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Published: March 4th 2014
AntiguaWe travelled over the border by foot with a small shuttle bus and if you blinked you missed the immigration stamp office. Our first stop was Antigua. Picture another colonial town with one to two story brightly coloured buildings, cobbled streets all in a valley surrounded by volcanos-lovely. Antigua was to be our base to do things around Guatamala so we only stayed for one night then the next day headed to Lake Attitlan which is around 4 hours north of Antigua. To get there meant navigating some treacherous mountains and sharp hairpin bends as well as large fallen rocks on the road and chunks of road missing which had slide down the hill. Hair raising to say the least-but we made it to a major town and it's shores to catch the small fishing boat. This completes a circuit of the lake dropping off tourists, locals and livestock at one of the many very small villages en route to the "city" of San Pedro. San Pedro is merely the city as there is an ATM and a pub run by an Irish man (surprise). We had decided to stay at San Marco which is a couple of stops before San
Pedro as it is dubbed the spiritual area of the lake....it did not disappoint. Climbing off the boat we headed up path b ,path b of path a and b, that's two paths for the whole village which snake up through the forest to the main road. This one main road connects all the villages but can take at least twice as long to travel round through the mountains which is why boat is the preferred transport. Whilst trying to find somewhere to stay we passed signs for spiritual healers, yoga classes, information on colour therapy, flower therapy, build your own dream catcher, reiki therapy classes, month long retreats with fasting, meditation and yoga thrown in, and many organic,vegetarian,vegan and super juice bars and restaurants.
We found a very cheap hostel to stay in which we actually left after one night as it had the most uncomfortable bed either of us has ever slept in, which insisted in keeping us both up all night and counting down the time for when it would become morning and we could move somewhere which used mattresses rather than a duvant bed minus the mattress. It certainly supported the phrase 'you get what
you pay for'.
After checking the comfort of the mattress of the new hostel and deciding it was worth the extra 1pound a night we roamed around our new surroundings. We had checked into a lovely little room in a hostel which was owned by a French dude and Guatemalan women,their two children, and their pet cats-one of which was ginger and called Garfield-he was instantly my favourite and he either loved me back or thought I had food in my pockets as he tended to sit on my lap and even put his paws under our shut door to let us know he needed attention right now that instant or else. Love cats.
We really loved the very slow pace and different adventures to be had. Walking around this tiny place finding new forest paths and seeing where they led. We stayed here a week and have no idea where the time went, this is the sort of place travellers 'get stuck' and end up coming for a few days and staying a few months. It's easy to see why, it's very cheap to stay here, the people are nice, there's a fair few gringos about and
lots to keep you busy. In fact we spoke to locals who informed us a couple Of Americas most wanted criminals had been found hiding out here -despite being wanted men they had been able to buy and run businesses without any major problems-this place really is remote and cut off.
Craig was able to do some scuba diving here in the lake and swam down to where the fault line goes through the lake, he touched the bottom of the lake and he said you could see the heat coming up from the ground. He tells me a highlight was swimming amongst the old hotels and bars (one in which they all sat round pretending to have a drink from wine bottles!) which are underground due to rising waters-the lake has risen by 12 metres in the past 3 years! The locals want an earth quake to try and release the water-we wondered why there were such nice hotels and properties up for sale which lie on the waters edge!
Whilst Craig was diving I decided to do some yoga and also linked up with a lady from South America with whom I made my own dream
catcher. What an experience! This said lady took me to her cabin-or should l say squat (it was on the national park and must have been a store shed, which she had taken over and made into a home minus the running water,electricity,toilet and windows). It was a lovely view of the lake from her place and she was great fun. We sat and drank honey water out of jam jars then made my own dream catcher.
We also visited the Indian nose viewpoint which is a hike up a nearby mountain with a stunning view of the whole lake and three volcanoes that surround it. This has to be done with a guide and a 'bodyguard' and his faithful dog due to very recently tourists being robbed at the top of everything including shoes and belts! Eek! Our 'bodyguard' had a big machete to protect us,however coming in at 5ft and around 55-60 years old we weren't sure how fast his moves were-luckily we did not need to test them and all was well.
We also went to the "city" of San Pedro - this to me was a Guatemalan Khao San road kind of place-it was
good for a short time but we were glad we could boat home to the quiet and calm village of San Marcos.
After 7 days and with big bottom lips we caught a bus back to Antigua (this was the first place we really really did not want to move on from).
Next trip out was to Lanquin to the famous caves and landscape of Semuc Champney. This part of Guatemala was to say at the very least -EPIC. We stopped in a hostel on the river -(which was very high due to rain) in a bamboo wood built hut. The hostel had its own bar and restaurant,you could hire rings to go tubing on the River and the place screamed adventure zone. The main draw is to complete the action packed day at Semuc Champney.
Feeling extremely hungover having gotten very drunk with fellow travellers (doing tequila body shots and talking to a Canadian who was called LANCE ROCK- best name ever) who were also doing the trip the next day we boarded our transport-standing up on the back of a truck holding on for dear life manoeuvring around very steep, very thin paths which curl
around the mountains-one hour later all 20 of us had arrived unscathed. First stop-the caves.
To even reach the entrance of this park involved Indian Jones style river crossings-imagine walking on rocks through fast flowing waterfalls holding onto a piece of rope being eaten alive by who knows what (one of these actual who knows what's crawled into my ear mid cross making it slightly more difficult) health and safety? Nope this does not exist! We knew we were in for a treat today!
