Category: Guatemala

I have a huge list of places I want to visit- and I do mean a huge list.  But Guatemala was not on that list until I got back from Iceland and started looking into some cheaper and easier options for my next trip. From our previous travels to Central America, I already knew that money went a lot further there, there’s no time difference between here and there, and it’s quick and easy to get there. Images of the blue water at Caye Caulker, Belize started popping into my head, but once I started researching, I decided Guatemala was more what I was looking for- to experience culture completely different from my own, have my first experience with ancient ruins, and enjoy one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.

I researched a lot before this trip, so I felt prepared and less stressed than I would have otherwise, but for the most part, the best experiences in Guatemala are not things that come from a lot of planning.

The Highlights

The People– When we told family and friends we were going to Guatemala, their first response was almost always confusion and concern, because why in the world would we want to go somewhere so dangerous?! While I appreciate that they cared, it kind of unnerved me that they all thought we were putting ourselves in such great danger just by being tourists in Guatemala, as though everyone there would be out to murder or rob us.

I’m not naive; I know there are some high crime rates in parts of Guatemala and that the country has its share of bad guys due to the drug trade and gang violence. However, every single person we met or talked to in Guatemala was so warm and so helpful. They were generous with their smiles and laughter, and any time we had a question, they went out of their way to help us.  I am from midwestern USA which is known for its kindness, but in my opinion, the Guatemalans have us beat by a long shot.

Lake Atitlán– I feel like I should be more specific here since we stayed on the lake for 5 days, but there really wasn’t one particular village or place or activity at the lake that stood out above the others… The lake itself was absolutely magnificent. Our eyes just lit up when we first saw it. The villages were all unique, the weather ideal, and the people were the best in Guatemala. Aldous Huxley is oft quoted when discussing Lake Atitlán for his comparison of it to Lake Como in Italy, except better: “Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing.” I agree, Mr. Huxley.

Tikal– I second-guessed our plans for Tikal all the way up until we were on our way. It was a huge added expense since we were flying there and back, and it was difficult to fit perfectly into our itinerary due to the flight times. I have never really been a history buff (though that has been changing slightly), and since I had never before seen ruins, I had no idea whether I would really enjoy it or not. I did. And I am so glad I didn’t talk myself out of going there. Reading about it or seeing pictures does not compare whatsoever to seeing it in person and really feeling the magnitude of it. The temples were hugely impressive, and just imagining when and how they were built had a much bigger effect on me than I would have thought. The fact that the whole city was in the midst of a lush rainforest just made it so much better. It’s a unique experience sitting at the top of the tallest pyramid, above the trees, listening to howler monkeys and birds wake up and trying to imagine the Mayans of a couple thousand years before getting up to start their work for the day.

Luxury on a Budget– Guatemala is incredibly cheap. So cheap that we had no qualms with eating out for nearly every meal, having a beer or two even when just wanting to use wifi at 10 in the morning, renting a house that was way bigger and fancier than we would ever in a million years need, and hiring a private driver for all transport instead of taking buses or shuttles. We were in Guatemala for about twice as long as we were in Iceland, and even with all those extra luxuries, we still spent hundreds of dollars less in Guatemala than we did in Iceland where we pinched pennies every day.

Antigua’s Central Square– I have never been a city girl, and I don’t really like to spend a bunch of time in the big cities when I travel either. I loved Antigua though. It’s a walkable city, and small enough that we could walk all the way across town in around 15-20 minutes. There were several options for restaurants, and the different cathedrals and ruins were beautiful to see.  Mostly, though, I loved sitting in the central park and people-watching. The park is beautiful, and there is just so much activity going on around it that is fun to see and be a part of. Between the live music, buskers, women selling shawls, dogs splashing in fountains, and little kids running around playing, it’s pretty easy to be entertained. Walking down the road to the arch offers even more people-watching and entertainment. It’s a pretty festive atmosphere in the afternoons and evenings, and time passes by just a little too quickly.

The Colors– Oh, colorful Guatemala. It’s pretty easy to be happy and lighthearted when you are surrounded by beautiful flowers, colorful textiles, bright paintings, pastel buildings, and an abundance of sunlight. Compared to the dull, grey winter I had escaped in Kansas, it was like rainbows everywhere. As I am writing this, I have a view of dead trees and a light dusting of snow over dead grass, and a strong urge to go back south right now.

