Guatemala March 2023

The border crossing into Guatemala from Belize went smoothly. We have now got used to the way they work. However, our poor understanding of Spanish always adds a little more stress to these situations.

It was the usual procedure. Check out of Belize and Then check into Guatemala and get the Temporary Import Permits for the Truck and the Motorcycle. It's always a hot sweaty few hours but we were eventually spat out the other end successfully.

In 2006 the Central American Nations of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua ( Known as the C4 Countries ) all signed the Free Mobility Agreement that allowed their citizens to pass from each of the countries easily. This also means that once you enter one country the Visa clock starts to count down. We were granted a total of 90 days of entry to the C4, which meant that we had to get ourselves down to Panama and be back in and out of Guatemala before the 90 days expired. You can apply for an extension but in our case, it hopefully won't be required.

We headed for the Lago Peten Itza. It's the third largest lake in Guatemala, being about 100 square Kilometers in area.

Parking on the lakeside for a few days was exactly what we needed.

Lago Peten Itza

Unfortunately, whilst we were basking in Guatemalan paradise I discovered that I had a rear Brake Cylinder leaking. After a few quick calls to my favourite German mechanical resource "Perrypedia" I decided that it needed to be fixed as a matter of priority.

Having tried a few garages we discovered a "Hino" Truck dealer called Codaca in Santa Elena near Flores and the two Mechanics Luis and Rember got stuck into it. As suspected, being 35 years old, it needed a little persuasion, which meant that we had to stay outside for the night. Santa Elena is not a place we would usually choose to stay in but we slept better knowing that we had an armed guard with a pump action shotgun watching us all night. We moved on the next day all sorted. Luckily we carry all these spare parts.

All looks good for 35 years old

The Mayan empire spanned over 300,000 square km from Mexico to Honduras and included all of Guatemala. You could spend years visiting all the archaeological sites, so we had to be selective and the largely restored ruins at Tikal were our next destination.

The National Park of Tikal, which means "City of Voices," was created in 1955 and declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1979. It's one of Guatemala's largest and most popular excavations.

We set off into the park early as we knew the temperatures would be off the scale by lunchtime.

It was amazing but quite a hike around all the temples.

Now you could be mistaken to think you are actually on Yavin IV ( If you know, you know )

The Rio Dulce, Sweet River, runs for 43 Km between Lago De Izabal and the Carribean coast at Livingstone. For most of this distance, the River is very wide, so it actually feels like another lake.

The town of Livingstone was a little disappointing. It had a lovely Caribbean feel about it but in General, it was quite dirty. We chose a highly recommended restaurant but came out, 2 hours later, wishing we hadn't.

We last saw Tobi and Steve , aka Trucklifeoverlanders at the Adventure Overland Show in the UK a couple of years ago when they were about to set off on their journey to the Americas. They have had an amazing time and have even increased their crew by 50% with the adoption of their dog Maya. Meeting up for lunch and a relaxing afternoon in Rio Dulce, Guatemala was very special. It was great to hear about all their adventures and all the ones they have planned for the future.

Whilst driving through Gutemala our Alternator decided to play up and kept cutting out. Luckily this is a spare I carry so a quick swap in Finca Ixabel appears to have resolved the issue.

Guatemala December 2024

This will be our third time in Guatemala and its fair to say that on the previous two occasions we hardly explored the country . We only visted a few chosen locations like Tikal and Rio Dulce.

This time we wanted to see more of the Volcano and Lake Region and headed almost directly toward the Colonial town Antigua.

It took several days to get there, battling through heavy rain, flooded roads and endless traffic jams.

We did stop on the way to visit the archaeological site of Quirigua. These Mayan ruins date back to between 900 and 200 AD and was primarily used for ceremonies. It has been beautifully restored and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site. We were allowed to camp in the car park. The only downside being was that it was next door to a very busy Banana Plantation that was loading loudly trucks all night.

Guatemala City was just bumper to bumper, built up and industrial. We didn't stop, just crept through.

At times we wondered if we had made the right choice to spend time in Guatemala.

On arrival in Antigua, the first thing we did was take a wrong turning and found ourselves in a narrow cobbled street heading for the centre of town.

After a 10 point turn we were back on track and made it to Vagamundo Camping , which is just on the South east side of town about 2km from the centre.

