Day 3 - Tikal to Semuc Champey/ Lanquin

We had the option this morning of waking up extremely early to do a sunrise tour of Tikal. Maybe we should have, but the exhaustion of the previous two days combined with the expense of it (another park entrance fee of $20* plus an apparently required tour guide fee, the same guy as yesterday) and the chance that it might be cloudy steered us towards more sleep. We were woken up around 5AM by howler monkeys, which was cool once you realized that they weren't ogres/ trolls lurking just outside of your room:

We finished up breakfast and headed out of Tikal around 9AM on a shuttle, once again run by this guide that was apparently inescapable. Anyways, we had private transportation waiting for us in the Flores airport, which we arranged through Voyager Tours for $380 to drive us to Lanquin (Semuc Champey.) The shuttle driver was very nice, friendly, on time, and drove very carefully (maybe even a bit too carefully/ slow for my taste, but there you go.) This was a route that I couldn't find much information on online, especially the duration of the trip, so here are my notes about it:

-We left Flores at 10:30AM.

-We reached Sayaxche in 90 minutes, crossing the river on a ferry.

-The road was in good condition the entire trip

-We reached Raxruja at 1:30PM (3hrs), hit light construction traffic

-We reached Chisec by 2:15PM (3.75 hrs)

-We reached Cobán at 4PM (5.5 hrs)

-We left Cobán at 4:30PM

-We arrived in Lanquin around 6:30PM

My parents on the Ferry at Sayaxche

En route to Cobán

The landscape on the way to Lanquin. It looked like a titanic egg carton mattress.

We were worried by the time that we arrived in Cobán that we would not make it to Lanquin in time to see the Grutas de Lanquin - our whole reason for taking expensive private transportation over a regular 1pm shuttle was to squeeze in a visit to the caves where thousands of bats flood out at sunset. In Cobán we actually changed drivers and grabbed dinner (and took our time a bit, thinking that Lanquin by sunset was now impossible). However, our new driver said it was very possible to make it in time and was extremely helpful coordinating everything with our hotel. He even offered to drive us directly to the caves after dropping our bags off at a Cafe in Lanquin (owned by our hotel, El Portal) since it was on his way out.

The bats at the Grutas de Lanquin were awesome! They didn't flood out of the cave like in a Batman movie, but they were constantly streaming out and it was amazing that you could stand in the middle of it all and the bats would dodge you, sometimes inches from your face (but they never hit you.) The entrance fee to the caves was nominal (30Q/ $3.50) and we got some cool pictures:

There were other people at the caves going to El Portal as well so it was almost too easy - we got a free ride back to the Cafe, picked up our luggage, and then rode on to El Portal (this hotel is right at Semuc Champey, a good 30 minutes itself from Lanquin on a dirt road.)

Overall, a long day of traveling, but we squeezed in a sight at the Lanquin Caves and positioned ourselves well to spend the whole next day at Semuc Champey….

*Footnote - I can't stand the price disparities in Guatemala. If you are Guatemalan it costs about $5 to enter the park. If you are a foreigner, it costs $20. That is 400% greater. Imagine if the USA used the same system... "oh, you wanna go to Disney World, foreigner? That'll be $200 park entrance fee...." I think it would cause more than a bit of an uproar

Day 2 - Tikal

Exhausted from our Pacaya hike, we had to get up at 5AM the next morning to catch our flight to Tikal. We flew with TAG, a national airline here in Guatemala. Their website is perhaps a little "sketchy" (certainly doesn't have the standard flight reservation/ online booking system that major airlines do) but wow, we were impressed with the company. Service was friendly and personal when I booked our flight, the airline itself has its own hangar (you don't go to the "normal" section of the airport to fly with TAG, you go directly to their counter), and the flights were on time.

There was a brief scuffle during check in between my mom and "Tammy the Tour Guide," who was shuffling a mass of elderly people ahead of my mother, her full brim straw hat complimenting her baggy khakis and short sleeve button up, given her the look of either a serious archaeologist or a serious tourist, your pick. Other than that, the morning was uneventful, the flight pleasant, fast, and compared to normal international style airports, extremely hassle free (no security, no stupid liquids rules, it was awesome.)

TAG Airlines - getting on the plane

We landed at the Flores airport, but our luggage did not. My mom decided to freak out about this, and the very friendly man who showed us a digital picture of our bags and asked us to circle/ label which ones were ours so they could be delivered to our hotel did little to lighten her mood. Sure, this digital picture system of forgotten bags was a bit "unprofessional" by our standards, but the man explained that there was simply too much weight for those bags to fit on our plane and that they would be delivered immediately to our hotel once the next flight landed with them. So we hopped on a 45 minute bus ride to Tikal and decided to take our chances.

