Last year I already visited Flores/Tikal in the north of Guatemala in my “2-weeks Maya-dedicated vacation” coming from Palenque, Mexico and continuing to Belize. (For more info on previous travels please visit https://wanderluststeffy.com/previous-travels-2/)
Tikal/Flores – the largest Maya Site in Guatemala
Tikal is definitely a very unique Maya Site. The site is huge and located in the jungle, which makes it very difficult to see all the buildings and structures at once, even if you climb up one of the pyramids. I already thought that Palenque is surrounded by lots of nature and jungle, but this is nothing compared to Tikal. In Palenque you can still see all the main buildings at one glance, while in Tikal you have to walk through the forest to discover the different pyramids, while you can enjoy the sound of the jungle – there are lots of roaring monkeys. Sometimes they are so loud, that you think they are directly next to you, but no they are hiding somewhere in the trees. With some luck, you can find one and take pictures – have your camera ready. I took too long and the monkey turned around – no I have a beautiful picture of his ass and balls 😊
Flores is still 65km away from Tikal, but it is the best spot to start from if you like to visit Tikal. The Island of Flores (connected via a causeway) is a beautiful little island with cobblestone streets, many restaurants and hostels as well as travel agencies, while the city of Flores is not that beautiful. Flores has an airport which e.g. operates flights to Antigua or you can take one of the plenty shuttle services offered by hostels and tour agencies to other destinations in Guatemala or even in Mexico or Belize.
This time, I wanted to see more of the south of Guatemala – though there is much more to explore than the areas I have seen – given that I only visited the top three spots in Guatemala: Tikal, Antigua and Lake Atitlan.
Antigua – beautiful, busy colonial city surrounded by volcanoes
Antigua is definitely one of the most beautiful towns in Latin America – though it is quite busy with cars and tourists flooding the streets. All streets in the centre are made out of cobblestone making it difficult for high-heel loving women. The houses are very colourful and the town is full of churches, monasteries and other stunning buildings. Some of the buildings have been destroyed in one of the earthquakes, so you can decide between visiting ruins or reconstructed buildings – making the city even more diverse.
The best viewpoint over the city is on the “Cerro de la Cruz”. A little bit more than 300 steps lead up to this viewpoint over the city. If the weather is fine (it is best to get there in the morning), you will be able to see the volcano “de agua” in the background.
In Antigua, you find plenty of tour agencies offering all kind of tours. The most famous ones – as far as I can see – is the climb of the Pacaya volcano. This is a quite easy hike (“the easiest volcano hike in Guatemala”). You can either go in the morning or in the afternoon to see the sunset from the volcano. The other hike, I would have loved to do, is the 2-day hike to the Acatenango volcano, which is next to the volcano “De Fuego”. This volcano is called de Fuego (“of fire”) as it is continuously erupting. Unfortunately, during my stay in Antigua (October = very rainy season) it was cloudy and rainy almost every day all day long, so I decided not to do a hike, however, a friend of mine has done it early September and her pictures are stunning. In the night you can see the fire and the lava of the De Fuego Volcano. This hike is only something for people in good shape. You have to climb the volcano on the first day (ca. 5-6h just going upwards) and you have to carry your tent, sleeping back, food etc. up the volcano. Given that the volcano is above 3000m the altitude can also become a challenge, if you are not used to it and it is getting quite cold, especially at night (better get a warm hat and jacket!). But the pictures I have seen seem like a fair reward for the torture of climbing the volcano 😊
Lago de Atitlan – Every village offers something different from relaxing, partying, hiking to culture
San Pedro La Laguna
I spent almost a week at the lake exploring different communities around the lake. From Antigua, I took a shuttle to San Pedro La Laguna (70Q/10USD). San Pedro is known as the Gringo/Party hot spot on the lake. On the road close to the lake you have one hostel and bar next to each other. And of course, tour agencies offering everything from hiking, coffee tours, canopying and so on. If you have the money you can do every day another tour. From San Pedro, I did the San Pedro Volcano hike as I wanted to enjoy the view over the lake. Often the tours start very often as early as 4 am to either watch the sunrise or to ensure you are on top of the volcano before the clouds come – and it clouds over every afternoon (at least in winter/rainy season). You have to get a tour guide for the San Pedro Volcano hike. Something between100-150Q/p.p. including transport to the park entrance is a fair price. The entrance fee is 100Q/p.p. and usually included in the tour fee. If I understood it correctly, the guide also gets a part of the entrance fee. We were already on the way, when the tour guide informed me, that we can only climb the volcano to the middle as the upper part is closed due to security issues. It seems that some people had been robbed and so they closed this part until the issue is resolved. So, instead of hiking to the top (3.020m)– as the agency told me – we only went to 2.300meters. The park entrance is at approx. 1.500m. Going from there to the viewpoint on 2.300 meters already took me 1.5h. (according to others going up to the top takes 3h). The path leads through coffee plantations, cornfields and I have also seen Avocado-trees for the first time in my life. The path is already very beautiful, but when you see the view over the lake – it is awesome. I would have loved to climb to the top, though I would have probably needed more than 3h, I guess the all-round view from the top is even better.
