December 9-18, 2024. As a retirement treat Andy and I had been planning to an Exotic Land (just us two!). After several bike trips (other adventures) and trips to visit family, we finally made it happen last month. Since hours/days in an airplane didn’t appeal, we settled on vertical travel rather than horizontal. Neither of us had ever been to Guatemala. Mind you, I would probably have agreed to just about any place, but when I was eight, my mother’s college roommate sent Claudia, her much-loved 11 year-old Guatemalan daughter, to live with us for a few months. So this country has always been in my heart.
That said, Andy and I knew little about Guatemala. We decided to try an international travel agency call KimKim. The organization hooks you up with folks who are physically located in the country you want to explore. KimKim connected us with Chris at Old Town Outfiitters, Based in Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala, they took terrific care of us for the 8 full days we were there, including planning everything, arranging hotels, day trips, travel within the country, and several private tours that allowed us to see a variety of the gorgeous countryside. We had drivers everywhere and guides who spoke English.
This was very helpful since neither of us speak Spanish, though I’ve been doing Duolingo for a couple years, mainly as a way to entertain myself. And it helped!! (We found out Duolingo was created by a Guatemalan) My goal was to have the guts to speak Spanish to people, and (bless them for their patience) I did. So did Andy. Often that meant my struggling to ask a question in Spanish and their responding with wonderfully fluent English, but that’s okay.
Our hotel room at Hotel Antigua. This is the first place we stayed. Lots of charm. The room’s only small window opened up onto the interior courtyard. It felt very colonial, which I think it was.
Where we had breakfast–the interior courtyard I mentioned. We were very lucky with the weather. We came at the cusp of the rainy season/dry season. There were very few bugs and one day of slight drizzle!
It’s hard for me to know what to say here. We had such a rich time! Antigua was delightful to explore. We were there for four nights–the first day we had a cooking lesson with a Dario, a delightful chef, on a rooftop kitchen in the suburbs.
A family was hanging out on the rooftop. I’m not sure about the story there, but an old lady (who was probably my age) showed me the fabric she was weaving on a simple loom, the kind you lean against a wall. Of course I bought something.
On another day we were given a tour of the La Gente coffee plantation cooperative by Manuel, one of the best coffee growers ever (he told us in a charmingly boastful way). He was the most enthusiastic instructor ever! We had a translator, too–so basically 3 guides for just us two. We learned so many interesting tidbits about coffee, including that the bean comes in a red fruit and you must wait for it to ripen to red and if you don’t…not good coffee. The joke? Nescafe no es cafe.
Now THAT is a healthy coffee plant! (Manuel really is much shorter than us huge galoots, but we were also standing on a hill).
His wife taught us how to roast the beans the old way, grind them on her grinding stone passed down over hundreds of years to the wives of the oldest son, and then make the coffee. It was delicious and black. Not too strong. And then she fed us lunch!
Volcanos were everywhere.
Volcan Fuego, which erupted every day. I think we could see it almost every place we went. Turns out you notice a volcano more when it spews dark smoke. The eruptions were usually quite brief.
Another day we were picked up in Antigua and driven to hike up Volcano Pacaya, the third tallest in Guatemala. Since this is a national park, we needed a special guide for this, in addition to our guide from OTO.
Our guide fed marshmallows to several of the street dogs that hung out on the volcano. The rocks were sharp, but they clearly thought it worth it to get some food. Street dogs are every where– quite well behaved, but some look like they are injured and covered with sores. I noticed several places to give money to the cause.
This bleak landscape shows the different colors of dried lava. The last eruption was in 2021, I think, though it wasn’t very big. Now, 2010 was a different story! There are hot vents where the guides toast marshmallows for the tourists.
We had a picnic lunch at the top of the volcano and butterflies joined us. The butterflies in general delighted me throughout our trip.
On the way to the Volcano Pacaya, I had to ask to pull over because I had not brought motion sickness pills with me. Luckily there was a big (brand new) shopping plaza with a pharmacy in it. They sold me two pills for the equivalent of about 25 cents. From then on, I took a pill every day we were not just walking. I needed to! The country is full of (stunning) volcanoes, three of them active. Of course you can’t put tunnels through a volcano, so the roads climb and dip and swerve. I continually thanked God that we had not rented a car and tried to navigate the roads. Mind you, they have buses and other transport options in Guatemala that we could have used, had we known. Had we taken the time to really scope it out. For a first trip, this was wonderfully easy.