True to his word, our bags were waiting for us when we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon after our tour of Tikal. More points for TAG airlines.

Tikal itself was pretty awesome; we stayed at the Jungle Lodge, in the park, which was honestly a little underwhelming. I think the biggest problem was that we felt like we had no other options once at the Jungle Lodge; this was where we would be eating, where we would hire a tour guide, where we would have to arrange transportation back to Flores, so we felt a bit sucked into a tourist trap, so to speak.

The tour we took was… memorable - lots of great people in our group. The guide did a mediocre job in my opinion. He was very knowledgable, but had a tendency to stop walking in the middle of the woods on our way between temples to explain the Mayan migration tendencies or something. This would really aggravate me, we must've stopped to talk several times for a total of an hour before we saw any ruins! I guess I was looking for some information a little more specific to the temples in Tikal (whenever we reached the actual temples, little to no explanation was given on their specific purposes, just free time to climb/ look around. Bummer.) He gave a thorough if tedious lecture on the Mayan counting system with a base of 20, which was cool. But yeah, too much stopping in the middle of the woods, too much talk about the local Flora, not enough info about the temples themselves.

Ceiba trees are cool, but when you talk about them for thirty minutes instead of walking to the temples... they kind of lose some of their appeal

The temples themselves, though, are unbelievable. They're massive, slapped right in the middle of the jungle, and are often climbable. Some have modern, wood stairs built into the sides for assistance (like Temples IV and VI, the biggest ones,) but don't let that bum you out - climbing these stairs is as adventurous at times as climbing the actual stone (which can be done in many places.) The stairs in temple VI in particular were so steep that I would call it a titanic ladder of some 100+ steps, which had to be descended backwards.

We saw several spider monkeys, lots of ant trails carrying leaves/ food, and other cool Jungle stuff. After the tour we headed back to explore some of the other temples on our own, which was some nice fun, quiet exploration time. Our feet were exhausted by this point (volcano hike + all day up/ down/ around temples) so we basically crashed at this point, ready to finish up Tikal in the morning and head to Semuc Champey afterwards….

Our first huge, impressive temple of the day

The central plaza (fun fact, the lady in the FG was in our tour group, we ran into her and her husband 2 days later in Antigua by coincidence)

At the top of a temple that was also an observatory (?) - Mundo Perdido

One of the easier staircases to climb

A "palace" that we explored on our own (it had an awesome tunnel/ corridor entrance)

Spider Monkeys were more active near sunset

Day 1, part 2 - Hiking the Volcano Pacaya

After putting all of my family's luggage at my house in Guatemala City, we headed off to Pacaya via the "back road" by lake Amatitlan - not to be confused with Atitlan, which is much further from the city. The road is simple - once you turn off the "main" road around the lake, you follow the dirt road for a little under an hour without taking any real turns, passing through several tiny towns and around a nice second lake, smaller than Amatitlan, high in the mountains. We passed some random and creepy stuff, like this:

The road literally dumps you out at the start of the Pacaya hike rather than in the town just a bit down the mountain. So as lost as you may feel driving the "back way," it really is a straight shot. We hired a guide for about 100Q - the same guide who took Phillip and I back in August! It was cool that I was now able to talk to him way better than I could the first time, when my Spanish was nonexistent. His name is Eduardo and he left me his phone number (53209678), saying that if we were ever coming back to Pacaya to call him and he would wait for us at the base. He is a nice kid if a bit quiet, about 14 years old, and only speaks Spanish.

The hike is pretty long and was difficult for me (24 years old), my brother (15), my friend Keeley (23), & my mom and my dad (50s). My dad and brother caved in and rented a horse from the relentless salesmen that walked halfway up the mountain behind us.

My mom, in her stubbornness, became even more adamant that she would walk with the horsemen at our heels.

The last time I hiked Pacaya, in August, we had to stop at the end of the tree line. This time, that point was about the halfway mark, and we got to go much, much closer to the crater (while still uphill, the hike was much flatter after the treelike.)

Much had changed with the crater's landscape since Pacaya's massive eruption back in May. While we saw no free-flowing molten lava at the time of visiting (March 2011), there were several cool cracks in the earth where sticks caught on fire, and a small cave that felt like a sauna. The crater itself was very Mount-Doom-esque. Here are some shots:

The sun was setting about the time we started back, so we snapped some quick sunset photos at the top with Volcan Agua in the back - photos which will hopefully satisfy my mother for our 2011 Christmas Card, pending photoshopping in my other brother.

Probably the coolest thing came at the very end as our guide, before getting in our car, shouted "Fuego esta tirando!" which meant that the volcano Fuego (visible across the horizon from Pacaya) was erupting! There was a small stream of red light at the top of one of the mountains which, combined with the brilliant sunset and glitter of the city lights as they turned on in the distance, made for an epic end to a long, full day.

