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Gran Plaza
Final Temple of the morning with a cerveza.I left Belize for Tikal, the most popular destination for Mayan cities. This is by far the largest Maya city ever built with one of the tallest Temples in the world, taller than the ones in Egypt. I ended up staying right by the park where there are just a few hotels instead of busing it from Flores, an hour away. This allowed me to get to the entrance of the park at 6am when it opened. I ended up jumping in with a small group with an English speaking guide. There were about 6 of us in all so not too big. We went straight to Temple IV, the tallest one. From the top we could see just a few other tall temples sticking above the jungle and mist. It was still so early there was a thick fog in the distance so visibility was not great, but we could barely make out the Gran Plaza in the distance. From there we really started walking around the huge city, I think by the end of the tour we had walked over five miles. Thankfully nobody in our group was in a big hurry so our tour lasted nearly five hours,
which was fine. When we finished around 11am it was really starting to heat up and the crowds were beginning to file in. We finished in the Gran Plaza where I climbed the final temple overlooking the plaza. Since the park didn’t close until six in the evening I went back to my hotel for lunch and swim in the pool to cool down. Around 4:30 I headed back to the park for sunset or at least stay on a temple until they told me I had to leave. Apparently a number of years ago you could bribe a security guard to camp out on top of one of the temples, but those days are long gone. I decided to head back to where I started on Temple IV. The sun was setting behind me but now there was no fog or clouds in the sky so the sun was shinning brightly on the other temples sticking above the trees. I stayed there for a while, it was getting close to six and I thought I was going to be the only one left on the temple before I had to leave, but around 5:45 a small group showed up
with a guide. I was just sitting up there chatting with a guard that was armed with a shotgun. He was pretty nice and allowed the tour group to go around the back of the temple to see the sun fall below the trees. I was lucky enough to tag along. The guide that went around back said we really were not allowed to do this and we should keep our mouths shut about walking around the back of it. As I walked back to my hotel it took about thirty minutes and was almost completely dark leaving just the distinct sounds of the jungle around me.
From Tikal I spent one night in Flores which is a nice little town on an island in Lake Petèn. The next day I flew to Guatemala City and made my way to Lake Atitlàn. This is one of the most impressive settings I have ever seen. This lake is surrounded by volcanoes and a few towns. I ended up in San Pedro La Laguna, which is a very popular backpacking town. Another appealing aspect of this country is how inexpensive it is. Though the dollar is fairly strong in Mexico, here
End of the day
On top of Temple IV before closing looking toward the Gran Plaza it is better. On the lake and in other tourist towns it is easy to find a great room with a private bath and hot water for less than $10 a night. I arrived a week before Easter, which is known in Latin America as Semana Santa, or Holy Week. When I got to a hotel I didn’t quite have the options I would have on any other week because this is THE busiest traveling time of the year not only for foreigners but also Guatemalans. They come pouring into towns like San Pedro and Antigua. Since I was planning on staying in the town for a couple weeks I settled on a place that was good, but there were many other places that were already booked. I did bargain with the guy since I said I’d stay for nine nights, the final night being Easter Sunday, after which I’d find a little bit better spot most likely with a view of the lake. The place I did get for the first 9 nights came out to $5 a night, pretty great especially since prices are known to be higher for this particular week, but my negotiating skills are getting
San Pedro
Above town hiking up the San Pedro Volcano better and better down here. After Easter I did move to another hotel where a friend I had been hanging out with in the town was staying. Nick has been coming back to San Pedro off and on for the last 4 years and knows the town extremely well. Everywhere we went he would introduce me to the owners of restaurants and bartenders. There was an English pub in town that showed all the sports you could want to watch. I caught the Final Four, the Masters, and some Champions League soccer games there.
My second hotel was great. Right on the lake with a two level courtyard and plenty of hammocks and lawn chairs. There was a little cooking area with a gas stove, two bathrooms and a community shower. All this with a private room for 25Q(quetzals), or just over three bucks. I ended up staying there another nine nights or so. By the time I left San Pedro I had stayed nearly three weeks.
The two most memorable things I did there was the celebration on Good Friday and hiking the San Pedro Volcano. A description of Good Friday is difficult because the decorations were
so intricate and plentiful that it was hard to take it all in. All the streets circling the center of town were decorated with what looked like huge mats going down the center of the streets, but when you get a closer look you see that those mats are all made of vegetables, fruit, grass and other natural products. The procession began from the church, from there they start walking on these decorations and as soon as the procession passes the remnants are swiftly swept up. I took many more pictures than I can display here, but it was a great experience. The volcano hike was also wonderful. I ended up meeting some good people on that hike that I also hung out with for a few days, but they were teaches just visiting for spring break. Needless to say I got to know this town very well after so much time there.
When I did finally make it out I headed to Chichicastenango, but everyone calls it Chichi. On Thursdays and Sundays this town holds one of the biggest open markets in Central America. They sell any kind of Guatemalan artisan product you could ever want to find.
Since it is so huge bargaining is a big deal. I made a few purchases but waited until the end of the day when the merchants were about to pack things up. My book said that was a good time to really try and get a good price. The next day I headed to Antigua.
Antigua is an extremely beautiful Spanish-colonial city. It has clean streets with trash cans, no stray dogs and plenty of police. This is not really Guatemala. Much like San Pedro, Spanish is more or less the second language. I am sorry to say that in the last month or so in San Pedro and Antigua I have spoken very little Spanish. Ironically these two towns are known for their Spanish language schools. These would be great places to take a few weeks of non-intensive Spanish school and at the same time live in a very beautiful place. They are also great places to meet people from all over the world and see interesting things everyday, just don’t expect to see authentic Guatemala. I spent about a week in Antigua, which is a good amount of time. It is even more touristy than San Pedro,
More detail
This type of work was the same on all the blocks circling the center of town. so it also a little more expensive.
The best thing I did in Antigua was go hiking on Volcano Pacaya. It was an easy hike to some flowing lava. To get to the Volcano we had to drive about an hour and a half out of town and then hike for that same amount of time. I did the afternoon hike where we started up the mountain around 430pm. The evening hike is better because the lava is much brighter as the sun goes down compared to in the morning when it is hotter and sunnier. Some British guys in our group brought some marshmallows to roast at the top. Shortly after we reached the top it started raining lightly. Right now is just the beginning of the rainy season. As we were making our way down the sun had set completely and it was pretty dark out. Most of us had brought flashlights, but at certain points we could turn around and look up the mountain and see the bright neon orange stream going down the mountain. It was pretty impressive.
Another interesting thing that happened in Antigua was running into some friends from CU. I was
walking out of my hotel as two girls were walking in when one of them asked if my name was Paul. I immediately recognized one from Spanish classes we had together our senior year and the other I had met through friends. One of the girls is in the Peace Corps in Guatemala and the other was just visiting for the week. We actually have a mutual friend bicycling through Costa Rica right now that I will hopefully meet up with in a couple months. Nick met me for one final night in Antigua as well. He is flying back to Alaska to be a kayaking guide for the summer. He knows many people in Antigua and has given me plenty of good advice on stuff to do here.
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Dan Donnell
non-member comment
lucky
pretty cool stuff....you look so much like a friend of mine about 30 years ago....keep writing!