What I Would Do Differently

There is very little the I would change about my trip to Guatemala.

I would probably fly TAG airlines to and from Flores instead of Avianca after our fiasco with them. From what I understand, TAG has smaller planes and is not at the international airport in Guatemala City, which is why we went with Avianca even though they were a bit more expensive. However, I have heard that TAG is more reliable about being on time. I have no idea whether that is true or not, but after the terrible communication and cancel/un-cancel/delay-5-hours/etc. we went through with Avianca, I would take my chances.

I would also stay closer to the center of town in Antigua. I liked the B&B we stayed at quite a bit, but since we spent most of our time walking around town and not in our room, it would have been nice if we would have had a shorter walk, or at least a more pleasant one- the side of town we were on had very few people walking into town while we were, but instead had chicken bus after chicken bus driving on by, belching black smoke in our faces.

Additionally, I wish I had been able to arrange our schedule so that our time in Antigua was not split up. While we had 3 nights in Antigua, we only had one full day there which made me feel like we had to rush around and see as much as possible. It gets dark pretty early (6 or 6:30pm), so there’s not much you can do in the evenings. Because of this, we also felt like we needed to rush through our time at the Chichi market so that we could get back to Antigua in time to enjoy it a little bit before it got dark our last night there. If we had had more daytime there, we would have liked to see some more of the ruins on the outskirts of town or hike up to Cerro de la Cruz to get a view of all of Antigua.

I would have loved to go paragliding over the lake as I had planned, but since wind is what got in the way of that, there’s nothing I could have done differently.

If I go back to Guatemala someday, I would skip Tikal since I have already seen it, and would go to Semuc Champey instead. I had wanted to go there this trip, but as it takes almost a full day to drive there and almost a full day to drive back to GC/Antigua, I couldn’t fit it in.  I spoke to several people, though, who said Semuc was the highlight of their trip to Guatemala. It is a natural limestone bridge with a series of beautiful turquoise pools stepped atop it.  I would do Antigua again for a couple days, preferably on a weekend when it’s at its liveliest, and then spend the rest of my time on the lake.

We had to leave the lake at 8am, so we got up early enough to enjoy one last sunrise there next to the fire before gathering all our things and catching the lancha.

We said goodbye to our hosts and hopped on the first lancha going toward Panajachel. It was surprisingly not that full, but of course, that didn’t last long. Large numbers of people climbed on on our next two stops, so that the entire front of the lancha which does not have benches was full of people standing and sitting as well. The guy behind me was wearing a KU National Champs tshirt which is awesome since, as a Kansas girl, I am a huge KU fan. He probably doesn’t even know who KU is though.

Once in Pana, we met up with Alfredo, our driver. He took us on to Chichicastenango, which holds a massive market on Thursdays and Sundays. There was so much color everywhere we looked, and so many people that it was hard to walk. And Alfredo told us that it was a quiet day there!

There is the tourist portion of the market, and then the local portion. They had a bit of everything.  The produce part was packed full of fresh fruits and vegetables, and smelled like cilantro. I love cilantro.

Alfredo gave us bits of information about everything, what things were, what the locals do, etc. One thing I found interesting was when he was describing the tops that the Mayan women wear. There are the smaller ones with one hole for the head for the younger girls. There are the larger ones with one hole for the head for the older women. And then there are the larger ones, with one hole for the head and another hole for breastfeeding for the other women. If you’ve been around the indigenous populations in Guatemala much, you realize that they have a ton of kids and start pretty young.

On the steps of the Church, they sold beautiful flowers.

We got to the livestock portion which was incredibly difficult for me. In the US, pretty much all meat is factory farmed which is a cruel process, but one that people don’t see. In Guatemala, the meat is more from farms, and they sell live chickens, cows, and turkeys at these markets. They are not treated like living creatures, but more like props. The chickens are all stuffed in baskets together with a net keeping them in, and their feet tied together. The cows are very skinny. There was a very distraught pig that multiple people were fighting to keep in a truck. And I don’t mean this to be negative to the Guatemalan people. They are not wealthy, and clearly, taking care of themselves and their families is more important to them than the farm animals, and these animals provide necessary money and/or food for them. But it was not a fun part for me to see.

