Blogs from Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 14

Central America is so full of flavour, culture and diversity - from its food to its people, blissful beaches and active volcanoes, Mayan ruins hidden within jungles, colourful pimped-out Chicken buses, it really has a little bit of everything! After visiting the Mayan ruins site of Copan (Honduras), we cross the border into Guatemala and spend 3 nights in the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We visit a local macadamia nut farm and take a tour of the macadamia nut plantation at Finca Valhalla led by the workers. We decide to climb Pacaya Volcano, one of the highlights of our tour so far. Driving 1.5 hours to the base of the volcano, we begin our ascent. The volcano is still active, so hiking to the crater is off limits. Near the summit, ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling the very short distance (7km) from Panajachel to San Jorge la Laguna. After checking out of Hotel Utz-Jay at midday, we lunched on the shoreline of Lago Atitlan. We then headed back to the hotel at 3pm, jumped into a minibus and climbed out of Panajachel to San Jorge la Laguna, the village of our host family for the night. We arrived around 3:30pm, unloaded our packs and met Dora (our host) and her eight year old son Anthony on the steps of the church in the main town square. Dora’s family is from the ethic group of the Kaqchiquel in San Jorge, and she has been welcoming travellers into her home for the past four years. We climbed the narrow and steep cobblestone path to Dora’s small concrete brick ... read more

HE SAID... We were making our way northeast from Santa Elena to Tikal today, and we had an early start. We took a couple of sunrise photos over the lake surrounding Flores (Lago de Peten Itza) before leaving Hotel Maya Internacional at 6am. We stopped to pick up our pre-ordered breakfast bags at a small roadside shop (El Arbol) on the way to Tikal National Park. The bags included sandwiches (egg and bacon; ham and cheese), ramon seed biscuits, fresh juice and green oranges. The food was fantastic, especially the homemade bread and biscuits. We arrived at the Tikal National Park entrance at 7am and met Juan, our guide for the tour of the Maya ruins. We made our way to the visitor centre and started walking into overgrown jungle in the searing heat – it ... read more

HE SAID... We woke early again, thanks to the overly enthusiastic rooster that had set himself off at 3am every morning since we had been in Antigua. We made our way out of the Antiguan valley at 5am in bright moonlight and descended into Guatemala City with a blood red sun rising over the sprawling city. We were meant to be travelling to Semuc Champey, but political unrest in that part of the country had made it unsafe for travel, so we were venturing instead to Rio Dulce, close to the Caribbean coast. We had a six hour drive ahead of us, so we had stocked up on provisions. As I stared out the window of our minibus, the settlements on the outskirts of Guatemala City were a stark reminder of the extent of poverty that ... read more

HE SAID... The lead up to this holiday was fairly hectic, with tenders to be lodged and deadlines to be met. The last week was particularly tiring, with long work days interspersed with sporadic holiday organising. Still, we made it in the end. The night before we left was incredibly quiet without Jasper, Oliver and Mia, but we were able to relax. With good planning and an early night, we were wide awake at 3am on the morning of our long-haul flight from Hobart to Antigua (Guatemala) via Sydney and Dallas. We are covering three countries in this trip – Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. It’s a part of the world we have not yet traversed, and by careful design and planning on Ren’s part, we’ll be in Mexico City for my 50th birthday. This is a ... read more