Category: Guatemala

We soaked up all our remaining minutes on the lake, eating breakfast on our patio, reading in the hammock, going for one last dip in the water. 

And then we packed our stuff and caught a lancha back to Pana, where our driver met us to take us back to Antigua. For whatever reason, there were lots of police out on the highways back. At one point, we got pulled over into a check point. Anthony handed over his passport, we sat and waited awhile, and then his passport was brought back, and we continued on our way.

Upon arrival, we checked in to our new AirBnB, a beautiful home built right into the ruins, just a block from the arch and 3 blocks from the main square. It had a lovely patio overlooking the backyard patio, and then a rooftop terrace giving us little glimpses of the sites around us.

We were starving, so we went out to grab lunch. It was Thanksgiving back home, afterall, which meant we had to feast. So we got papusas. Which happened to be across the street from some ruins we had not yet seen, so once we were done eating, we walked over, paid a small entrance fee, and wandered around.

After exploring Antigua awhile, we went over to Sky Bar to have a drink with a view (what wasn’t covered by clouds anyway). Overlooking ancient Antigua, drinking Moscow Mules and listening to Of Monsters and Men play on the radio, we laughed about the fusion of cultures.

After the sun set, it started to get chilly, so we left to find dinner. We walked through the park, noticing that they were setting up for something there. We grabbed a small, healthy dinner and then came back to the park. There was some kind of performance going on, so we stood and watched for awhile, enjoying the festive atmosphere.

Eventually, we went back home to enjoy some wine on our rooftop terrace.

I woke up the next day, our last full day, with a sore throat. We went to the pharmacy for meds, grabbed a small breakfast at a bakery, and then walked to Simoon Tours for our Mountain ATV tour. 

Our guide showed Anthony how to drive the ATV, I hopped on behind him, and then we were off, bouncing all the way through town and then up the mountain to San Cristobal El Alto. 

From here, we had a great view down to Antigua and over to the volcanoes. We wandered through some gardens, ate some tasty loquats from the trees, and then returned to our ATVs to ride back down to Antigua and then back up a different direction. 

At some point, we parked again, and then got into the bed of a truck for a Guatemalan taxi up the rest of the way to Hobbitenango, Guatemala’s version of Hobbiton, and honestly, it’s pretty adorable.

There are a few different restaurants and bars tucked behind the hobbit doors. There’s mini golf and archery and bag toss and various other games to play. Further up the hill, there are some viewpoints and some hammocks to relax in.

Once we were done exploring, we went back to the truck to take us back down to our ATVs. We rode to Earth Lodge, an eco-friendly lodge, restaurant, and avocado farm, to eat some lunch. I was starving, so we ordered about half the menu and talked with the other couple on the tour who were from Germany. We shared travel stories and compared traditions from our countries.

When we finished, we hiked back up the hill to our ATVs and rode over to Cerro de la Cruz, an excellent viewpoint out over Antigua. We were pretty quickly able to spot our house/rooftop from there, which was pretty cool. 

We hung out for awhile, talking with our guide, and then we headed back to town, tour over.

I was sick and worn out, so we went back to the house for a nap. But I didn’t want to waste our last night in Guatemala, so we ventured back out that evening for dinner, walking through our favorite parts of town. After dinner, we went to the square, where once again, a stage was set up, and a young woman was singing in her indigenous language. We discovered that it was some kind of cultural festival. 

We stood there and enjoyed the free concert for some time, and then decided to go out for one last drink, stopping in at some fancy looking place right next door to our house. 

We talked for awhile over cocktails, thinking back over the whole trip and what we were looking forward to about going back home. We went up to the terrace, watching some lightning in the distance and listening to the various sounds of the cities.

The next morning, we had time for one more breakfast in the city, and then we went back to pack up and catch our ride to the airport, sad to leave but looking forward to the next time we come back.

We hopped on our first lancha of the trip, after informing the kid ushering us over that we needed to go to “Casa Rosada”. He nodded, grabbed my suitcase, threw it on top of the lancha, and we got in and crossed our fingers, hoping we’d end up in the right spot.

I was seated next to the two cutest old ladies, chatting away in earnest. They could have been saying terrible things about me, I wouldn’t know, but I thought they were adorable.

We enjoyed the ride, stopping at the various villages along the way, until I recognized our AirBnB and waved at them to stop at our dock. We dropped our luggage off with the workers there, and then hopped right back on the lancha to head into town, San Marcos.

We had a couple hours to kill in San Marcos until we could officially check in, so we went and sat in a park, where Anthony read, and I bought a bag of potato chips to feed a very skinny dog I found.

