Februari 2022 - Guatemala - Antigua, El Paredón

The first thing we noted (and liked) about Antigua was the many restaurants serving local food, something we felt were missing in both Flores and San Pedro La Laguna. Our hotel was located right across the street from the local market, which had an entire section just for small eateries. While somewhat overwhelming as they all were very persistent trying to get us to eat at their place rather than the next one (even though they all seemed to serve the same dishes), we saw several new things on the menus and the ones we tried were very good. One night we also found some street food in a small park - a tostada with a huge pile of beans, guacamole and veggies was definitely a treat!

The one activity though that most backpackers traveling through Antigua sign up for is to hike the volcano Acatenango. The volcano hasn’t erupted for many years and is considered safe to climb. With 3976m at the summit, it is nearly as tall as Mt. Kinabalu (4095m), the tallest mountain we have climbed (and the tallest peak in South East Asia). However, the main draw of the Acatenango hike isn’t the summit, but the nighttime view of the very active volcano next to it, Fuego.

Having read some about the hike and that it seems you get what you pay for, we decided to go for a “mid-range” tour operator – not the cheapest one, but not the most expensive either. The travel agency we booked with were very helpful, but unfortunately the information they gave us was wrong on a few points: when we asked about the group size, they first told us we would barely walk in a group at all – we would just get together around meals (which was not true, as during the hike we had to stop multiple times to wait for the people who walked the slowest); they also told us the bus would only be half full due to the pandemic, so maximum 10-12 people in the group (we were 22); and they told us we would only need to carry water and our warm clothes ourselves (yet on the bus we were given food packs which many people didn’t really have space for and had to carry by hand). Another odd thing was that when we stopped with the bus to pick up some warm clothes for people who wanted to borrow, a guy came on and told us it would be possible to do an extra hike to get closer to Fuego – but it was pretty expensive and we had to decide right then and there. We thought this felt a bit sketchy and declined. However, once it was time for that extra hike we were able to go along anyway, for the same price, and it was well worth it.

The first part of the hike took about 5 hours, mainly due to the many breaks we took along the way. At some point it was a bit annoying, as it could get pretty cold standing still, and it often felt like the breaks were way longer than needed. Along the way we had beautiful views of the surroundings. Once we reached our base camp at 3,600m we were assigned to tents – thankfully, the travel agency had at least given us the correct information that we would get a private tent. Then it was time for those who wanted to do the extra hike to Fuego, which was a strenuous 1,5h more, first downhill and then uphill to get to the rim of Fuego. Settling on the rim at a safe distance from the actual peak, we huddled up with our cameras ready and waited for the sun to set. Fuego has eruptions around once every 10 minutes, of varying sizes, but when it’s dark it looks incredible – like natural fireworks. It was freezing cold up there, and we waited for nearly two hours, watching the (mostly small) eruptions. Around 8pm it was time to head back to the base camp for dinner, but we only made it about ten steps before we heard the rumbling of a really big eruption and we turned around to see the lava being spit out and lighting up the whole top of the volcano – it was one of the most amazing things I’ve experienced.

After the 1,5h back to base camp we just had a quick dinner and then huddled up in our tent, trying to get some sleep as we had to make an early start for the summit. We didn’t sleep much though, and a few times during the night we would peek out of the tent to watch more big eruptions from Fuego. At 4.30am we started getting ready for the summit hike, which included putting on every single piece of warm clothing we had – the temperature at the summit is often around 0 degrees Celsius. We made it just in time for the sunrise, though we had to wait a bit extra for the sun to get past the clouds in the horizon. Still, it was a beautiful morning to spend on top of a volcano.

The hike back down went pretty fast, and back in Antigua we were happy to take a warm shower, get all the dust off and rest our tired feet. We had a few more days in Antigua which we spent walking around looking at pretty buildings, visiting museums (including a chocolate museum and a jade museum), taking a free salsa class, and trying craft beers at a local brewery. One of the days we took a cooking class, to experience more of the local cuisine and learn about the dishes and ingredients. The first dish we made was pépian, a flavorful stew with lots of spices that felt like something we would love to cook and eat around autumn in Sweden. We also made rice which was cooked with some spices and veggies, and a side dish which consisted of slices of a local variant of squash, with some local cheese (similar to feta) in between – and dipped in an egg based batter and deep fried. We also got to make tortillas, which was much more difficult than we could have imagined, and which left us even more impressed by the local women who do this all day every day and make it look like the easiest thing. For dessert, we cooked plantains (similar to bananas) and filled them with a mole of bean paste, local chocolate and sugar, and then deep fried them. It was a big, hearty, and tasty meal! It was so much food that we got to take some with us to have for dinner as well.

