Winding Down and Celebration

The hippy town of San Marcos was our next destination. It is situated on Lake Atitlan, just a boat ride away from San Pedro. We had rooms at a luxurious hotel nestled in the cliffs. After a vegetarian lunch, we showered up and explored. It is a small town filled with restaurants and holistic centers. We booked massages for the next day and picked up some Guatemalan wine for the evening. The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting it up with a Chicago-native-turned-Guatemalan-artist while sipping on tea and smoothies. The chef at our hotel served us Spanish tapas for dinner. The tapas were great, but we missed out on dessert, major bummer! We made the most of the luxury by hanging out in our rooms, playing cards and drinking wine. We woke up to a bright sun and a stretching yoga class before breakfast. We took a quick dip in the lake before checking out of the hotel. Then it was on to massages and lunch to round off our time in San Marcos.

It was a grueling ride back to Antigua due to road construction We made it in time for dinner and found a fun fusion restaurant to eat at and a fancy garden for dessert and drinks. Rebecca was awoken with banana bread overflowing filled with candles for her birthday. It was a wonderful way to start the day! We spent the morning shopping and exploring the city. We ran into some fun art galleries and local markets along the way. We experienced our first typical Guatemalan lunch at La Fonda de la Calle. After walking the city further, we took a siesta. We started the evening festivities with a happy hour at a local Irish bar. We moved on to coffee and sangria on a terrace overlooking the city. Dinner was at a Spanish-style tapas restaurant with seafood and paella. We stopped at a Bavarian bar before heading back to the hotel for beers and cards. Overall, a great birthday celebration!

Xela to Lake Atitlan

On our way to the starting point of the trek, we picked up a fellow traveler, Brad, our non-English-speaking guide and two porters. We all got dropped off in Cantel, a small village outside of Xela. The porters loaded up their packs with food and sleeping gear. They didn’t include any of our stuff, which was expected. So we put on our packs and followed our guide up the first mountain. The day was cool which helped with the climb. After 600 meters, we made it to the highest point of the trek. The view was gorgeous! We continued on until a much needed lunch break. We had the opportunity to call it a day, but decided to forge on. The second half of the day was a strenuous and long downhill climb through the forest. We made it to the Nahualate river right as it started raining. We had a steep uphill climb before stopping for the night. We were greeted by a man who played the guitar and told us folk tales. We found a “candy store” to fill up on sugar treats before dinner. By 8pm, we were all snuggled into our sleeping bags on the concrete floor. Luckily the roosters were nothing compared to SE Asia and we were all able to get some shut-eye.

The following morning we started the uphill hike out of the village. Again, the views were magnificent. You could see various villages hidden throughout the mountains. The rest of the trek was less steep, both uphill and downhill. We made it to Santa Clara by lunchtime. This was a much bigger town with restaurants and stores. After lunch, we set up camp in the house of an indigenous Quiche family. We had the afternoon and evening to ourselves and spent the time drinking beers and playing cards. We went to bed early again so we could get up for the sunrise. Unfortunately, our hosts did not aid in our sleep plans. We were kept up with bright lights and chanting. It had rained the night before which left a mist over the town. We woke up to see the sunrise, but only caught a quick glimpse of light over the lake. We filled up with breakfast before making our final descent to the San Pedro on the lake.

For more details of the trek, check it out through Adrenalina Tours: http://www.adrenalinatours.com/English/Hikes/XAtitlan.html

Exploring Tikal

From the time we forced ourselves up at 3:45am until we boarded our 6:30am flight, a higher level of stress was maintained. The transfer was late starting off, another pick-up couldn't be found, there were discrepencies in flight times and luggage tickets. We finally made it to Tikal for a group tour. Our guide was full of information about the sites and the Mayan culture. The ruins were tucked away in the jungle, quite amazing. After lunch, the four of us went back to the Grand Plaza for more exploring. By the afternoon, the site had cleared out so we had a chance to climb the ruins by ourselves. We saw various birds and monkeys all around us. We showered up and had dinner at our hotel before playing cards and calling it a night.

The next morning, we started the day with a Canopy Tour. We got tied into our harnesses and glided through the forest via zipcords. What a thrill! The rest of the morning was spent lounging and acrobatting in the pool before traveling onto Xela.

Getting Accustomed with Lava

After 3 hours of sleep, we arrived in Guatemala City at 6am on Saturday. Our transfer never showed up, but we were able to find a ride into Antigua. Our hotel rooms weren't ready, so we stopped for breakfast before spending the morning strolling the streets. Antigua is a colorful and quaint town. It is filled with stores and restaurants with all types of cuisines. For lunch, we ran across a hostel with a balcony and Super Nachos. Just what we needed before heading back to the hotel. Only one room was available, so we all took a brief nap on the full size bed.

We got picked up at 2pm for our Pacaya Volcano Trek. With our driver going only 40 mph and getting stuck behind a smelly bus, the ride to the volcano took over 2 hours. Needless to say, we were anxious to get on our feet and start the climb. It took about an hour and a half to arrive at the crater rim. The view at the top showed streams of flowing lava! We followed the crowd into the crater to get a close-up of the lava. It was pretty incredible. Once we got back to the van, we had a sandwich dinner before heading back to Antigua for a brief night's sleep.