We walked on to the cemetery which was really interesting. I am used to the cemeteries in the US, where the people are buried with just some sort of stone or granite marker. Here, the bodies are held in above-ground mausoleums. As with everything in Guatemala, they are very colorful as the colors stand for different things. You can tell the wealthier families from the poorer families by looking at the mausoleums.

We made our way back through the market to go on to Antigua.

We had some interesting conversations with Alfredo on the way, and before we knew it, we were at our hostel. We got checked in and carried our stuff up to our room. We had a private room (though shared bathrooms), and the lovely terrace was right outside our door. The arch was a few blocks away, and the park just a little bit further than that. A huge, yummy breakfast was included as well. Only $25 total for the night we were there… and Antigua is more expensive than the rest of Guatemala.

We started walking around. There was a park we hadn’t seen before, full of locals.  Many of them were making out, so we felt like we were intruding a bit, and walked on to the square.  It was so lively! I don’t know if it’s always that fun and exciting on Sundays, or if something else was going on, but it was perfect. There were buskers performing, live music and people dancing, tons of locals and tourists and dogs walking around, having a great time.

We noticed there were a lot of men walking around with big, muscular pitbulls, most of them wearing shirts that said Team 502 on the back and something about “Destruyendo” on the front, but we couldn’t see what else. We weren’t sure what it was all about but didn’t want to jump to conclusions… So Anthony asked. Apparently they are a group that works to destroy the myth that pitbulls are a dangerous and violent breed. It was Pitbull Ambassador Day.  I was super excited. I love any type of animal rights movement really. I happily climbed down to take pictures with the big, mean dogs ;).

A little while after, we saw some pitt babies too, so I got a big, wet kiss on the lips from one.

We went to the little market, and Anthony bought a mask to hang up in his office.

It was a perfectly magical evening for our last night in Guatemala. So bittersweet because I really did not want to leave. We ate some dinner, and when we started walking back to our hostel, it was very chilly and dark, but people were still out, enjoying themselves. We walked by another park with lots of food stands and people hanging out, laughing and eating and toasting to another wonderful Guatemalan weekend. The main part of the city is quite beautiful in the evenings.

We continued on to our hostel where we spent the rest of the evening hanging out on the terrace. Monday, the 11th day of our trip, we had to say “Adios” to Guatemala. I hope to come back some day and will miss it terribly in the meantime.

Our 9th day in Guatemala was our last full day at the lake.  I woke up wanting to cry, but instead, rushed around so that we could go hike a volcano. The volcano across from our house to be exact.

While waiting on the lancha to take us to San Pedro, the waters were once again calm, and there was a fisherman out on his kayak. It was very picturesque.

We caught the lancha, and the head of the agency met us and had us come to the office real quick before getting our “taxi” ready for us. Turns out a taxi means the bed of a pickup truck, which we had seen often but had not yet experienced.  So we went speeding up the hill to the entrance of the volcano standing in the back of a truck.  We got checked in and started marching proudly to our fate.

I had read that this hike was very strenuous and tough, but we are young and in decent shape. I mean, I take the stairs up to the 5th floor at work every day, so I’ve got this, right?

Volcán San Pedro is approximately 10,000 feet high or over 3,000 meters. And it is steep. There are no parts that just level off. You just climb up and up and up. Our guide was pretty well worthless- he just ran ahead of us as fast as he could without saying a word. Apparently my training of taking the stairs at work was not enough. I had to stop constantly, especially since we were at a much higher altitude than I am used to back home in Kansas and couldn’t catch my breath.  Fortunately, there were a lot of great views to see when we stopped.

There were two guys from England on the hike with us, and they seemed pretty grateful to stop  frequently as well. We talked about our travels, and when we said we were only in Guatemala for 11 days, they said “11 days! Tha’s all?!” And when Anthony explained to him that most Americans only get 2 weeks vacation, they responded, “Two weeks for a whole year! Tha’s insane!” Thanks. We know.

