Guatemala - Mayan Ruins, Jungles, Rainforests, Errupting Volcano's, Amazing little towns in the mountains and beautiful Lakes

Flores:

First stop and wow how things have changed. Our first proper cheap country. Back to the Spanish speaking land again. Crossing the border in the middle of nowhere some taxi driver asks us where were from. Then started talking about France VS Ireland and how Ireland didn't make the world cup. Guatemala is full of mountains, Mayan people, Jungle, waterfalls, rivers and even tuktuks. Its not without its commercial fast food restaurants however. There is too much to do here!! I have already decided that I´ll be coming back here at some stage even if its just for a holiday. There are plenty of people who´ve come and stayed. Lots of jobs going in bars and hostels as well and plenty of people doing Spanish schools. Flores is a small hilly island in the middle of a lake. Thinking it was a big enough city we got geared up to walk the circle of the island only to find ourselves finished within 7 minutes. So spent the day chilling out swimming and then swam about a km out to another small little island! We stayed in a very cool hostel here which had rooms and beds but we choose to sleep out on hammocks for the three nights.





Lanquin:

High up in the mountains above the clouds, swallowed by rain forest and jungle, rivers flowing like mad through it and lots of little huts to stay in. Driving through the countryside we see a lot more Mayan people and its amazing how small they are. Some women are the same height as their 8 or 10 year old daughters. And they all have the most interesting colourful clothes. Half the time I´m not sure if the people here even understand Spanish cause a few times we´ve ordered stuff and something totally different has come out. Or course there was one guy who had a few focal as gaeilge as you do everywhere! Did some random cave jumps, tubing down a river and a hike to come back to our hostel and sauna and a dip in the river.


Sometimes when traveling reality just hits you. Or as a friend once said to me you get a moment. So I'm lying in my hut trying to escape mosquitoes not sure if I've locked one inside the mozzy net or not cause its too dark to see. Lot of the times I forget I'm away somewhere totally different. Usually hanging out with other English speaking foreigners or some people with similar culture and then all of a sudden lying in bed one night and I think, wow, I'm in the middle of the jungle in Guatemala. The rain is pounding down on the grass roof but not seeping through, the insects are chirping away like mad and everyone else was asleep. It feels in one way I'm so close to home because of the people we hang out with. Had just spent the evening chatting in the sauna with some people and this was the first experience in my life of staying in hostels where Spanish was the common language amongst German, Israeli, English and American and here's me trying to speak my broken bits with them!! On the other hand then its those moments that hit you when you realize where you really are!






Antigua - Pacaya

One of the places I´d been looking forward to most in Central America was Antigua. And it didn´t disappoint despite the evening rain. The book says that this city would be as if the Scandinavians had taken over and run it. Very different. Very organized and beautiful surrounded by three volcanoes on all sides. Even 20km before we arrived it seemed very Canadian or Scandinavian. The humidity had gone, there were pine forests and nice two lane highways. Even McDonalds and Burger king looked very classy within the city. And they recycle. We wanted to do a walk up to this volcano, Pacaya that had erupted a month previously. So after been very very hungover we got up at 6am and went out to check the lava flow. Some of it was still smoking and it was crazy how it had just flowed down the mountain and then stopped all of a sudden in some farmers field. There was still smoke coming out of the top of the Volcano as well.

San Pedro - Lake Aititlan

Driving a few hours around towering mountains in the middle of lashing rain and then we circled this corner and in front of us about 1000metres below was this massive blue lake, surrounded by volcanoes, sun shining down on it and little villages dotted all over. In one way it really reminded me of Queenstown. It has loads to do, lots of adventure activities and is beautiful in the sunshine which we got nearly every day. Kayaked across the lake one of the days for over an hour and did some cliff jumps. Rented some hot pools with a group of about 14 of us and about 5 litres of rum which only lasted about two hours. And its so so cheap. Like 2 euros for accommodation and 2 euros for meals. Would have stayed there longer but we were totally rummed out and ready to surf and detox in El Salvador for a bit.

Map of our route is at Pan Am Map

Photos are at Guatemala Photos