Advertisement
Published: March 14th 2009
Edit Blog Post
On top of the world
We were lucky to have scenic surroundings on top of Volcan Pacaya. Only three other volcanoes joined us above the clouds for sunset. After a week in Belize, we headed across the boarder to continue our trip through Guatemala. Immediately we felt the difference of a Spanish speaking country and realized this would be a bit harder to travel in. None the less, we found it best described by the Lonely Planet as it says “it is no longer the scary country your mother thinks it is!”
With our limited grasp of Spanish, we found our way to El Ramate, a pretty little town at then end of Lake Peten Itza, and enjoyed our first night in Guatemala. We woke up early in the morning and headed out to Tikal, an enormous and very impressive Mayan city ruin. Described by Brittany as King Louie’s palace from jungle book and Andrew as Rebel base in Star Wars IV, we both found it to be very impressive. Massive pyramids with incredibly steep stairs seem to rise up everywhere in the lush jungle and the enormous site tired us out before we even saw all of it. After hours of wandering around and climbing up and down ruins we took off to Flores where we enjoyed a swim in the lake and wandering around
Tikal
Our first glimpse into the ancient Mayan city. in a Spanish speaking country (obviously still a novelty at this point).
The next day we hopped in a bus for seven hours down to Lanquin, a small town near Coban. The main attraction here was Semuc Champy, a beautiful and unique set of natural pools. We spent a few days relaxing in a nice hostel and of course swimming and enjoying the pools. The two most eventful moments here were getting attacked by a turkey and being rescued by two tiny naked Mayan kids and having a romantic Valentine’s date inside a cave while thousands of bats flew out after dark. Our time there let us realize how we needed a better grasp of the Spanish language so we both agreed to take some lessons in our next destination, Lago Atitlan.
A full day of travel and our first experience with Guatemalan Chicken busses (ex- American school busses repainted and refitted with speakers and absolutely crammed with passengers- so full the money collector man would literally have to slither and climb his way on top of seats to get from the front of the bus to the back) we found ourselves on the beautiful lake
Semuc Champy
Beautiful cascading pools. Atitlan. This gem of a place in Guatemala is a crater lake surrounded by small villages and an easy place to pass time in. We settled in at a town called San Pedro and enrolled in a weeks worth of Spanish lessons. We had three hours a day with an instructor and learned a lot in the week to help us out. (Just need to study now!) While we were not studying we kept busy playing around the lake with kayaking, swimming, climbing a few volcanoes and a trip to Chichicastenago market to see some local craft and culture.
After a nice week there, it was sad to leave but with so much more to see we hopped on another chicken bus and were soon in Quetzaltenango (or more commonly known as Xela). From here we ventured on our most ambitious excursion yet with a trip up Central America’s highest peak, Volcan Tajumulco. Although not extremely high (summit at 4200 meters) we were both feeling the ill effects of food poisoning from the day before and the climb up was more then enough of a challenge (especially for Andrew). Regardless of the struggle to get up, we were
Mayan Temple in Tikal
Pretty amazing structure with very steep stairs and a nice view from the top! well rewarded with a beautiful sunrise on the summit and a much easier and scenic walk back down. After a night spent soaking in the beautiful and therapeutic waters of Fuentes Georgina’s hot springs, we bussed down to Antigua for our final stop in Guatemala.
We were not disappointed with the pretty town of Antigua. Having been the former colonial capital of Central America, it was full of pretty architecture and is set in an amazing location with volcanoes jutting up all around it. Speaking of witch, we did our final Guatemalan Volcano excursion and climbed up the still active Volcan Pacaya.
This was quite an experience as the crater was packed with tourists all getting close to the lava oozing down the side! The heat was rising up from the ground and flaming lava rocks were constantly tumbling down in sight. Although we didn’t get to go right beside the lava, as many claimed they did (although quite close enough in our opinions), we were rewarded with perhaps the nicest sunset of our trip thus far as the sun went down into a blanket of clouds with only volcanoes reaching up through it.
With that
Don't trip!
Finally a shot where the picture does justice to how steep it was going up and down the pyramid. beautiful image to cap off an excellent visit through Guatemala, we hopped on our last three buses and were at the El Salvador boarder before we knew it.
Having spent almost three weeks in Guatemala, we both really enjoyed our time there. The people were friendly and the traveling was relatively easy (especially as our survival Spanish improved). Having only really scratched the surface of the more popular travel route, we are looking forward to comparing it to the rest of Central America and seeing if we will want to go back.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.221s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.1116s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Pablo
non-member comment
Awesome!
Sweet! I'm so glad you guys got out to Semuc, and Pacaya. Did you make it over to San Marcos on Lake Atitlan? You'll have to fill me in on Belize, Remate, Flores, and Tikal when you get back. I really want to do a trip from Cancun to Tulum, into Belize, then finish up northern Guatemala. Have an amazing trip!