Guatemala
Firstly, apologies for what will be quite a long post with many photos. The Guatemalan leg of our long journey home, has been by far the most actioned packed and by far our favourite (so far….i’m Looking at you Mexico )!
We witnessed one of the most amazing sights we have ever seen, went our of our comfort zones and overcame some serious challenges, met some amazing people, got ripped off by tour companies and robbed on local buses and made some life long friends…. A truly culturally rich, colourful county filled surprises around every corner!
Antigua
The first stop was Antigua - a very pretty but quite touristy town, with architecture, cobbled stone streets and cafes that felt like you could be in many of the European cities we have visited.
We ended up visiting Antigua twice in our trip ( necessary to start a hike - see below)...and each time the place provided us a little unfortunate pain...when we first arrived we found that the first 10+ ATM’s we tried wouldn’t give us cash as they didn’t like MasterCard, with one ATM even seemingly taking close to £100 from us, which thankfully got released after a few days. To add to this Chris had his phone stolen when we were on our back to Antigua on one of the local chicken busses (very lucky it was only a phone and amazing we had got this far without incident). We were pulling up at the bus station in Antigua, the guy was super opportunistic, took the phone from my jacket pocket and the jumped out the back door of a moving bus to escape.
However we still made the most of it and managed to find cheap ‘menu del dia’ (menus of the day) at local restaurants - enjoying 2-3 courses and a juice for equivalent of under $6 / £3 per person. We also discovered Pupusa’s - an El Salvadorian dish that is basically a big stuffed tortilla filled with cheese and a multitude of other fillings....extremely tasty!
Quetzaltenango (Xela)
Xela is one of the largest city in Guatemala, and though we hadn’t originally planned on stopping here it was necessary to begin one of the hikes we went on. It was awesome to find that we actually loved the city. We felt it gave us a more raw and authentic insight into the different ends of the spectrum of real life in Guatemala. This more ‘cultural’ feel was very welcome after our recent stint in Costa Rica (where this somehow been completely dulled down due to tourism). Highlights in Xela:
We were lucky enough that it was Guatemalan Independence Day on the weekend we were there and got to witness a cool street parade in which there were a lot people, beautiful local dress, music and dancing.
The markets in Xela are huge, vibrant, aroma filled, busy and somewhat overwhelming for all senses - but we loved them. We got lost for some 3-4 hours in different markets around the city sampling a little produce, seeing how it all worked, taking it in. it seemed that you could buy literally anything you could imagine at these markets, from second hand clothes to fresh produce, to cleaning products, to kitchen accessories, to shoes....and the list goes on.
We discovered Xelapan, a famous Xela only based bakery chain. It was soooooo good. On one day we purchased 11 items (with the vanilla custard donut and choc chip cookies being some of our favourites)!
Finding a very local Pupusa food stall that we went to both nights for dinner, selling piping hot Pupusa for just £1.50 each.
Having a bottle of Chilean wine at a local wine bar - our first wine in nearly 2 months!
Meeting Rob and Hannelore at a petrol station on the highway between Antigua and Xela. Coincidentally they were also travelling to Xela for the same hike we were. This was a very chance meeting considering there were only 7 people in total on this hike!
Xela - Lake Atitlan Hike
Hiking through the mountains from Xela to San Pedro at Lake Atitlan
We booked this hike a few months ago, and finally the time had come. A 3 day, 46km hike, through the mountains (the highest point of the hike being 3050m). Cutting to the chase the hike was amazing, made all the more better by being extremely lucky to get a small group of some of the nicest people you could ever meet!
After 20km of hiking on the first day up a mountain, through tall corn fields and cloud forests we made it to a small Mayan village called Santa Catarina where we spent the night in the town hall. Given it was Independence Day celebrations in the very small town were booming and provided much entertainment. We also had the opportunity to try a local sauna, a Temazcal. Boni found the experience a bit caustraphobic. You basically got into what looked like a home made pizza oven with live coals and 2 buckets of water (one cold and the other hot), which you pooped over yourself. This was a awesome experience and very refreshing after a 20km hike with no creature comforts to be seen.
The second day again covered 20km with many river crossings, we ended the day in Santa Clara, treated to a home cooked Guatemalan meal. The final day was much easier, a 6km descent, our first view of the majestic Lake Atitlan and a celebratory beer and diving into the fresh waters of the lake off a 5.5m platform for Chris.
Lake Atitlan
Upon completing our massive hike, we took a radical plunge and spent 9 days around the huge lake, 3 nights in 3 different towns (all a boat ride away from each other and each with their own unique feel/culture). We were lucky to have amazing views of the lake from each of our accomodation stays, starting each day by trying to catch an epic sunrise, spending too many hours each day just staring at the lakes beauty, and watching every last minute of the sun setting for the day. It was an extremely peaceful place. What we loved around the lake was;
Tasting that locally made chocolate in San Juan,
Drinking coffee in a cafe with the best view,
Watching Chris struggle at our weaving class and get frustrated at his instructor,
Kayaking and paddle boarding on the lake at Santa Cruz,
Swimming and jumping into the lake from any vantage point at both the nature reserve at San Marcos and off the hotels private jetty at Santa Cruz.
Hiking Volcano Acatenango
This hike was something we had both read about but it was never part of our original plan..... but we are so glad we changed our minds (mostly due to Rob and Hannelore’s glowing recommendation... thanks guys).
Day one of the hike was ALL UP, we walked for about 5 hours up the volcano heading toward our base camp for the night. A really challenging day not only battling the accent but also the altitude. Though it was made all the more special when we reached the end and were treated to a special view of Volcano Fuego (a very active volcano that is very close to the volcano we are hiking).
At 1.30am the next morning, we were both woken up by a very loud explosion. Quickly opening up our tent and we witnessed one of the most stunning sights we have ever seen...a volcano eruption in the dark of night. We spent the next 2 hrs just lying in our tent watching the eruptions which happened every 15mins, lava literally spewing hundreds of meters up in the air and then watching it fall, still red hot coating the sides of the volcano.
4am came around quickly and we set off for the summit of Acatenango for sunrise... this was the most challenging part of the hike but what a sight when we made it. A beautiful sunrise over the valley at approx 4000m.
Tikal and Flores
Straight after finishing the volcano hike we got on our first 10 hour overnight bus to Flores. We arrived in a completely vulnerable daze and managed to let a tour agent peer pressure us into buying trips from him (ahhhhhh....!!!!), we then freaked ourselves out reading terrible reviews centred around ‘SCAM’ about this guy and quickly realised he ran a well oiled machine that took advantage of overtired tourists. Everyone we met and spoke to since has had the same rough encounter with him. In the end the two trips we purchased from him worked out ok, with only a small hiccup.
Most people that want to visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal base themselves on a small island called Flores. Being low season it felt rather dead, but we were lucky enough to find ourselves a super cool hostel and meet two great people and explore the island with them.
All in all Tikal was a really cool experience, it was such a mesmerising site sitting at the top of one of the temples looking over the others poke them selves out of the jungle. However I don’t think we both really took it in as much as we should as we were just waiting for something to go wrong with the tour we booked. Though we were also luck to have a few cool people join us on our tour, which always makes the experience more memorable.
On our last night in Flores, which was also our last night in Guatemala, we went for dinner at Pollo Campero, a Guatemalan fried chicken chain that the locals all over the country love. We even had to wait for 30mins for a table it was so busy. We finished off the night with a huge slice of homemade chocolate cake that we bought from a roadside stall...delicious!