Day 1, part 1 - National Cemetery/ Garbage Dump

My family (mom, dad, and 15 year-old brother - my other brother is in college and could not come) landed in Guatemala City right around noon. Because I've been living here for 6 months and have access to a car, I was able to pick them up right at the airport. The airport is small and straightforward, so it was easy to find them without dealing with cell phones and unnecessary international rates.

Most tourists go directly from the airpot of Guatemala City to Antigua, preferring to bypass the smoggy, polluted capital for the tranquil streets and European charm of Antigua. Because the airpot is only 30-45 minutes from Antigua, this is very easy to do (there are many cabs/ shuttles at the airport.)

If you do want to spend time in Guatemala City, there are a couple of things I'd recommend. One is the Relief Map (Mapa en Relevé) in Zone 1, a gigantic map that is more like a miniature sculpture of the country, complete with mountain peaks, bodies of water, and labels. It is so large that you have to walk around the perimeter or use one of the two viewing towers to get a better view.

Because we were limited on time and wanted to hike Pacaya, we bypassed this Relief Map and headed straight for the Cemetery/ Garbage dump (which border one another) in Zones 3 and 7. The Guatemalan national cemetery is beautiful and, for an entrance of about 37 cents per vehicle, is well worth it. The cemetery is so large that it has a road system to drive along, and tombs ranging from lavish, Egyptian like burial chambers to walls of nearly-anonymous graves populate the place, all adorned in beautiful flowers and touting an amazing variety of stone, seraphs, inscriptions, and painted walls.

The Walls of the Cemetery

Overlook from the Cemetery on the garbage dump

Trucks unloading... and people digging through the trash to re-sellable items

The cemetery is also perched on a cliff that overlooks the city dump. The Garbage Dump is epic in a sad, shocking, eye-opening kind of way - people pay a monthly fee and get access to search through the trash in order to find items to re-sell, and they (attempt to) make a living this way. This area of the city is a place where extreme poverty is not hidden in some overlooked corner, but very readily apparent. A great organization called Safe Passage, located near the dump, serves as an after school program for children of families in the area in an attempt to foster education, create opportunities, and break the poverty cycle in the city.

After snapping some photos and taking in the sights of the cemetery, we headed back in my truck up to the suburb where I live (Fraijanes), stopping at my friend's restaurant, and ate at Sunset Grill on km 15 of the Carraterra al Salvador (which I highly recommend, the food has a TexMex/ southwestern influence and is amazing) before dropping our stuff off at my house and heading towards Volcan Pacaya in the afternoon….

Guatemala - the best of the country in 1 week

For our family trip to Guatemala, we only had 1 week (7 nights/ 8 days) to tour the country (ok, so I've been living here for 6 months, but my family was on Spring Break and only had a week here.)

We opted for an itinerary that emphasized quantity over quality, spending only a day or so in each location in order to see as much of the astounding variety that Guatemala has to offer. Our trip took us from the jungle ruins of Tikal in hot, humid Peten to the volcano-rimmed lake Atitlan nestled deep in the highlands. Overall, this is what we managed to see in only seven days:

-The Guatemalan National Cemetery/ City Garbage Dump

-The Volcano Pacaya (hike)

-Ruins at Tikal

-Lanquin/ Semuc Champey, including the pools, the caves (grutas) de Lanquin and the caves of Semuc Champey

-The city of Antigua

-Lake Atitlan

Our itinerary went like this:

Day 1: Fly into Guatemala City, hike Volcano Pacaya

Day 2: Fly to Tikal early in the morning, Spend the night in Tikal

Day 3: Travel to Lanquin/ Semuc Champey, see the grutas de Lanquin

Day 4: Semuc Champey limestone pools/ Caves of Semuc Champey tour

Day 5: Travel to Antigua, dinner and shopping in Antigua

Day 6: Travel to lake Atitlan, shopping/ relaxing at Panajachel and La Casa del Mundo

Day 7: Morning at the lake, travel back to Guatemala City in the afternoon, dinner/ night in Guatemala City

Day 8: Fly home

Here are 7 select pictures, one for each day of our trip:

Day 1 - Sunset at the top of Pacaya

Day 2- Climbing the ruins at Tikal

Day 3 - Creepy bats leaving the Grutas de Lanquin

Day 4 - Beautiful waterfalls at Semuc Champey

Day 5 - Volcan Agua frames the city of Antigua

Day 6 - Colorful Fabrics in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan

Day 7 - Paradise at La Casa del Mundo hotel (Lake Atitlan)

Following this post, I'm going to make approximately 1 blog post per day of our vacation that includes photos/ travel information for each leg of our trip, descriptions/ reviews of hotels and transportation, and information about the sites (age-appropriateness, history, facts, etc etc.)