All in all we really enjoyed our stay in Antigua. We nearly made it our last stop in Guatemala, but we heard a few people at different occasions who warmly recommended El Paredón, so we thought, why not give it a visit? El Paredón is a small town by the coast, with black, hot, volcano sand and waves that vary in size throughout the day to cater surfers of various levels. It appeared to be a more relaxed and calm version of the famous surf spot El Tunco in El Salvador. It was definitely a nice place to just relax, read a book and be lazy. However, there are plenty of activities to engage in – our hostel offered not only surf boards for rent, but also beach volleyball opportunities and a slack line to practice your balance. We did rent a board for a day, but since it was seven (!) years since we last tried it, we were happy to be able to catch a bunch of the smaller waves. It felt like a great way to finish off our stay in Guatemala, except that I managed to get food poisoning (likely from aguachile, which was like a ceviche but in a different sauce). At least, a hammock by the beach is not the worst place to be sick and thankfully it only lasted for a day. I was enough recovered at least, to be able to spend a couple of hours on buses back to Antigua and onwards to El Salvador.

Januari 2022 - Guatemala - Flores, San Pedro La Laguna

 At this point we have been travelling for a month and a half, and we feel like we are really getting into the travel mode. I feel like I'm a bit behind on writing these posts as I am enjoying doing nothing or reading books more than taking the time to write - this truly is a time to relax and enjoy the moment! And so, that's why this first part of Guatemala is getting written as we are about to leave El Salvador. Here are some overall impressions of Guatemala:

• A colorful country with a lot of culture
• The breakfast - desayuno tipico - is filling and tasty: many Guatemalan dishes will be served with frijoles and fried plantains, and the avocado is plentiful and always perfectly ripe. We seriously had avocado or guacamole with a majority of all our meals
• Guatemala has a very clear backpacker trail, which means beautiful places are often also touristy - although that can mean that it's easy to find people who speak a little English, and that you can get an abundance of vegetables in the vegetarian food options
• People here are kind and helpful, though taxi drivers (especially in the capital) will try to rip you off
• The local "chicken buses" are repainted old American school buses which reminded us a little bit of the jeepneys in the Philippines 

Let's start at the start. The border crossing from Mexico was very straight forward, the only complicated part was getting the antigen-test in Palenque, as I mentioned in the last post. Our first stop in Guatemala was Flores - a small island in a big lake. Basically, the island is where all the tourists hang out, and on the other side of the bridge, the town of Santa Elena is where most of the locals live. Flores is also the jumping-off point for going to Tikal, the ancient Maya ruins. Booking this tour was one of the first thing we did. Surprisingly, the difference in cost between going with or without a guide was very small, so we decided to go with for a change. We chose to go early in the morning, although not the "sunrise option" which was more expensive. Probably a good choice as well, as it was a rainy day and no sun to be seen.

Going with a guided tour of course meant we had to adapt to the pace of the guide and the group, but we did enjoy getting that bit of extra information. Overall, the temples of Tikal were impressive - huge, and ancient - in the middle of the rainforest. One of the highlights though were of course the wildlife we spotted near the café where we waited for a bit before starting the walk: some different types of wild turkeys, coatis, and some kind of small capybara!

While in Flores, we also took the opportunity to explore some caves just south of Santa Elena. A much less visited site, but definitely worth a visit - although I would recommend some Spanish skills as our guide did not speak any English at all. We opted for the "long tour" (the short option did not require a guide) which was about 2 hours, and included crawling on our bellies through some small openings and walking through quite a big part of the cave system. Definitely a different experience, but pretty cool I'd say! 

the guide instructed me to pose like this, a classic apparently

Another highlight of Flores was taking a boat the short distance across the lake. There are some places to stay there as well, but few options for restaurants and shops. What they do have however, is a viewpoint where you see the island - a perfect postcard picture. There is also a beach where you can hang for a while, and a bar with cheap drinks and snacks just by the water. Watching the sunset from there was just perfect.