We wandered around a little bit, trying to remember where everything was. It had already changed so much since the last time we were there, which was around five years ago. Before, the dock was much smaller, and when you got off the boat, there were dozens of young boys who’d rush over to you to offer to show you around (for some money of course). Now, the dock has been built up, and there was no sign of the little boys.

But it still very much had its “hippie” vibe, signs everywhere for tarot readings, reiki sessions, shamans, cacao ceremonies, and obviously lots of yoga classes. It’s definitely not Anthony’s vibe, and while the pseudo-science isn’t exactly my scene either, I do love that I can eat vegan pretty much anywhere in town. It’s also the quietest of the villages around the lake. You can walk around through the maze of sidewalks with no tuk tuks or trucks belching exhaust in your face. And thus, it is my favorite.

We went to Samsara for lunch, one of the many vegetarian restaurants, where we snacked on some delicious, fresh food. We relaxed there for awhile, enjoying the garden surroundings.

We had more time to kill, so we stopped somewhere else for a drink and then bought a bottle of wine to go, and hopped back on the lancha for the short ride to our new home.

We were shown to our room with the world’s most magnificent view out over the lake to the volcanoes.

We hung out on our patio, Anthony reading in the hammock and me playing with the numerous dogs that lived there.

As the temperate cooled, we enjoyed a spectacular sunset as well as a glass of wine.

We then wandered over to the restaurant terrace for a private, candle-lit, 7 course dinner, feeling ridiculously fancy and pampered.

The food was made with such fresh ingredients from their garden, I enjoyed every course, topped off with some amazing vegan cardamom ice cream at the end.

The next day, I woke up super early to catch the sunrise from our patio, watching the fishermen paddle by on their canoes.

The sun came up a little brighter, and with it, the lanchas started running, Anthony woke up, and a crane joined me by the patio.

We took the kayak out on the water and headed toward the nearby village of Tzununa. The water was still calm, and the sun was bright and warm as we took our time, barely paddling on the way there. 

We turned back, got cleaned up, and headed over to the terrace for breakfast, surrounded by flowering vines. We had watermelon and papaya, some homemade bread and jam, and fresh salads. Pretty great way to greet the day.

We relaxed back at our room and patio awhile, and then headed back to San Marcos. There, we ate an early lunch at Il Giardino. 

We went on to San Juan, a mostly indigenous community full of stores selling art, woven textiles, traditional Mayan dress, ceramics, and so on. We walked through town awhile, getting lost in some more industrial areas, before turning back down to the main (very steep) street. We looked around through the various shops, bought a painting by a local artist, bought a blanket and stuffed animal for our new baby niece that we would likely be meeting once we made it back to the States, and overall, had a pleasant stroll.

Once our shopping was over, we caught the world’s bumpiest tuk tuk ride over to San Pedro. There, we sat in the park, walked the streets a bit, and then went down to the water to have a drink and chill.

The sun was getting lower and the air getting cooler, so we got on a lancha back over to San Marcos for dinner. After that, we went back home to relax and read for the rest of the evening.

I did some yoga the following morning on our patio in the warmth of the sunshine.

We went over to the dock for our breakfast, enjoying the views while we had basically the same breakfast as the day before.

It was already pretty hot out, so we decided to go for a swim at our private beach. Well, Anthony swam; I waded.

I probably wouldn’t want to swim in the lake near the main cities, but the water was clean, clear, and refreshing at our AirBnB. Also a tad on the chilly side.

We caught a lancha to San Pedro for lunch, getting a vegan pizza and burrito at Fifth Dimension, with another view over the water. The view is a bit less spectacular on that side of the lake, but obviously still pretty great.

We walked across town, zig-zagging through the (again, super steep) streets, to get to the dock for the boats to Santiago. We apparently got there just in time, paid for our roundtrip tickets, and hopped on, for the 30-40 minute boat ride over to town. 

Santiago is always listed on websites as the village to visit to see the “real” Maya life, but for quite awhile on the main road up from the dock, it seems the most targeted to tourists. Shops geared toward tourists and restaurants with “authentic chinese food” or hamburgers and pizzas everywhere you look. 

We kept going up past all that, but I can’t say the locals looked terribly happy to see us there, so we veered over to the central park to sit for awhile instead. A beggar pretty quickly found us, which usually doesn’t bother me, but he reeked of alcohol and was practically sitting on my lap. We got back up, and wandered on, walking through the market.

We stopped in for a Gallo at one of the restaurants, watching the soccer game on tv.  Afterward, we stopped in at an art gallery, where all the art was made using leftover, dried out coffee grounds. It was actually really impressive, and we appreciated the education the owner gave us on it. We bought a small painting (I guess you can still call it that??), and then went back down to catch the lancha back to San Pedro. 