After Antigua, we drove several hours to Lake Atitlan, which nestles in a crater between 3 volcanos. What a ride that was!
I think this shows the steepness of the road
Due to the very steep, narrow road–and notice the cobbled streets?–our driver had a very hard time backing out.
Our driver was superb, but was guided on his phone app down what was basically a crazy-steep street that had piles of dirt and other construction at the bottom. A construction worker came out to help him. People moved cars. One of my big take-aways is that everyone in the country was nice. Jolly, really, teasing their friends, helping those they didn’t know. It was refreshing–heartening!– to witness.
Lake Atitlan is gorgeous, formed in a caldera. The very clear lake holds the remains of an ancient Mayan village at its bottom and is nestled among three volcanoes. 
The views from just about everywhere are phenomenal. It’s awkward for getting around, though. Not many roads between towns at all. That said, boats can be hired to take you from one small town at the base of a volcano to another. These towns are heavily geared towards the tourist trade, and who can blame them? Guatemalans and other nationalities are drawn to such spectacular scenery. Immediately upon our late arrival in Panajachel (definitely the most populous place on the lake), we jumped into a boat with a guide.
Once again, we had a private boat, but most looked like this. They moved very swiftly across the lake, that looks calm here, but the wind picked up and it became pretty rough. Again, so glad I had my pill.
In the town of Santiago, we went to a small apartment or house where priests were making offerings to effigies–a combination of Mayan and Catholic faiths. They placed lit cigarettes in their mouths, chanted with incense burning in a swinging thurible. Here, they tipped the effigy back and poured spirits down into its mouth. I don’t know where the liquid went!
The combination of the faiths fascinated me. In all these towns there was a catholic church very well attended that sat at the top of the main street. In Santiago, they were preparing for Advent celebrations, which we were in the middle of.
Laying out a long path of pictures created by flower petals
Our guide showed us into shops run by cooperatives: a bee farm, a chocolate cooperative. The next town over (Atitlan itself), a women’s cooperative for fabric demonstrated all aspects of yarn to create the traditional Mayan dress. This outfit was worn by many many people throughout the country. You can see that in some of the following photos. Young people (usually girls) practiced their good English with a mini lesson of how these industries worked, and then they introduced us to their shop. I understand that this is how these cooperatives get their names out, and how very advantageous it must be to them to be on the regular stop with any guide.
Showing us how to spin, letting us take a turn (a spin! Ha!)
She didn’t let us touch the loom–don’t blame her!
But these towns were lived in by the people who worked the stores. There was a big market we walked through quickly–clearly where the locals purchased what they need to live, like a crazy department store.
a quick photo snapped–I was told it was okay to take if not too close to a personl
And another to show the food beautifully displayed
Looking at these photos I see that almost everyone in them is a woman. I imagine the men become tour guides if they can speak good English. They run the boats and fish. They play music in the streets. They were mostly men servers at restaurants.
I just adored how they strung up colorful umbrellas above the main drag to give shade from the sun. It was very festive!
We had fun on our day on our own in Panajachel also. There was a big nature reserve/park we took a tuk-tuk to (say that fast). These are red, 3-wheeled taxis that look like covered motorbikes with 3 wheels. Somewhat negotiable prices, and they can go just about anywhere.
Waterfalls! at least 5 hanging bridges, a lovely hike up, up, up, to a view over the lake. You could sign up for a zip line there–and they even had a bike zipline that looked thoroughly insane to me. We were promised monkeys, but saw none. We did see butterflies!
Speaking of money, when we were there, the Quetzal (or Q) was valued at about 7.5 per $1. Restaurants we went to were very good and usually cost no more than the equivalent of $20 per person for a great dinner, and frequently less. We did not stint. The local beer was tasty for someone who doesn’t much like beer, often about 15 Q per bottle. We didn’t have any trouble with eating whatever we wanted, though it’s true we didn’t try any street food. I was also impressed that, although the water was not potable from the tap, there were containers of water you could use to fill up your water bottles at all of the hotels.