At first we were thinking of heading to Semuc Champey next, known for the beautiful waterfalls, but getting there seemed both difficult and expensive, so in the end we decided to get a night bus to the capital and then head to either Lago Atitlán or Antigua. It was almost down to a coin flip; in the end we decided on Lago Atitlán - more specifically, San Pedro La Laguna. There would be a chicken bus heading there without any transfers, so we planned for that. A few things happened on the way, however.

First, we arrived earlier than expected in Guatemala City - 4.30 AM - and it was still dark, so we decided to take a taxi to the bus stop with the San Pedro bus. Even after bargaining hard, we still had to pay quite a lot for the short drive with a guy who had the "taxi" sign in the trunk rather than on the actual car. I'm not 100% sure he was an actual taxi driver. During the drive he also tried to convince us to let him drive us all the way to San Pedro, which would surely have been incredibly expensive. As we arrived to the bus stop he also tried to convince us that there were no buses running that day, and that we should instead let him take us to a hotel. We throught that sounded odd, it was a Monday after all. In the end we just walked away from the taxi and asked a local guy about the bus to San Pedro. He assured us we were in the right location and told us that he was also going there. Five minutes later, the bus arrived!

All good, we thought... until about two hours later, barely halfway to San Pedro when the traffic suddenly stood completely still. Turned out there was a blockade, not letting any vehicles through. No one seemed to know really what was going on, and for a long time we just waited on the bus. Then the other passengers started to leave, and eventually the local guy from the bus station told us (communicating some in Spanish and some via translation app, as he didn't speak much English) that he was going to walk to the other side of the blockade and try to catch another bus there. We followed. 

After that, we alternated between walking (with our big backpacks), waiting by the side of the road, and spending a couple of minutes on a chicken bus, or on a colectivo (so full that we were hanging out of the door). Eventually however, there were no more buses or colectivos as the road was blocked every few kilometers. We started walking more, and trying to hitchhike. Every now and then, someone would let us ride on the back of their truck until the next roadblock. At one point, around 3 PM, we still had more than 30km left and saw fewer and fewer cars passing - we started to lose hope that we would make it to San Pedro (and the hotel we had booked) that day. But how would we spend the night?

Thankfully, just a few kilometers later the blockades eased up, and we just had to take another colectivo, truck and tuktuk before we arrived in our town at 6.30 PM, about 10 hours after we were supposed to arrive. All in all, we had walked around 17km, and mainly eaten some sugar packed snacks that were sold by the side of the road - all the restaurants and shops were also closed - so we were exhausted, but happy, to finally be in San Pedro. All with the help of this local guy who had been able to guide us and talk to people along the way. I can say for certainty that it would not have been possible without him to help us.

Well in San Pedro, we spent a full week. San Pedro is a small and cute, but touristy, town just by the lake, and from our hotel we had a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains and volcanos nearby. We enrolled in Spanish classes, one of the popular acitivities there. Our classroom was a table, a whiteboard and some chairs just by the lake, and our teacher was a local woman who lived nearby. For the next five days, we spent four hours every afternoon improving our Spanish grammar and vocabulary. In the mornings, we would go kayaking to a pretty beach, hike up to the viepoint of Rostro Maya, or just relax. We were hoping to hike the volcanos as well, but most of the travel aggencies were currently not organizing any tours there due to risk of robbery at the summit. While a much shorter hike and lower summit, Rostro Maya still offered a nice experience and incredibly beautiful views from the top. 

Beautiful views from Rostro Maya, with San Pedro town & volcano in the background

Local fisherman / view from our kayaks

Our "classroom"

sunrise over a tiny volcano

We also visited the nearby village San Juan, which was very cute and colorful with plenty of murals, a main street that was just a long market, and plenty of decorations around. On our last day, we took a day trip to Chichicastenango, which hosts one of the largest markets in Central America two times per week. We were hoping to find some nice souvenirs there, but while it was interesting to see, the busy, narrow streets offered either mass produced items for tourists, or fabrics and clothes for the locals. There were some beatiful pieces of fabrics, but they turned out to be table runners (and not scarves, as I was hoping for) so we skipped that and instead bought a pretty painting i San Juan. After a week by the lake we felt relaxed and refreshed, and ready for new adventures in Antigua.

Colorful San Juan La Laguna

Chichicastenango market

corn!