Once there, we just walked back across town to the other dock for the lancha to San Marcos.  There, we found the restaurant at La Paz, tucked way back from the road in the middle of the gardens, a little Mayan girl following us there to ask us in English for money for her school, so we obliged.

It’s a beautiful setting, and an adorable little kitty befriended me while we were there, purring and kneading on my lap.

We were still pretty full from lunch, so we shared some delicious guac, a salad, and a pineapple turmeric smoothie. 

We went back to the dock for our lancha back to our house. It took forever for one to show up and tons of people were crowding to get on. It was over-full and the pilot decided he could rip us off by charging us 4 times the amount they usually charge to get to our AirBnB, but such is life.

The following morning, we again had breakfast on the dock.

We got ready, and went back to the dock to wait for a lancha. This time, we were heading the opposite direction to Santa Cruz. We got off at the main dock there, but then after some google research, discovered the hiking trail we were looking for was further down by boat. So we went back to the dock to wait again, getting back on a lancha for a short ride over to the nature reserve.

The reserve starts behind a lodge, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there, so we wandered along various trails and non-trails, trying not to trespass at anyone’s house, until we finally decided to head into the lodge and ask someone there. Jackpot. They charged us an entrance fee, gave us a map, and then showed us where it started.

Immediately, the hike was steeply uphill. We somehow got off the track, ran into a helpful worker who showed us a little shortcut back to the path, and then we climbed up to a viewpoint with a hammock. I caught my breath, already sweaty and exhausted even though we had just started. High altitude hikes are hard for this Kansas girl.

We turned back down to the main path, and we climbed, climbed, and climbed some more. Fortunately, there were many beautiful views and flowers. I stopped every couple minutes to enjoy them and again catch my breath. 

I wasn’t sure I was going to make it the whole way. My chest was heavy, my legs tired and shaky, and we were still climbing uphill. 

At last, the trail started going down. And it went down FAST. The trail was so steep, I alternated between practically sprinting down, and slipping down on my ass. 

I was drenched in sweat by the time we were done. I had a massage planned for after, and I was already feeling sorry for my massage therapist, having to deal with my sweat and my dusty feet.

I waited on the lancha, with my feet dangling in the water. At long last, it took us back to town, Santa Cruz. There, we caught a tuk tuk because there was no way I was going to walk up the steep street to town after that hike.  

We went to a restaurant called Cafe Sabor Cruceno, where the proceeds went to the cooking school there. The view was amazing, the food was absolutely delicious tipico Guatemalan food. Most of the options had vegan versions, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Pepian, the Tayuyos, and the Patanos Mole.

Refueled, we walked back down to the dock, and then took the most bizarre path along the coast to get to where I was going to have my massage.

Or so I thought. I had emailed her the day before to make sure she had openings, and she said “anytime between 10 and 3!” We got there at 1:30, and the guys doing the kayak rental told us that she wasn’t there. She was back in Pana, but they could call her and she’d get there in an hour.  I decided it wasn’t worth it, so we went down to their dock to wait for a lancha.

But then she showed up while we were waiting! … But then informed me that she’s getting over an illness and didn’t really feel up to it, and also, her massage room is basically one giant hole right now (???), soooo, we went back to waiting for the boat. 

We went into Pana just to use an ATM, and then went right back down to the dock to get a lancha back to our house. 

We were dying of heat after our long morning and afternoon, so we immediately changed into our swimsuits to go for a swim.

Some lounging and relaxation kept us happy until dinnertime, another fancy meal there at our AirBnB, our last night before heading back to Antigua.

Our old driver, Alfredo, picked us up at the airport upon arrival in Guatemala. He drove us out to Antigua and dropped us off at our AirBnB for the night.

We got settled in, charging up some gadgets, and then went to grab a late lunch/early dinner at a vegan restaurant nearby, set back in a beautiful courtyard. 

Afterward, we wandered around town, getting reacquainted with it and where all of our favorite sites were. 

It got dark early, so we went ahead and turned back to our place, hoping to find somewhere to buy a bottle of wine on the way. 

We never passed a store with wine, but we saw a sign right before our BnB for a restaurant with wine and tapas, so we turned down the road to go there instead, and it turned out to be a little slice of heaven.

We were the only ones there, and we wandered back to the small courtyard, surrounded by greenery and a small stone fountain. The owner kept adding some mood lighting for us, first some fairy lights and then some candles. We got an order of mushrooms and a bottle of red to split, and had a lovely time.

We went back and read until we fell asleep.