This was what we had waited for. A beautiful site in the shadow of three distinctive volcanoes. The dormant Volcan de Agua to our south and Volcan de Acatenango to our west. However, also to our west was the very active Volcan de Fuego.

This was a spectacle, throwing huge clouds of Volcanic smoke and ash into the sky anbout every 15 minutes.

We couldn't stop watching it.

At Night it was even more impressive

Fuego Erupting in the backgound

There are 37 Official Volcanoes in Guatemala and three of them are currently active being Pacaya, Santiaguito and the one above called Fuego, which is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

In June 2018 Fuego erupted spewing out an 8km high stream of smoke, Ash and lava. Although the official death toll was recorded at 201 people, a further 260 people are still missing.

At the time of writing this blog, we have been in Antigua for over 40 days and it's fair to say we love it.

It's a beautiful Colonial town with cobbled streets and endless wonderful restaurants, bars and coffee houses. The Guatemalan people are extremely friendly and hospitable. Antigua, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is home to 60,000 people siting at 1500m high. It has in excess of 500,000 visitors each year.

Tourists are well recieved and the cars and motorbikes drive really slowly. They even stop to let you cross the road.

Most of you will know that the last 18 months for us were pretty crap, with health issues. Antigua was exactly what we needed, I have never felt so relaxed and chilled out in a longtime. I would be bold enough to say that Antigua is probably one of our favourite cities in the Americas so far. We absolutely love it, although it really not good for the waisteline.

Arco De Santa Catalina

Volcan De Agua

Iglesia San José El Viejo

Embarrassed Simon in the Market with Pat

Parque Central

Royal Palace of the Captains General

El Calvario Church

Sitting in the square drinking coffee, was one of our favourite pastimes. It was great experiencing the local culture.

Christmas and New Year were really relaxing. The town was buzzing and the atmosphere was great. However, Guatemalans do love really loud fireworks which the like to set off at any time of the day or night.

Arco De Santa Catalina

Cathedral San Jose New Years Eve

New Years Eve

New Years Eve .... Simon Photo

The weeks either side of Christmas are full of festivals and parades, one of which is the Baile de Gigantes y Cabezones (dance of giants and big heads)

Full of Culture and History the town is a great place to discover Historic Buildings, Museums and local history.

Santuario San Francisco el Grande

Ruinas de Santa Clara

The View across the city from Cerro San Cristobal was stunning

Another high viewpoint was the Restaurant Tenador which was located in a large, free art gallery. It was created by a local man called Efrain Recinos who offered to display works from local Sculptors and Artists

A quad bike tour on the Volcano Pacaya left us filthy dirty and worn out, but was a great experience. We even managed to cook our lunch on hot Lava.

The local villages we rode through were all very welcoming, waving to us as we passed by.

I think the heat finished our boots off

A more sedate experience was Pats morning at the Chocolate museum creating her own bar and learning the Guatemalan processes for creating chocolate. Unfortunately, it tasted awful and the jury is still out its presentation.

Although most places within the town are walkable within 15 minutes, it's great fun to experience the "Hop on, Hop off Chicken Buses". Each trip only costs 3 Quetzal, which is about 30p ( UK)

These buses are Ex USA School buses. They must have at least half a million miles behind them. They love illuminating them and blinging them up. They drive pretty erratically and everyone of them had a big star shaped crack in the windscreen.

Thanks Simon

For some time Pat had wanted to do a bit of voluntary work whilst on the road. Because of her love of Dogs it seemed appropriate that we spend a day at a local dog rescue centre.

Animal AWARE in the neighbouring town of Sumpango was the place to go. This rescue centre is home to some 350 dogs and about 30 cats.

I think I got the raw end of the deal. Pat stroked cute dogs and I shovelled loads of S&%t.

Although the dogs were all well fed, It was heartbreaking to see so many dogs, desperate for new homes.

They were seriously lacking in Volunteers.

One very young puppy, who was the only survivor of his 6 siblings, that had been dumped at the gate.

He was very ill and had to be fed milk from a syringe as he was and unable to take solid food. At first glance it appeared that he has passed away , but with a bit of nurturing and Pats body warmth, he showed very weak signs of life.