Once we had crossed three of these crossings we were at the point to drop our bags off,given a candle we headed up the hill with our swimming costumes on to get to the entrance of the water filled cave.Our guide gave us one last pep talk promising us he knows what he is doing and if the water levels get too high (which he said were on their way to dangerous) he would pull us out. He also, to our amusement started to tell us we can trust him as he has a geology degree (we thought he just ran the hostel-what a chameleon!). We were also given one last chance to back
out-everybody stuck with it....Eek we were going in. This place screamed to us that the Goonies and one eyed willy could be hiding behind any corner.
Due to it supposedly being slippy in the cave l decided to go barefoot which had its ups and down-downs -didn't really know what slimy things my feet where touching on the bottom of the water logged cave,ups-no slipping on the wet rocks and having cankles (again).
The water was high and at times you just had the rope to hold on to (as well as a candle) to get you through as you couldn't touch the ground. After some climbing up ladders,jumping off boulders and then the finale of being guided and putting trust in guides you don't know to move throughout the underground water fall (one very deep breath required and large balls), going down a rapids sections which had me wanting to shout 'hey u guys!!!' (This is where the Goonies go for a day out for sure) we were done.
Coming back to the waterfall section-I feel this needs more explanation. So, you have taken a deep breath and need to side step about 5-10 metre to
Kite Festivalcomplete the width of it-water is pouring over your head constantly and you can't really see anything. A memorable part for me was at the end of this. To complete this "krypton factor" challenge you must use the rope to guide you-for some parts you do and don't take the rope-now,with water gushing on you,holding your breath and trying your hardest not to drown, someone instructing you do to something is just extra to compute. When a guide told me to 'grab the rope' this was worst than trying to do my times tables (which to this day I still can't do). I'm not joking, he probably said it about 20 times repeatedly in my ear for my brain to a) acknowledge someone was talking to me b) realize l had to so something but did not know what c) remember, what is rope?
In fact, if you had asked me what my name was I would have struggled to remember and say it. Hardcore.
After said rope being thrusted into my hand and pushed down the rapids I was down! Mission completed!
Next stop after this was tubing down some pretty strong rapids-we were shown where
Antiguato try and get to, to get out safely. Our guide/hotel manager/geologist stood further down the stream where if you got stuck in a current you would go-if he didn't catch you, you would have to take your chance with the huge waterfall drops that were a little further down the stream-eek brown bread! To get near to the rapid section involved navigating through what I would think a logging company river would look like-huge logs stood between you and the rapids-logs hurt when you hit into them! We also survived this, quite unscathed.
Last stop of the day - the Semuc Champney lagoons. First off the guides were urging us to scale a 5 metre cliff face to then jump into the first lagoon, I'm glad to say this was optional and Craig assured me it was very slippy getting up there and felt like a long way down! Then we started at the top lagoon (there are 5 in total) and using waterfalls over rocks (or slides) and jumping off rocks to reach the next pool. For me this was ok, but going down one "slide" I did not follow instructions of not putting your hands out(it
Antigua was very fast and slippery and I instinctly did it) and whacked my elbow on the rock! Oouch! That was me done. Craig continued with the rest of the Lagoons and saw the guides disappear under the rocks into underground tunnels but we weren't allowed as they were too dark.
We made it back in the evening ending absolutely shattered and a bit bruised but pleased we did it all and had a proper adventure. No way anywhere else in the world you could and be allowed to do something like that! Highly recommended!
Our next stop was back to Antigua, we spent a couple of days looking around the beautiful sights and taking in the city (if we had more time we would have loved to have stayed with a family for a couple of months getting our Spanish up to scratch-another time!). However, we were lucky enough to be around for the kite festival. The kite festival falls the same day as the Day of the dead festival in Mexico. The kite festival is the Guatemalan equivalent.
The kite festival is in town near Guatamala city. The festival takes place at the cemetery and the
whole town comes out to honour the dead, bringing food and drink items to put out on graves for lost ones to have in heaven. Giant kites are flown during this day of the dead celebration. We got involved-I bought a very Asda price kite which cost about 20p- the price reflected its quality as it didn't last long at all! But I got a few flights from it! We ate lots of nice street food including roasted pork and tacos. We got up above the crowds in a bar full of local men (I assume women don't drink or even come here), these men were having a very fun time and most of them tried out their drunken English on us which was fun and they took pictures with us-another day of being a minor celebrity!
We spent a few more days back in Anitgua wishing we could stay longer but it was time to go. A 12 hour bus later we were in Flores staying out of town on the edge of the lake, about 20 mins from Tikkal which was the main pull for us to come here.
We had planned on spending our first
Tikkalday here kayaking to the Island village of Santa Elena (which we could set from our shore)-however, when we told the Kayak hire dude of our plans he laughed in our faces and said that it would take 8 hours-EACH way! Looks like that activity wasn't going to happen. We decided we could save some time here so booked to go see Tikkal that afternoon and watch the sunset over the temples.
Tikkal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of pre Colombian Maya civilisations. Tikkal was described by the guide as the 5* resort of the Mayans and the epicentre of political, economic and military planning. Most of the temples remain hidden underground by jungle which has over the years grown over them (which has unintentionally protected them from being weathered). Only a few have been uncovered so the public can see them. It is very deeply immersed and hidden in the jungle and following the jungle path leads you to another temple, and then another and another-the site is huge. Much of the area appears in several national geographics and two temples are even featured in Star Wars Episode 3. It is the shot
Path A
Lake Atitlan where a rebel, overseas the millennium falcon landing on Yavin. The shot is filmed in Temple IV, looking east to see temple I,II and III (for reference, this detail is supplied by wookieepedia -lol). It was brilliant, as was the sunset over it, very memorable.
The next day we boarded a 8 hours shuttle bus to take us to he border of Guatamala an Belize ready for our next adventure! What a fun,adventurous,memorable time we have had! Hope we make it back one day!
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