To finish off our adventure, we flew to Flores from Guatemala City, which was an all-day trip. We had to wait quite a while in the airport for our plane, but the airport was squeaky clean and truly calm. No one complained about the delay. It felt like this is the way humans should behave. We spent our last two nights on the Isla de Flores, which is a pretty small island quite close to the mainland. From there we were taken to Tikal National Park where we saw Mayan temples and a pyramid in the middle of the jungle. Mind you, we were told we might see jaguars–no jaguars.
We did see a large family of coatis, who look an awful lot like raccoons and are likely just as unpleasant if you get too close.
The jungle in fact seemed pretty tame, but it’s a huge tourist attraction and even the secret paths “through the jungle” our guide led us on had no real hint of wildness.
Tame? Beautiful!
What was wild, though, were the ancient structures and the stories of the Mayan culture.
Just… popping up.
This was the main civilization from, they say, 900 BC to 900 AD, when they had to branch out/abandon the city due to, guess what? Environmental impact of humans having depleted their resources.
One of the temples at Tikal. I wish I could tell you which one–I think there were at least 5 major sites. Most you could climb, but only on a man-made outer stair. This was taken from the top of another temple, looking down into the plaza where they recreated what they thought the sacrifice altar would look like. Evidently, they either cut off the head or removed the heart of the victim and brought it up to the top of the temple to the priest (?). Then they think the other remains were cremated, since they found evidence of that inside some of the temples.
I think this was the palace. They are still escavating these structures, discovering new buildings, new evidence of the culture buried under the jungle. It was a huge city. They cut down all the trees to build, had at least one huge man-made reservoir that we were told they plastered the bottom of and painted blue like a swimming pool. The important people could sit on the side of the lake/bridge and watch the eclipse in the water safely.
Some of the detail–the jaguar face in the side of the building
More detail.
Excavation continuing–so much left to uncover!
That was definitely a highlight, but we still had a day and a half to enjoy Isla de Flora. We had a tour to kayak on the lake the next day, swim for a brief dip in the very full lake, and got a special look at where they are currently excavating another huge site, one of the spots Mayans moved to after Tikal was abandoned.
They have to protect the site from the weather.
Our guide took our picture on the extensive and brand new boardwalk system they have built so we could brag we were here at the beginning!
Our guide was very convinced this was going to be absolutely huge. I think they will open it up to the public fairly soon.
The little town of Isla de Flores (named after a conquistador, not flowers) is quaint and colonial, limited by water!
You can’t get there from here.
The water, in fact, was so high it was encroaching on the island, making it hard for cars to navigate.
We found it charming and romantic. 
A beautiful spot with small alleys leading, as always, uphill to the church.
Fun and colorful buildings. 
One last story. Our final Guatemalan adventure was a trip to the caves nearby Flores. Luckily we checked their website, so knew to wear rugged shoes, rugged pants, and that helmets would be required. We got there and the short route seemed pretty tame, so we signed up for the longer tour, which required a guide. He spoke no English, but we were lucky enough to have to very fluent and funny Guatemalans in our group who translated for us. All went well. 
It was pretty tame (though there was some water and definitely bats!)–until the long tour branched off, and we moved up a passageway where we had to bend over. Then the two men ahead of me scrambled up a steep, slippery slope. I followed. Surely I could do this. The guide looked to be way older than me, after all. Go, go, go, I told myself. And I tried. I did. But there was nothing I could grab onto… a big scary hole gaped off to my right… and I was overcome with fear. It turns out I don’t trust my body not to betray me. The last day of our trip! I scootched down out of the tight spot on my rear end, shaking. Andy came out the easy way with me, bless his soul, and we found ice cream to soothe my shattered self-esteem.
And I got this cute shot of me in my gear. Note how I’m carrying my water bottle–not the easiest way to climb a steep slope.
What an amazing trip! And we even made it through the chaos of customs at O’Hare the next day in time (barely) to catch our connecting flight home. Whew! It’s great to be back with the renewed soul travel can bring.
