Filed under: Guatemala
Antigua – After marvelling at Copan in Honduras we shuttled it (minivan) to the city of Guatemala, we had to drive through shitty Guatemala city which was grim enough. Antigua is as the lonely planet says the kind of Guatemalan city that would have come about had Scandinavians built it, tidy, nice parks, no stray dogs…
Anyway it was a nice place full on Spanish schools and sun and plazas and ruins as they keep having earthquakes. We climbed an active volcano (Guatemala has many) this one was called Pacaya and with health and safety thrown to the wind we climbed up to the lava field in the crater where u can stand on or in lava that moves at a snails pace. Some cool photos later we descended in the dark. It was pretty special.
Lovely Claire turned 25 her so we went for a Thai ,meal and drinks , she beat me at pool a few times and we hit the sack about 11pm – how hardcore are we. : ) we had fun though
Lago Atilian – We took another chicken bus to the beautiful Lago Atilian, a huge old volcanic caldera filled with water with several idyllic towns around. first we stayed in Panahachel which was non decrepit and a little dull. that day we walked to a nearby village called Santa Catarina where it is all about the local ladies indigenous indigo coloured dress (the name escapes me). We were accosted by a little waif girl and we bought some Quetzal key rings ( a little green bird with splendid regal Green feathers) – apparently Guat´s national bird but they have few as they keep smashing their habitat.
San Pedro la Laguna was next – a real hippie place backed by the looming Volcano San Pedro where we did a lot of cool stuff. Went horse riding along the lake (which i have now called arse smashing as when the silly old nag decided to canter and gallop that is what happened!) lovely views. then we relaxed in Solar thermal baths that lie along the lake shore – the water is heated in vast coils of black pipe that lie on the shore and then when u want to take a bath they fill it for you and you relax into the night. Very nice.
Next we went kayaking across the freaking huge lake (it was vast) to another town called San Marcos – where I bought a choco banana the best thing ever (and it was about 3 p). We had a coffee and enjoyed the view. Then tried to paddle back but a force 5 gale had blown up and scuppered us we took in many a splash and had to hug the shore for about 5 miles to get home very moist but a good day.
Quetzaltenango (Xela – pronounced Shela!) This is in the highlands, the bus journey was very wiggly but nice. We enjoyed this town with its fresh mountain air and decided to be silly and climb the highest peak in central America called Volcano Tamjumlco at 4220m. So there we go on a day 2 day hike, we had to carry the food 8 litres of water and ourselves. We bussed it to the foot of the beat and climbed into the clouds, it was walking really but hard as it was steep, we clambered through cloud rain and had lunch under tarp. Then we clambered more above clouds marvelling at the views of rolling highlands and volcanic peaks. we camped int he rain, pissing rain, the food was good, soap, hot dogs, desert coffee. the idea was to puck on at 4 am for the remaining 200m to the summit and watch the sunrise. so at 4 we got up cold and tiered and scrambled up it was tough but rewarding, some of the best views I have ever seen, there was a layer of cloud below and all of Guatemala’s volcano peaks could be seen, the Atilan range, the active Pacaya, the active other one (?) with its smoke cloud and the one we were on complete with ruddy massive crater behind me! Many pic was snapped (see flickr photo stream soon….) the descent was quicker but equally as hard.
Chichicastenango – a great stop was for this very traditional and vast market. We got a few bits and had some welcome sun with a hostel with a funky cemetery view.
Coban – The journey to Coban was epic, the lonely planet pens it as a dramatic ride along some beautiful country, well it was hills vallies rivers, but it had rained a lot (we later found out that Hurricane Alma was following us into Guat and bringing 72 hours of mental rain) the road in one place was gone, and there wasn´t much there to begin with. We sat on the road side int he hills for 5 hours as the road was re built with a lot of bulldozers. coban was also wet and we stayed one night before going to Lanquin and Semuc Champey.
Lanquin is the jumping off point to Semuc champey which is the most amazing place. It is in the middle of now where a good few hours bum jarring minivan to it, basically a series of crystal clear pools on top of a limestone bridge int he forest with the main river running underneath the limestone plateau. The pictures are amazing, the water fresh and clear and ideal for swimming, i have never seen anything like it ever. A magical place (even if it did rain).
Flores – An island in the Lago de Flores in Northern Guat. A nice place with nice weather but not much else. We did our washing and Claire lost a sock.
Tikal – after much deliberation as to if a sunrise tour or actually sleeping in the Tikal Mayan Ruins would be best we opted to spend the night. so we arrived at the legendary Mayan ruins in Tikal found a tent and wandered the ruins set in lush jungle. These ruins are all about tall pyramids unlike at Copan Ruinas in Honduras. We clambered up Temple 5 for an amazing view above the tree canopy at all of the other temple pyramids. Temple 5 was about 60m high and the climb up it was mad, near vertical not for faint hearted and the top wasn´t even roped off! mad! We had the temples to ourselves as we had entered the ruins in the afternoon and it was great, jungle sounds engulfed us and we felt the humidity.
The nest day after a 4 am wake up we payed a shot gun wielding guard to escort us to Temple 4 the highest in Tikal at 67m where we watched a cloudy but amazing sunrise. Howler monkey cries thronged the air and it was very magical moment. After more exploring of the vast site (which is still being uncovered) we left and via long arse journey went into Belize! or former British Honduras.
Willy