The next morning, we headed into town early to try to avoid the people and cars. We weren’t super successful, and nothing opens in that town until 9, but it was pleasant wandering around in the chilly morning air. 

We went back to our place for breakfast, and then went to run some quick errands before Alfredo picked us up.

The drive to Lake Atitlán took just over 2 hours, which is much shorter than I remembered it being. As we approached the lake, the roads started winding sharply back and forth, and I worried my vertigo was going to act up, but we made it to busy Panajachel with no issues. We passed through and went to Santa Catarina Palopó instead, where we climbed a million stairs up to our house.

I’d like to say it was the view that took our breath away, but truly it was the climb that did that. But still, the view was pretty spectacular.

After settling in, we got a tuk tuk back into Pana for some food and groceries. Around the lake, there are really three modes of transportation: the 3-wheeled tuk tuks, a “taxi” which is a pick-up truck that you ride in the bed of, or boat lancha to get between villages.

Pana is probably the most chaotic town on the lake. Tuk tuks and taxis and motor bikes zipping by constantly, the locals trying to sell anything from bananas to paintings to clothing to dolls. You sit down in a restaurant, and an adorable kid will come in to try to sell you a bracelet. And then of course, there are stray dogs everywhere, but possibly my favorite thing about Pana is all the places you can donate some money for restaurants and stores to buy food for the strays. I didn’t see a single starving dog there.

After eating some amazing papusas, we walked to the supermarket to buy some groceries for the house. We messaged our tuk tuk driver, and he took us back home from there.

We watched a lovely sunset from our deck, and then we had a massage therapist come to the house that evening so that we could both get a massage. Aside from the sound of fireworks and cheering from the festival going on in Santa Catarina, it was a perfectly relaxing evening.

A stray pup found us after this, befriending us with hugs and kisses. I fed her some chips and peanut butter, and she kept us company while we spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub, and then we left her to go to bed.

I woke up to a beautiful sunrise, the soft light pouring in through the giant window in front of our bed. Soon after that, the fireworks started back up.

We spent the morning relaxing before heading back into town to go paragliding. Unfortunately, I had still been feeling sick since the last day in Mexico, and once it came time to actually leave on the van, I decided I needed to back out. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere or flying in the air and feeling sick sounded like a bad idea. Of course, as soon as I made that decision, my stomach started feeling a little better again.

We grabbed a snack and then wandered down Calle Santander, doing a little shopping. After awhile, we went back to the house to relax, cook some dinner, and hang out in the hot tub again after the sun set.

The next morning was pretty much a repeat. A beautiful sunrise, some breakfast and reading, and then back into town to try again at paragliding.

We had to wait a little while, so we went to a deli to grab some drinks and then went back to the office. This time, I felt more up to it, and we hopped in the van, just the two of us. 

We met up with our pilots at the landing zone. We started driving off, but then another pilot landed, so they invited him to come along with us to head back up the mountain and go again.

On the way up, we went through a town called Godinez, where some rando hopped in the van with us. I still haven’t figured out who he was or why he came along, but they had a great time joking in the back of the van, while we wound our way up through avocado bushes, eventually looking like we were going to head straight off the cliff.

But then we were at our take off point, and I climbed out, completely ecstatic. 

I got all geared up, we started running forward, and then got pulled back in a tangled jumble of legs and gear, but then the wind lifted us back up just enough that we ran off and caught some air. 

We flew over multiple towns and beautiful homes and gardens. My pilot, Christian, would follow where he saw trees and flowers rustling, knowing there’d be some wind there to lift us higher. We made it into some thermals, which lifted us so high that we were literally in the clouds and could not see anything but white around us. Christian kept cheering and calling me his “sky girl”. 

We did a few acrobatics, but since I still wasn’t feeling 100%, we mostly just floated peacefully around the cliffs and out over the water. I started feeling a little queasy eventually, so after around 45 minutes in the air, we started making our way back down.

Anthony took off not long after I did. At one point, our guides flew us toward each other so that our canopies were just touching. Anthony was still nervous about paragliding, but he seemed a bit more relaxed than the last couple times.

We stood around awhile after landing, people-watching. A few young Mayan girls came up to me to get selfies with me and then ran off giggling, and I’m still not sure why.

We walked back up Calle Santander and then stopped for papusas again. Afterward, we got a tuk tuk back home, enjoying one last sunset, home-cooked dinner, and hot tub time at the house. 

The next morning, we got our stuff packed up, went to one last viewpoint, and then headed into town to catch a lancha across the lake. 

I would have been sad to leave Santa Catarina, but I knew where we were going was going to be even better.