guatemala and wrote about his impressions of the city in his book '' Between two continents '' . His book is an objective description of the terrible conditions the road and the ruins used to be in : " For some little way outside Guatemala City it was a fairly decent car ride , but then the roads began developing sand drifts , and later , rockfalls of tumbled stone as two years earlier , the country had been devastated by a powerful earthquake and government corruption made the recovery impossible " . " The hills grew steeper and steeper , the jolting more pronounced and the stones even sharper ; besides , on top of the road was a two-foot layer of dust which hid the pitfalls but did not detract from their effect " . " Along the way , they passed long lines of Indians on their way to Guatemala City , carrying their heavy burdens with apparent ease ; men , women and children carried something in the way of a load , and they all carried it quickly . With respect to traffic , it was almost non-existent , aside from mule-pulled wagons "
a powerful earthquake
1917 Guatemala earthquake
Antigua Guatemala