Our photo travel log
Five days. Itinerary: Barkhausen Cache River Wetlands Center ➜ Big Cypress ➜ Heron Pond trail ➜ Lower Cache River ➜ Garden of the Gods ➜ Giant City Park
Cache River swamp with tupelo (Nyssa biflora) and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) were you can park your canoe next to a 1000 yo trees standing in 6 ft of water. We rented canoes from White Crane Canoe Rentals, renamed  ☞ Cache Bayou Outfitters.
Started in South Lake Tahoe and visiting Fallen Leaf Lake area. Then hiked 3 days with friends in Desolation Wilderness. We continue to Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic to  hike and camped, and visited places in between. Good hikes to Round Top Lake, Clouds Rest/Sunrise Lakes, Cinder Cone and Lassen Peak.
Desolation WildernessClick on wikiloc logo to see more details
Round Top LakeClick on wikiloc logo to see more details
Clouds Rest/Sunrise LakesClick on wikiloc logo to see more details
Cinder ConeClick on wikiloc logo to see more details
Lassen PeakClick on wikiloc logo to see more details
16-day trip to ☞ Guatemala and Belize in November 2011. After Guatemala leg of our trip we went by local minibus to the border, crossed on foot, quickly and without paying any fees, then took taxi to San Ignacio. Belize part of our trip was much more relaxed than Guatemala, also because we stayed only in 2 places.
ItineraryMelchor de Mencos border crossing ➜ (colectivo/taxi) âžœ San Ignacio – Cahal Pech ➜ (bus tour) âžœ  ATM Cave ➜ (bus tour) âžœ Caracol ➜ (local bus) âžœ Xanantunich and Tropical Wings Nature Center ➜ (bus/boat) âžœ Caye Caulker via Belize City âžœ (boat) âžœ Belize City âžœ Chicago
Belize is relaxed but more expensive. It’s still easy to find cheap hotels and food, but what adds to expense is the tours: you have to take them to see almost anything and they are really pricey, while in Guatemala it’s relatively easy to see things on your own. In San Ignacio we stayed in Tropicool Hotel cabins – nice, clean, quiet and just in the middle of town. They also have very inexpensive rooms with shared bathroom which looked nice and clean, but we opted for more comfort. First afternoon we walked to Cahal Pech and wondered around the ruins (this is where the flies got me for the first time).
Visit to  ATM Cave was the highlight of our trip. Although some companies seemed to get better reviews, we chose Mayawalk Tours since they get to the cave before anybody else. It turned out to be great choice – the tour was awesome. The guide was great, very knowledgeable, didn’t rushed us, made sure everyone was comfortable and took extra care of a lady who did not swim and had some trouble climbing the rocks. The whole tour was great, from walk in the jungle and river crossing, swimming to the cave, scrambling through the rocks, seeing rock formations, to the dry chamber with fascinating Maya artifacts and calcified skeleton (and we were first there and had space for ourselves!) and listening to very interesting explanations from our guide. Amazing trip. Our lunch was also very good.
Next day we hesitated between cave tubing and Caracol, and chose the ruins. Tour was good, but in retrospect I would pick either cave tubing or better yet a tour to Lamanai from Belize City or Caye Caulker. Drive to Caracol was long and on very bumpy road, through pine forest destroyed by insects several years ago, just starting to regenerate and looking sad. On the way back we stopped to see a large cave and Rio On pools. Caracol was the only ruins we visited with a guide, and although he was good and left us time, I prefer unguided exploration. It was nice to hear full story about the site though. To go to Caracol, everybody had to join convoy with military escort leaving town at set time.
Last morning we went on a chicken bus to Xanantunich and were there almost alone, with toucans and other birds, and liked it a lot. We crossed the street to see butterflies at Tropical Wings Nature Center (The Trek Stop) and although it’s a small nursery, it was great to see colorful butterflies, eggs, pupae, larvae, and the plants they eat. We came back to get the luggage and jump on another chicken bus to Belize City, and water taxi to Caye Caulker.
We stayed in Maxhapan cabins on Caye Caulker – expensive for our budget, but very pretty, comfortable, clean, with A/C (not really needed), bikes and very nice owner. It was very relaxing to stay there for 4 nights. We took wonderful Hol Chan/Shark alley snorkeling trip with Tsunami, watched so many colorful fish, dozen sharks and huge sting rays – amazing. I really wanted to see manatees and Turneffe Atol, but there were not enough people to easily organize a tour. We got on a manatee tour, but combined with (and run by) another company and it was disappointing. We actually didn’t know we were going with another company until we were on the boat. We saw only one manatee (later learned from Tsunami that there were more in the second resting hole), did not visit St. Gorge Island and snorkeled on our own very briefly at 2 places since the guide didn’t even got into water (it was cloudy and quite cold). Next day they had enough people for Turneffe, but due to some organization glitch and not sure weather we did not go. Instead I went on night snorkeling and it was a blast, the guide was great, everything was different, I’ve seen lots of lobsters, sea urchins, shrimps and the highlight was an octopus. Probably it was better than Turneffe since Turnefffe would be more similar to other reef day snorkeling. Doing it again, I would go fishing instead of manatee tour (or rather instead of a tour with uncertain tour company that I did not choose). Next time we have to try diving!
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.
ItineraryChicago âžœ Guatemala City âžœ (taxi) ➜ Antigua  ➜ (shuttle) âžœ San Juan La Laguna/Chi-Ya Cabins – Cerro Cristalino (Indian Nose) hike – Lake Atitlan canoe trip âžœ  San Pedro La Laguna âžœ (boat) âžœ Santiago Atitlan  ➜ (boat)  ➜ San Pedro  ➜ San Juan/Chi-Ya Cabins  ➜ (ferry) âžœ Panajachel  ➜ (bus) ➜ Antigua ➜  (bus tour) âžœ Pacaya hike  ➜ (bus) ➜ Tikal via Flores  ➜ (colectivo) âžœ Yaxha/Ecologe El Sombrero via El Cruce (Ixlu) ) âžœ (boat) âžœ Topoxte on Lake Yaxha – Parque Nacional Yaxha âžœ (colectivo/taxi) âžœ San Ignacio via Melchor de Mencos border crossing  ☞ Belize
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 routeHiking
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.
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):Â 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.
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.
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.
Three days revisiting Mirror and Devil’s Lakes.