Another – more famous hike – (not sure if it can be called hike as it takes only 30minutes one-way) – is the tour to the Indian Nose (la Nariz del Indio). Usually you do this at 4am to see the sunrise from the top of the mountain. A bus leaves at 4am from San Pedro to the Indian Nose and you just need to climb up the mountain for another 30minutes to enjoy the view and the sunrise over the lake.
San Marcos La Laguna – The hippie town
My next stop on the lake was San Marcos La Laguna – where I spent 4 nights to relax and settle down a little bit after changing the hostels every other day for a couple of weeks – so I needed some rest and San Marcos is the perfect town to rest. It is a very peaceful community. The paths in the touristic centre are so small, that no car or motor-taxi fits through it calming everything down.
San Marcos is the “hippie” town at the lake. You will find Yoga classes at almost every hostel, vegan and vegetarian restaurants on every corner and also workshops around spiritual healing, travelling back to a previous life and so on. I even saw a course on “how to grow mushrooms” – I am pretty sure they were not talking about champignons.
In San Marcos, you can also book any tour from hiking to canopying, horseback riding, coffee workshop etc. If you want to do something by yourself, you can just walk through the community and explore the different stores, search for murals on the walls etc. The park Cerro Tzankujil is also worth visiting. I was completely alone in the morning. It is a nice park to take a walk and to sit down on one of the multiple benches, enjoy the view and the calmness of the place and read a book. In this park you can also find the famous “trampoline” – I thought it is kind of a real trampoline, but no – it is a wooden platform from where you can jump into the lake. At the entrance of the park, you can also find a pier from where you can access the water without jumping.
Another must-do in San Marcos is seeing the sunrise from one of the piers.
Panajachel – busy city with a beautiful souvenir and handicraft market
From San Marcos, I also went to Panajachel for a day. If you want to buy souvenirs or clothes I recommend to come here – the market is much bigger than in the other cities and at least I found the clothes etc. much nicer here. I actually just wanted to change some money here to have enough for the rest of my stay in Guatemala – but having money with me while attending such a market was not a good idea – I went back to San Marcos with a huge bag of new clothes and other stuff 😊
In Panajachel, you can also visit the Chocolate Museum, if not yet done in another city or country. Here you can learn how Chocolate is made and even do a workshop. I did the truffle workshop – so I roasted chocolate beans, separated the shell from the chocolate nibs, made tea out of the shell, squeezed the nibs and mixed it with hot milk making a hot chocolate and last but not least I made pralines. The only step I skipped (besides planting/harvesting) is the separation of cacao powder from the cacao butter.
Santa Catarina – The blue pearl of Guatemala
From Panajachel, you can also walk (1h) or take a taxi to Santa Catarina. This village is not touristic at all – I was the only Gringo wandering around – however many houses in this community are painted in blue. It somehow reminded me of Chefchaouen in Morocco, just without the hordes of tourists and without drug dealers.
Guatemala City
I only spent an afternoon in Guatemala City, which was sufficient for me given that I am not a fan of cities. I explored Zona 1 by foot. This area is safe to walk during the day – I am not sure about the night. As always be cautious of pick pockets. In Zona 1 you will find some museums, churches and cathedrals and other colonial buildings. On Sundays the 6th Avenue is car-free inviting for a stroll through the town. On this avenue you will find plenty of stores and restaurants. As I am always eager to learn more about the history of a country I visited the National History Museum (Museo Nacional de Historia). The entrance fee is 50Q (6EUR). I was honstely disappointed by the museum. The exhibition is not very well described often you have no idea what you are looking at or why it is here – in the second floor there is lots of furniture presented often without any explanation why this furniture is special or whom it belonged to. I also had the Impression, that the thread is missing and I was wondering how a room is related to the next or the previous one. Sometimes the date is missing in the description, making it difficult to puzzle the history together, if you have no previous knowlegde of the Guatemalan history or the political development in the recent decades.
Getting around
The communities around the Atitlan lake are mainly connected by a ferry. From San Pedro to San Marcos it just takes 15minutes by boat and costs 15Q. From San Marcos to Panajachel it is 25Q and about 40minutes depending on the stops the boats makes on the way. Tzununa, Jaibalito and Santa Cruz are fixed stops on the way to Panajachel, but if requested, the boat makes additional stops at any other boat mooring. From San Marcos, San Pedro and Panachajel you can take a shuttle to Antigua (70Q/10Usd) or Guatemala City (130-140Q) usually via Antigua and any other touristic destination in Guatemala or neighbouring countries and vice versa.
The shuttles – at least the ones I have used – were all reasonably priced and given that taking local buses would require more time (more stops and probably no direct bus) I decided to take the shuttles instead. In Nicaragua my experience was quite different – the shuttles are super expensive compared to public buses (e.g. San Juan del Sur to Leon approx. 45USD vs 10 USD).
Wanderlust 