Guatemala

16-day trip to Guatemala and Belize in November 2011. Expected dry season, but got rain almost daily – just short bursts easy to wait out.

Itinerary

Chicago ➜ Guatemala City ➜ (taxi) ➜ Antigua  ➜ (shuttle) ➜ San Juan La Laguna/Chi-Ya Cabins – Cerro Cristalino (Indian Nose) hike – Lake Atitlan canoe trip ➜  San Pedro La Laguna ➜ (boat) ➜ Santiago Atitlan  ➜ (boat)  ➜ San Pedro  ➜ San Juan/Chi-Ya Cabins  ➜ (ferry) ➜ Panajachel  ➜ (bus) ➜ Antigua ➜  (bus tour) ➜ Pacaya hike  ➜ (bus) ➜ Tikal via Flores  ➜ (colectivo) ➜ Yaxha/Ecologe El Sombrero via El Cruce (Ixlu) ) ➜ (boat) ➜ Topoxte on Lake Yaxha – Parque Nacional Yaxha ➜ (colectivo/taxi) ➜ San Ignacio via Melchor de Mencos border crossing  ☞ Belize

First stop: Antigua

Lake Atitlan

We stayed 3 nights in wonderful Hotel Chi-ya’ (☞ Review at TA ) between San Juan and San Pedro – beautiful cabins with great lake view, free canoe, the nicest people who run it – helped us when we got robbed, gave good advice, showed stars, prepared great breakfast, the best hotel and value on our trip (recommended). Visited coffee plantation with local guide and bought great coffee. Visited Maximon in San Juan with guide’s wife and kids. Hiked Cerro Cristalino (Indian Nose) and got robbed by banditos with machetes – hiking there is beautiful, but really dangerous and we cannot recommend it. We were hiking with a local guide, during the day (~10 am on the summit) and we met a local guard patrolling the trail (we were told) – nothing helped. We met a few people on the trail, but not hikers. We filed police report in Santa Clara. And spent all next morning canoeing on the lake, watching San Pablo and San Marcos from the water, assuming there were no pirates floating around – it was great.

Cerro Cristalino trail and Lake Atitlan canoeing route

Hiking
Cerro Cristalino (Nariz del Indo/Indian Nose) 2251 m, from Cabins Chi-ya, between San Juan La Laguna and San Pedro on Lake Atitlan, to Santa Clara La Laguna, ~7 km, ~750 m total altitude gain, between 1600, 2250 and 2100 masl. We followed main mapped trail from San Juan to Santa Clara and then a trail to the summit (now also mapped).

Canoeing
We navigated clockwise ~11km loop from Cabins Chi-ya, between San Juan and San Pedro, to San Pablo and San Marcos where we came to shore without disembarking. We moved along the coast on the way out and zigg-zagged straight across the lake on the way bach to Chi-ya. Trace on map shows very approximate route and is meant only to suggest possible canoeing adventure.

 
Didn’t like San Pedro (touristy, not much local character), took a boat from there to Santiago Atitlan which we liked much more, church, very authentic Maximon (got there by tuk-tuk from the dock), local atmosphere, traditional dress (both men and woman). Returned by boat, we loved beautiful views of the lake, villages and volcanos. Next morning we went to Panajachel by boat, walked a little, too early for good shopping, town not impressive. And back to Antigua by shuttle.

Antigua

Very nice colonial city, great ruins, had too much time there since our overnight hike to Acatenango summit was cancelled at very last moment for security reasons. We did morning Pacaya hike instead which was nice despite lack of lava flow – leaving early, we were the first group on the volcano which was great. Visited Centro Cultural la Azotea, just north of town (transport by free shuttle): nice museum of instruments and coffee plantation.

Overnight bus to Flores (Linea Dorada, luxury seat downstairs – very comfortable, with wireless Internet!).  Wanted to avoid San Juan shuttle to Tikal and take chicken bus from Santa Elena instead, but didn’t manage – the bus dropped us off in Flores. We ended up on regular San Juan shuttle which worked out well, but I was terrified the whole time, with our and other couple’s luggage on the roof advertising we go to Tikal with all our (remaining) belongings.

Tikal

We stayed in Jaguar Inn which was OK. We were very glad we stayed overnight and spend whole first day and half of the next day visiting the ruins, after 4 pm we had them almost all to ourselves, shared with countless monkeys, turkeys, coatis, toucans and parrots. We loved Tikal and slow pace of visiting. It’s huge and ruins are scattered in the jungle, really magnificent. Only the Great Plaza with the largest temples had tourists, further places appeared from the jungle for us to explore.

Yaxha

Next day, we took first (12:30 pm) shuttle to Flores (luggage inside, little less scared), but we jumped out at intersection in El Cruce/Ixlu   and took local minibus (only locals and us, felt totally safe) to Yaxha turn-off. We had very good lunch at El Portal de Yaxha restaurant waiting to be picked up by El Sombrero staff. El Sombrero was rustic, great and very relaxing, on the lake and only 2 km from Yaxha. The first evening, they showed us a trail by the lake to local hill with unexcavated ruins. Nobody around, but we were warned not to hang around too long close to the lake (friendly local dog refused to go with us on the trail). The structures were nothing to compare to Tikal or Yaxha,  but their exploration in dense forest  in twilight was great. Walking back through the jungle after dark was scary, we made it safely back to the lodge. Next morning we spotted large crocodile just by El Sombrero boat dock. We rented a boat to take us to Topoxte, where we were totally alone, and then all around the lake full of herons, egrets, king fishers and other birds. It was wonderful tour, just for two of us, and cost only Q200. We than walked to Yaxha and spent the rest of the day there, and loved it. Surprisingly it was less wild than Tikal and had more park-like feel, with great description of each ruin (even though we don’t speak Spanish, they were informative) and well visible causeways and even more wildlife (monkeys, toucans). We watched the sunset from tallest pyramid.  Guards told us to go down and back to the gate a few minutes before dark, but it was magical anyway. All tourists and guards were gone, and we could not see much, just silhouettes of pyramids and trees,  as we walked towards and then waited in the dark  near the main gate for our car to take us back to the lodge. We did not attempt to go to Nakum since the road was not passable for cars and we did not have time for overnight horse trip. Next morning we spotted another crocodile observing the lodge (or was it the same one?)  Guys from the lodge drove us to the main road where we caught a minibus to Belize border.