Guatemala – ChrisGreenwood.co.uk

Tikal – Mayan temples and a lakeside home away from home

We’d originally planned to get to Flores via Semuc Champey (roughly halfway overland) however, as we were nearing the end of our trip, spending more time in Atitlan than originally planned meant that we needed to go straight there. It’s amazing how three months disappears! Flores was another must-do for us, it’s the nearest big town to access the Mayan ruins of Tikal.

Tikal – very much worth the long journey!

Guatemala is a large country, and Flores is up in the top corner, this meant either a 10+ hour shuttle or a flight. Our experience of Guatemalan shuttles so far has been that while they get you to your destination far more quickly than the local buses, they are not nearly as comfortable as any of the long distance buses we took in South America. The idea of a long (possibly overnight) trip on a minibus really didn’t appeal, so we decided to book our first flight since landing in Panama!

The flight wasn’t going to be a magic shortcut however, as we we still in Lake Atitlan, so the journey would start with a boat ride from Santa Cruz la Laguna, to a short (3 hour) shuttle from Panajachel that would take us directly to the airport in Guatemala city.

On the day everything went to plan. In fact, it went so well that we got to the airport before midday for an 18:30 flight. The airport at Guatemala city isn’t huge so we just had to find some seats and wait until check-in opened at 16:30. We’d brought sandwiches made with the last of the excellent bread, cheese, and hummus that we’d found in San Marcos and took advantage of the free WiFi to edit the blog. We had planned to check in, and dump our bags then grab an early dinner airside while we waited for the flight, however after we went through security we realised that we were in the domestic area consisting only of seating and a single, broken vending machine.

Luckily we always have some snacks on us, so we ate the last of our snacks before boarding. Soon enough we were touching down at Aeropuerto Mundo Maya Internacional. We’d booked a few nights at the Saragüate Eco hostal and the owner Ivan had come to collect us in his old Mercedes.

Downtime and boat-hopping around Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is firmly on the tourist trail, it’s a large lake in an old volcanic crater, a beautiful place surrounded by hills and volcanoes. It was great to go and spend a few days relaxing there after climbing Acatenango.

For most of the time we spent there it was very cloudy, so we didn’t get the amazing views and bright blue water that I’d read about. Regardless of the weather, it was still a great place to explore, relax, and recover.

Our first night was spent in the hub town of Panajachel, as we knew we would arrive too late to get further out onto the lake after dark.

Guatemala is a large country, and it seems to be easiest to travel by shared shuttle as there aren’t direct public buses to many towns on the tourist trail. The downside of this is being at the whim of the shuttle company and driver for timings. Our advertised two hour shuttle ended up being three and a half hours, arriving after dark and dropping us off quite a walk from our hostel. The driver insisted our hostel was a short walk down an alley and he couldn’t take us further. It turned out he was being honest, it’s just that he had translated the name of our hostel The Friends, into Hotel El Amigo. They both existed and were about 15 minutes walk apart, which felt a long way in the dark with our big bags and aching legs!

Hiking the Acatenango Volcano

One of the essential experiences in Guatemala for the adventurous is to summit Volcan Acatenango. I’d first heard it suggested as far back as Panama (with Alex knowing two colleagues who have climbed it as well) and it has been firmly on our plans since at least Nicaragua.

View of Fuego (left) and Acatenango from Antigua

Acatenango itself is just under 4000m (13000ft) at the summit and hasn’t erupted since 1972. So far it’s just another volcano in the many volcanoes of Central America. What makes Acatenango interesting is that it is joined to Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of Fire), an extremely active volcano that erupts regularly and had been erupting since early March. It’s also not without danger, as an eruption in 2018 killed hundreds and hiking the optional last climb up Fuego itself can be somewhat controversial due to the potential risk. While Acatenango is comparatively safe, as recently as 2017 six (poorly equipped) hikers died of hypothermia as the camps are just below the summit and regularly drop below freezing overnight.

The hike itself is yet another challenge, starting at 2400m (7875ft) ascending to the basecamp at 3700m (12140ft) in one day.

Easter in Antigua: our unplanned visit to a world-renowned cultural celebration

We can smell the incense, the corn cooking on the grill, the sugary sweet candyfloss stacked up high above the head of a street seller. We can hear bells ring out from churches, sellers call out their wares, hand-pushed ice-cream carts rattle and jangle as they pass, and people chatting to each other in excitement everywhere you turn. I’m watching my step to not trip on the cobbles, and not step on the sawdust decorations. On every street people are offering things for sale, asking would we like to buy a palm leaf bouquet, or a candle in the shape of a pilgrim, or how about some delicately embroidered cloths or hats or shoes?

Antigua Guatemala was probably the busiest and most colourful place we went to on our trip. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the week around Easter and is a very important celebration in Latin America. We’d already seen processions and preparations in El Salvador, but nothing on the scale of Antigua. Semana Santa in Antigua is actually on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and attracts visitors from all over the world. We had coincidentally managed to time our arrival for Palm Sunday, having carefully avoided being there for what we thought would be the busiest time over Easter Weekend. It was quite an incredible experience.