After climbing what felt like 5 million kilometers, I thought we had to have at least gotten halfway up when I saw a sheltered look-out point. We climbed up to the second story for the view, and noticed on the sign that we were only one-third the way up. For the second time that day, I wanted to cry. My hiking boots are a bit big on me, so they had already managed to rub throbbing blisters into the back of my heels, and my poor little heart wanted to explode.

After catching my breath and giving myself a pep talk, I was totally ready to move on. There were a few people from other groups who had just decided to stay there at that lookout point and give up on the rest, but I was not going to be a quitter.

But then as soon as we started climbing again, my blisters hurt worse than before and I was out of breath again after 3 minutes. Anthony kept encouraging me, mostly because we couldn’t make Americans look bad in front of the English. It was a total competition. I would square my shoulders and trudge up a bit more, then stop. Then again. Then we got this fantastic view before we would be entering the jungle, and that’s when the guide told us it would be our last view for the next 2 hours until we reached the top. Son of a…

Anthony was looking at me expectantly, so I started up again, but those damn blisters made me want to collapse to the ground with every step I took, and my windpipe was protesting any air coming in so that I could breathe, and once we got a little ways up in the forested part, I told Anthony I was not going to be able to make it. If it was just the difficulty of the climb, I probably could have pushed myself the rest of the way up, but very slowly. But my God, those blisters turned me into the biggest baby in the world. Anthony told the guide we were going to go ahead and turn back, and I’m sure his pride was damaged with the young Englishmen venturing their way up to the top while we gave up, but he happens to be a pretty fantastic husband who doesn’t let his pride get in the way of his wife’s well-being, so he put a grin on his face and turned back down. My hero.

Fortunately, the walking downwards caused my feet to shift forward in my shoes, so they were no longer rubbing at the blisters. It was a pretty treacherous descent, though, with the loose dirt and gravel down those steep slopes.  My knees were starting to get just a bit achy when we noticed the old Mayan man for the first time. Who knows how far up the volcano he goes every day, but the first time we saw him was after the third way point. And he walks all the way back down, carrying a ton of logs on his back, strapped to his forehead. He had to have been in his upper 60s-70s, but here he was, using his head and his back to carry all these logs down a volcano, with only a stick to help keep him from falling all the way down. I felt pretty wimpy after that and decided I’d better not complain about my achy knees.

When we finally made it back down and into town, we stopped for some chips and guac to rest a bit, and I started looking at the reviews for the hike to make me feel better about myself. It mostly accomplished that. While most of the reviews were “Super hard but worth it!” there were more than enough college athletes and similar talking about how it was the hardest thing they had ever done. All of a sudden, I went from “I wasn’t able to make it to the top of the volcano :(“ to “Holy crap, I almost made it to the top of that volcano! I’m a badass!”

Slight exaggeration, but leave me alone.

We got back on a lancha, and when I asked Anthony for the camera, I managed to drop my phone. I drop my phone multiple times a day from various heights onto various surfaces (such as concrete), and it is indestructible, but apparently, it could not survive the one foot drop onto the metal floor of the lancha because the screen cracked pretty majorly.

It’s still usable, so oh well, I’ll deal. We stopped at San Marcos to eat a late lunch, at another vegetarian restaurant set back in a beautiful garden area. We decided to try and snap pictures of birds while we waited for our food.

Once we were done, we walked back to the lancha.  I could not handle my boots rubbing on my blisters for another second, so I embraced my inner hippie and walked barefoot like everyone else in town, and we sadly said goodbye to San Marcos. I’ll miss that quirky little village.

It was just us and another couple on the lancha for the first time ever, and I was a bit suspicious when the captain did not know our dock and did not know which side he should come up to our dock. He fumbled around a bit, and while he did that, the other couple told us not to pay him too much because it was supposed to be a private shuttle for them. Nice.

We climbed up to our house, all of our muscles protesting, got cleaned up, and went back down to the dock to hang out.

It was getting very cloudy out, and when the sun started to set, it cast a pinkish hue on the clouds, which our camera gladly picked up and intensified.

It was absolutely beautiful down there, and it was the last sunset we would experience at the lake. Having 5 days there got me all sentimental about it. I did not want to leave whatsoever.