Days 37 to 48: 5 – 16 March 2025
Chichicastenango
March 6 , 2025
After a night in Antigua, we started early to make our way to Lake Atitlan which is in the southwestern region. It was going to be a long drive across the mountains but we had a purpose of visiting Chichicastenango, a Mayan village well known for its twice weekly markets. The countryside was not particularly pretty – very dusty, dirty hillsides pocked with small houses and villages. It has this unique look I’ve seen in many other parts of the world where every dwelling looks either half finished or half falling down. Most houses are a couple of storeys with steel girders sticking out of the roof, I assume in order to build another storey when the family can afford it or needs to. We stopped briefly in Tecpan, a mountain village which was freezing cold before winding our way down the highway towards Chichihastenango. Once we arrived we headed towards the town’s very colourful cemetery which had an array of tombs all painted in different bright colours and decorated with amazing murals. The Mayan celebrates death in an interesting way – the tombs are there to show the colourful life a person has led and to display their individuality through the painted decorations and relics. It was like Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires but instead of being “goth” it was a very colourful and fun version of mortality instead.
After the cemetery we worked our way up the hill and across to the bustling market. Every Thursday and Sunday the town hosts one of the biggest markets in the region. Many vendors and shoppers come from many of the small villages around the area so it is certainly a bustling, crazy and diverse market, selling every thing imaginable. It is centred around the Iglesia de Santo Tomas which has a fascinating history reflecting the ways in which ancient Mayan peoples managed to maintain their rich history and culture when confronted with the invading Spanish conquistadors. The church is believed to have been built on top of a Mayan temple so retains the significant 19 steps and every day locals converge to light a fire on the bottom step and contribute offerings of sugar, corn, biscuits and other sweet foods because they represent energy and goodness for the Gods.
We loved the amazing array of brightly coloured textiles and every manner of bags, belts, dog collars (yes Jasper will be getting a present!) hair bands etc that had similar Mayan woven designs. We were relentlessly pursued by some of the women as they knew I am a sucker for colourful table runners and coasters. We ended up with some lovely pieces which will be great momentos of a great day in a vibrant and fascinating town.
Lake Atitlan
March 6 – 11, 2025
After a long day´s drive from Antigua via Chichicastenango, we wound our way into the valley and arrived at the town of Panajachel, which is on Lago Atitlan. This incredible crystal clear turquoise lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and the vistas are every bit as breathtaking as you can imagine. We had five days here so it was so nice to stop and just immerse ourselves into the village and do day trips out to the other villages that are around the lake.
Panajachel is the biggest town around the lake so there was plenty of restaurants and markets. I had also arranged 5 hours of Spanish lessons so that was a great way to continue improving my language. My teacher at the Jabel Tinamit Spanish School was so patient and made me feel very comfortable speaking Spanish for most of our lessons – that has been the biggest hurdle trying learn via apps and an online audio course so being forced to speak conversationally was really helpful in improving my confidence. The school itself is set in a very serene garden hotel with lovely views towards the mountains that rise above Panajachel so it was a special experience and one I’m keen to do again in the future.
We did day trips to two of the villages on the lake – San Marco and San Juan. There are two embarcaderos in Panajachel where you catch boats from. There are boats are called lanchas and there are lots of touts asking if you want to catch one. Essentially you tell them you want a public lanchas and where you want to go. Both times it cost us 100 Quetzals for a return trip. We soon learned that the morning run is clear blue sky and water, very smooth and the return afternoon is windy, grey skied and very, very bumpy. Th weather seems to turn around lunchtime and the wind picks up so it makes for a much more “interesting” boat trip. At one of the docks we stopped one girl actually fell between the dock and the boat as the swell was tossing the boat around as it tried to pull in. It was super scary and I felt so sorry for her as it would have been quite traumatic. She got out safely and clambered up to her hotel but not sure how she would feel about getting back on a boat anytime soon.
San Marco was recommended for its hippie culture, chilled vibe and as the best spot to swim in the lake. All three elements were met successfully- it is full of hippies from all over the world searching for their inner peace so it was fun people watching as you walk up from the dock along the main street into the town. We then went to the Cerro Tzankujil Reserva Natural and it was simply glorious. There is a 12 metre diving platform into the lake which we skipped (that is a very, very long way down!) and a series of areas for swimmers to go into the lake. There were really only a handful of tourists so felt so serene and the view of volcanos was beautiful. The water was so clear and fresh so we hung out there for a few hours before returning into the main area for a great lunch at a restaurant called Samsara which served delicious vegetarian and gluten fare in a very laidback garden setting.
