Guatemala Trip

Mel & Max
Jan 19, 2020
3 min read

Updated: May 10, 2020

This is the main page for our trip to Guatemala in December 2019. As there are so many things to see, we created dedicated pages for Mayan sites as well as for Volcanoes. This page will focus on the other activities.

Logistic

Here are the places we stayed and visited. We did most of our transportation by buses, but we flew from Guatemala City to Flores and back to save some time. The points of interest appear to be nearby on the map, but as the road are really zig-zaggy ans not always in good condition, it takes some significant time to move around the country!

Here's our itinerary:

Guatemala City

We started and ended our trip by a short stay in Guatemala City. We had the opportunity to visit the zoo, the Nacional Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, an artisan market and to walk around the city.

Zoológico La Aurora : http://www.aurorazoo.org.gt/

Nacional Museum of Archeology and Ethnology : http://www.munae.gob.gt/

Flores

We then took the plane to Flores, which was our base to visit the ancient mayan cities of Tikal and Yaxha. It also turned out that Flores and it's front neighbor, San Miguel, are lovely places to stay and relax. Nice beach, restaurants and architecture.

Funny fact, the first advice we've been given upon our arrival in Flores concerning "what's to do in Flores" was: "Go to San Miguel"! It's a bit true as the view upon Flores was amazing and there was a nice hike/beach awaiting us in San Miguel...

Semuc Champey

Getting to Semuc Champey was not easy! As if it wasn't enough to get sick in the bus to Lanquin, the transportation from Lanquin to Semuc Champey was a 9km ride at 10km/h standing upright in the back of a Pick-up truck on a very bad road! However it was really worth it! The Lanquin caves are also interesting to see once in the area!

Lanquin caves

Situated approximately 1 km from Lanquin, these limestone caves are easily reachable by tuk tuk or by walk. Best time to visit is supposed to be at dusk, when hundreds of bats exit the caves at the same time. Even if we didn't have this experience (maybe because it was a dark and rainy day...), we still enjoyed our visit as the caves themselves are quite impressive. The caves are usually lit, but we had to visit using our headlamps, since there was a major power outbreak. Large parts of the caves are still unexplored, so be careful not to get lost if exploring by yourselves!

Antigua

Antigua was our head quarter to visit a few interesting Volcanoes. They will be detailed in another page, so make sure to check it out as well! Besides the volcanoes it is reputed for it's architecture and nice restaurants. Among others, we've visited the ruins of San Francisco monastery. This church was partially destroyed during the devastating 1773 earthquake and has been reconstructed in parts but areas of ruins still remain to this day.

Panajachel (Lake Atitlan)

We celebrated Christmas at Panajachel, on the majestic lake Atitlan. The sublime views of surrounding volcanoes across the lake themselves worth the trip!

On our first day, we went to the "Reserva Natural Atitlan", where we saw monkeys and coatis, visited a butterfly garden and hiked in tropical forest to a waterfall and to a small beach. It is also possible to do zipline there.

We spent the rest of out time there enjoying the view, relaxing, kayaking and visiting nearby villages.

Reserva Natural Atitlan : https://www.atitlanreserva.com/

San Pedro La Laguna & San Juan La Laguna

Situated across lake Atitlan from Panajachel, San Pedro and San Juan are lovely towns, where we spent couple of hours as a day trip. Once there, we hired a taxi to get a tour of the principal attractions. We've visited a weaving local cooperative, a beekeeping, a medicinal garden and enjoyed amazing views. To Melissa's great displeasure, the chocolate factory was closed that day !