Reading the blogs, travelers say you need at least four weeks in Guatemala and we wholeheartedly agree. We stayed just five days shy of a full month; we had a blast and highly recommend it to everyone! We started with a bus from San Ignacio to Flores, a beautiful town on the water where you need a small boat to take you anywhere. Our hostel overlooked the water and the colorful streets of this quaint town.

From Flores, we took the 4:30am bus to Tikal to walk through the jungle and look at the ruins; we did a self-guided tour (the first of many) looking at monkeys and toucans as we climbed some of the ancient buildings to view the tops of the canopy. It’s always a good idea to get there early to avoid vendors lining the paths and whistling a sound through their wooden instruments to make you think a jaguar might be lurking nearby. Coons was particularly excited to climb temple four to catch a view found in one of the Star Wars movies.

After Tikal, we visited Jorge’s Rope Swing, a destination we thought would be more popular for tourists, but we were able to enjoy some cervezas while we lounged in an innertube or jumped off the diving board or the rope swings.

After Flores, we arrived in Lanquin and our hostel, Vista Verde. We loved this place so much we hardly left! It was a much cooler temperature than we’d been used to and we were ecstatic about that. We enjoyed many sunrises and sunsets at the infinity pool overlooking the mountains, and Coons enjoyed a couple siestas.

The staff and the food were quite enjoyable. Our major excursion was a visit to Semuc Champey: a 45-minute ride in the back of a truck through hilly, dirt roads followed by a tour through a dark, dank cave only lit by a hand-held candle. We climbed and swam through these caves until we had practically no candle to light our way!

Then we visited an iconic rope swing and floated down the river drinking cervezas. Finally, we climbed to a lookout point to view the pools we would spend the rest of the afternoon jumping, sliding, and swimming in.

By far our longest travel day was Lanquin to Quetzaltenango or Xela (Shay-la) for short — 15 hours total and four buses! One gentleman was kind enough to bring us to our hostel after we arrived at the bus stop around 10:30pm. We were so grateful to the kind stranger and his family as we were completely exhausted from that long, bumpy, crowded journey. In Xela we stayed for almost two weeks in two hostels, previously mentioned in our “Roots” blog post, unpacking for a little while, taking Spanish lessons, hiking volcanoes, and enjoying “El Dia De Los Muertos” and the celebration of fiambre.

We enjoyed two unguided overnight volcano treks in Guatemala: Volcan Tajumulco and Volcan Acatenango. Volcan Tajumulco is the tallest peak in Central America. It has a well-maintained trail through old and new pine tree forest (some of the trees were as tall as Kourtney), and the sunrise was absolutely breath-taking!

Volcan Acatenango, one of the more popular Guatemalan hikes and the second highest peak, overlooks Volcan Fuego that spouts huge clouds of black smoke and red lava a couple times per hour. We sat in awe during a beautiful sunset listening to the BOOM and rumble of the erupting volcano.

 

From Xela, we stopped in Lake Atitlan to visit two local lake towns: Santa Cruz and San Pedro. We stayed at a hostel called Free Cerveza in Santa Cruz where you pay 70Q or $9 US for a three-course meal and two hours of all-you-can-drink fun! There was beer bong; there was slap cup; there was flip cup — and just for a second — we forgot our age as we crawled into our teepee tent!

In San Pedro, we hiked Volcan San Pedro, and then Coons hit the courts for some pick-up basketball with an amigo we met from the hike. Who said white men can’t jump?

Antigua was our last stop in Guatemala and a charming historic town! We walked around the city looking at old churches and uneven roads decorated with beautiful multicolored buildings.

We stopped into a couple restaurants for refreshments. We enjoyed some local brews from Antigua Brewing Company — don’t get the nachos! — and some cabernet and queso from a small wine bar near the iconic yellow arch! We loved Guatemala so much we took a cooking class at La Tortilla to make sure we could recreate all of these memories when we’re back home in our kitchen missing Guatemala.

Now, it’s time to rip through some waves in El Tunco, El Salvador — wish us luck!

 

For the past month or so we have been uprooting ourselves often to take in as much beauty and adventure as we can find, but we found ourselves in Quetzaltenango, or Xela (shay-lah) for short, for about two weeks. We spent one week in Zona 1 near the center of town at Casa Seibel, a beautiful (and cheap $12 US) hostel with comfortable beds, hot showers, and an open garden in the center with natural sunlight shining through.

We have been able to enjoy watching the Red Sox and Patriots play in the reception area as we cook our own meals and enjoy a glass (ok… a bottle) of red wine. The staff has been friendly and helpful, letting us leave our bags when we go off exploring volcanoes for a couple days. We have had some wonderful meals; Kourtney’s favorite has been Panquewaffle where she enjoyed a carafe of coffee and a waffle stuffed with mushrooms, cheese, and pesto.

Ben enjoyed the shrimp alfredo pizza and liter of Gallo at Salon Tecun. And, of course, the festivities in town have been an experience rich in culture.

We spent one week at La Democracia Spanish School with two instructors: Ruth, who speaks little to no English, spent 25 hours reviewing Spanish and conversing with Coons, asking him questions like what would you do if you were in in the shoes of an immigrant in the migrant caravan, so he could practice Spanish in the conditional and future tense. Maria spent her days with Kourtney, giving her an overview of Spanish and a traveler’s toolkit of vocabulary and verb constructions. On Friday, we spent the day practicing vocab with a variety of games.

Coons had a great opportunity to put his Spanish knowledge to the test as he had to visit a doctor and get medication for a minor throat infection. We had the best time with these ladies! We highly recommend La Democracia if you are wanting to stay in Xela and practice your Espanol!

As part of our Spanish school program, we spent a week in a homestay at the Casa de Rosy. Rosy is a gracious and patient host and her house was filled with four generations of her family, as well as some other homestay guests. She gave us a nice single room we called the Penthouse where we had views of the Santa Maria Volcano.

She cooked a variety of local meals including fried plantain with black beans, pupusa (fried egg with chicken and cheese), and of course the traditional meal – Fiambre

which happens once a year during El Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead). The meal consists of all the local vegetables (the vegetables are a very big deal) cooked down and pickled and topped with a variety of meats and cheeses. Rosy spent days preparing this meal and allowed us to eat with her family during the celebration. We actually didn’t have school on November 1st because the whole town essentially shuts down to visit their local cemetery to decorate the graves of their loved ones with gorgeous bouquets of flowers.

They eat and listen to mariachi and fly kites for hours on end! It is a unique way to give thanks and celebrate the lives of those lost.

The Santa Maria volcano was a gorgeous and strenuous hike at 12,375 ft, but we got some great views despite the fog and clouds.

The summit was actually quite warm and you could feel the heat from rocks! They were people decorating the summit with flowers and others attending a church service. The highlight of Kourtney’s hike was the local walking his cow on a leash on the way down!

We practiced carrying clothes, food, and water during the Santa Maria in preparation for our two-day trek to Volcano Tajumulco at 13,850 ft!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Xela — unpacking our whole bag to lay out our things has been a blessing in itself — but now we are ready to pack our bags and hop a couple chicken buses to continue our journey through Guatemala at Lake Atitlan and Antigua!