ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA
Last month I took off from DC for a week and a half to travel around Guatemala with my boyfriend and his brother. This was my first time in Central America and I loved how varied my experiences there were and especially the chance to spend some time in nature. But first, we spent the first third of our trip based in Antigua, a charming Spanish colonial town nestled between three stratovolcanoes in the central highlands, and spent the first few days exploring the city itself. Some recommendations:
- Go on a walking tour or do your own self-guided ruins tour to learn more about the city
- Look out from the viewpoint at Cerro de la Cruz
- Wander the markets during the day
- Listen to live music in the central plaza at night
- Rooftop restaurant for crepes and smoothies: Luna de Miel
- Cute dinner for local cuisine: Los Tres Tiempos
- Farm-to-table brunch (with an excellent view of the city): El Cerro de San Cristobal Restaurante
- Stay at the Hotel Casa Antigua
PACAYA
For our second day, we took a day trip outside of Antigua to hike Pacaya, one of Guatemala's most active volcanoes. We hiked about 2,000ft to just short of where to the lava rivers stop near the peak to take a break, enjoy the view, and eat a snack. Our guide pulled out a bag of marshmallows to roast over the molten lava rocks, which is by far the most epic s'mores experience I will ever have in my life.
LAGO DE ATITLAN
On our fourth day, we took an early morning shuttle from Antigua to get to Lake Atitlan, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. We sipped mojitos and watched the mist slowly shroud the base of the volcanoes surrounding the lake on our one clear afternoon in Panajachel, the largest town beside the lake, before spending much of the following day kayaking on the calm morning waters, lounging by the pool, watching the intermittent lightning storms over dinner, and wandering the gardens of our hotel.
SEMUC CHAMPEY
It took us nearly an entire day just to get to Semuc Champey, a natural limestone formation of a series of stepped turquoise pools and waterfalls deep in the forest. The shuttle ride from Antigua was 9 hours long and dropped us off at a small town called Lanquin, where we hopped on to the back of a pickup truck for another 45 minute ride up and down the hills to reach El Portal, a hostel perched above the Cahabon river located right at the entrance of the park itself. Although they promised free WiFi, my phone never managed to make a connection so I spent the next couple of days completely disconnected from the rest of the world.
Not pictured but certainly worth noting was our afternoon spent caving and tubing down the Cahabon. Our hostel ran a daily tour of activities with a guided water cave excursion and inner tubing after lunch. The cave came without any warnings and seemed innocuous enough, but in hindsight I'm not sure if I would have said yes if I had been properly informed of what this experience would entail. Our group of 14 was given a foot-long wax candlestick each and walked in a single-file line upon entering. It was fine at first until it wasn't: the shallow, knee-deep pools dropped to 10-feet deep without warning, forcing you to swim while one hand held your candle above your head as hot wax dripped down, hoping the flame wouldn't go out before you reached the next patch of rocky ground and could ask your neighbor to light yours back up. There were also five different metal ladders at various points to climb or descend one-handed, which was sufficiently terrifying until our guide upped the ante and instructed us to slip through a hole into a pitch-black pool below instead of descending the final ladder in that landing. While our group made it out an hour later, mostly unscathed, I was still a bit shaken even when we floated gently down the river in our inner tubes as local kids swam up and offered ice cold beers post-cave.
TIKAL
Our final stop was at Tikal, an ancient Mayan ruin complex in the rainforests up in the northeastern part of the country. Because our hotel was in Flores and we wanted to watch the sunrise from atop a temple, we caught a 3:00am shuttle to make it to the top of Temple V by 5:20am. Although the clouds didn't clear up until later in the morning, it was a surreal experience to be so high up in the middle of the jungle and walk among structures that have been here for so long.
xoxo, vivian
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