The next village we visited on a Sunday was San Juan. It is well known for its many female led textile cooperatives, chocolate, honey and coffee factories. It instantly had a welcoming vibe as you step off the boat onto a colourful and bustling dock and as you turn the corner the entire street is covered in colourful umbrellas. We visited a textiles cooperative and saw how the weaving process happens from beginning to end. All natural fabrics and dyes are used and the pieces are very labour intensive so you can the difference between the hand made items and the thousands of factory produced ones that seems to fill up the countless market stalls around Guatemala.
Our free days in Panajachel were spent browsing the many, many markets stalls, watching the paragliders come out like clockwork in the afternoon to sail on the updraughts near our hotel.
We went to the Atitlan Nature Reserva and spent quite a few hours hiking up the trails and traversing the rather treacherous multiple hanging bridges to reach the top lookouts. It also had one of the best butterfly gardens I’ve ever seen and a lovely private beach down by the lake. It was so nice to go very slow for a few days. Travelling is often so crammed full that just to settle in and not unpack for five days was just what we needed.
Antigua
March 11 – 13, 2025
It was back on the road for us after our very relaxing five days in Lake Atitlan. We headed back towards the old capital of Guatemala, Antigua (the translation literally means “old Gua”). This UNESCO World Heritage Listed city was founded by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th Century after they had unsuccessfully tested out a couple of other places for capitals and then a big earthquake destroyed most of the city in 1773 so it was abandoned for Guatemala City in 1776. This means it is a very well preserved city, laid out in regimented grids, with cobblestone streets and very strict regulations about maintaining the original colonial style buildings (there is a set number of colours every building must be painted and there can be no bright signage).
We did a walking tour gave interesting insights into the city’s history. The preservation and integrity of the colonial residences, churches and public buildings is impressive so really feel like you have stepped back in time. Lots of the convents and churches are ruins after the devastation of the earthquake and subsequent independence but many now have museums and galleries adjacent to the ruins snd original structures so you can wander through. Most people also use this as a base to do a Acatenango volcano climb. The day before we arrived, the active volcano of Fuego erupted and the region was on high alert for a couple of days in case it got worse. We wished we had had more than two nights as the town has a very relaxed vibe and there are many students here doing intensive Spanish immersion schools so you can see the appeal of staying and being part of the place for a while.
Tikal
March 13 – 15, 2025
Our final destination in Guatemala was in the far north of the country, close to the border with Mexico. Tikal is the the site of an ancient Mayan capital that dates from approximately 600BCE to 1000BCE. It is believed to have fallen into disrepair and eventually abandoned at the end of the 9th Century AD. Archaeologists rediscovered the ruins in 1848 but it wasn’t officially restored and the area declared a national park until the 1950s. We flew from Guatemala City to Flores then it was a drive of an hour and half to reach our hotel for the next 2 nights. As our flight was delayed we arrived pretty late at night so didn’t get much of a sense of the national park and the site – just lost of warning signs along the road cautioning drivers to watch out for jaguars, deer and apparently turkeys which seemed a bit unexpected.
I didn’t really know what to expect and only had a visit to Angkor Wat in Cambodia as a similar experience. We got up at 4am and walked in the pitch black through the dense jungle, stopping to see amazing ant trails across the road and occasional glimpses of edifices through the trees. It all felt very surreal (and we were both still half asleep!) and eerie. There was a full moon so it added to the sense of mystery. Our guide told lots of interesting stories about the ancient city and its people, as well as explaining the use of many of the plants and trees around us. It was nothing like Angkor Wat because there was hardly any people around so it really did feel like we were in an Indiana Jones expedition.
We climbed to the top of one of temples still in the dark and sat listening to jungle awake – howler monkeys roaring like lions, a million birds singing in the sunrise. As the light gently emerged we realised we were surrounded by a dense fog so there was nothing to see beyond the temple’s wooden railing. It was a shame because when we saw later in the day what we might have seen if the weather cooperated it would have been incredible.
With the sun now up as much it could be battling the mist, we began to see the series of temples laid out across the expansive park. There are grand plazas and about five temples in different parts. We were a little delirious after walking around for about five hours, although the toucans, woodpeckers, monkeys and yes even the rather stunning turkeys were very lively and added to lost world feel of the site.
After breakfast, we were back out for another four hours of wandering the site with a different guide. He gave a lot more detail about the history and archaeology of the site so we learnt so much from both guides who clearly had quite different perspectives on the culture, history and peoples who had lived here. We climbed up and down all the temples you are allowed to climb, walked for about 15kms in total throughout the day and relished just how few tourists there were in such a monumental UNESCO world heritage site – I’ve never been anywhere like it and seen so few people. When you get to the top of two of the highest temples it is a sight to behold the structures emerging from the canopy and to consider what this Mayan kingdom must have been like at the height of its power.
The wonder of creation is found in the little things.
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