Pat decided to take him home, with the aim of restoring his strength over a week or so and then returning him with a fighting chance. We called him Eddie after the cab driver that had taken us to the Rescue Centre

Sadly Eddie's condition deteriorated over the next few days. We took him to the Vet who administered Antibiotics, an IV drip and anti parasitic drugs. The Vet warned us that his condition was grave.

Despite our best efforts and a further trip to the Vet, Eddie sadly passed away after a few days and is now reunited with his siblings. RIP Eddie

Camping Vagamundo in Antigua is a great location for Overlanders to relax and spend some time catching up and working through that never ending list of jobs that Overland Vehicles create.

Our flagging batteries were replaced with Lithium based ones and this allowed us to shed 100kg in weight from the vehicle. The original batteries were nearly 12 years old so we couldn't really complain.

Out with the old

In with the new

120kg out

Antigua at night is alive with great Restaurants of every type of food , Bars and Coffee Houses.

We were lucky enough to spend one evening watching a great Live Guatemalan band in a bar with its own Micro Brewery.

Antigua Brewing Company

Antigua Brewing Company well stocked Cocktail Bar

Antigua Brewing Company

Antigua Brewing Company Band

Just on the edge of the town is the Iglesia y Convento de La Recolección, Or should I say What remains of it.

Built in the First two decades of the 18th Century the Church was Inaugurated in May 1717. However, within a few months a large earthquake hit the town and a considerable amount of the construction was destroyed.

Having repaired it it was gain hit by two more huge earthquakes in 1740 and 1751 causing total destruction, which is how it remains today.

We have long since realised that Overlanding is not only about travelling to and visiting amazing locations but is also very much about meeting up with old and new friends.

Sometimes our paths cross for only a few days or maybe even a few hours and the bond is created.

Camping Vagamundo was a great meeting point and we were soon joined by our old friend Simon from Switzerland. We last saw him about 18 months ago in Costa Rica.

We were also lucky enough to meet Morag and Martin.

Morag and Martin, wonderful friends

Jonas and Matilda with rescue puppy Alma

Sandie and Karsten at Restaurant "Porque No" for Karstens Birthday

Restuarant Porque No

Old Friends of Several Years Doris and Herbert

Pizza Night. Doris, Herbert, Sandie, Karsten and Shelagh

Sundowners with Sandie, Karsten, Nathalie, Patrice and Neils

Goodbye is always hard. Hasta Luego Jonas, Matilda, Morag, Martin and of course Alma

A very special meeting was with Simons distant relatives Marcel and Iris. Marcel is Swiss but has lived in Antigua for several decades and Iris is a Guatemalan Doctor working in Guatemala City. Their Hospitality was amazing and they will always have a, rightly deserved, very special place in our hearts.

Marcel, also kindly took delivery of our new Starlink Mini Package.

Iris, Marcel and Simon

Doris and Herbert held a Fondu night for everyone. This was new to us . It was lovely

Fondu Night. Karsten, Herbert , Doris , Nathalie and Patrice

Doris and Herbert

Patrice , Nathalie and Doris

Pat and Eddie

No Need to wash up with Camp Dog Bruce on hand

We keep trying to move on but are finding it hard to leave this very special Town and all the fantastic friends we have met here .

We will let you know what we do next.

Hasta Luego

February 2025

The 90km road between Antigua and Lago De Atitlan took us much longer that we expected.

This is a Volcanic region so every road is either steep uphill or down and is always twisty and windy. All your traveling time estimations based on the distance are useless.

In addition to this, we really got ourselves lost in the towns of Patrizia and Patzun, thanks to Google and a local Police Officer who sent us the wrong way down very narrow streets.

Luckily a local guy on a motorcycle took pity on us and showed us the way out of town, we eventually got back on track.

At one point we even had to do a small river crossing.

Lago de Atitlan is a huge lake that sits in the crater of an ancient Volcanic eruption. Most of the main towns in the region are situated on the lake shoreline. It is approximately 18km long by 8 Km wide and has an area of 130 sq KM. It also has a maximum depth of 340 m

Because of this, the access to these towns always involves tight twisting and very steep downhill approaches. Thank God for Low Gears and Exhaust Brakes. Without these we would have been in real trouble.

Some of the towns were actually too steep and dangerous for our vehicle so we headed to the rather touristy town of Panajachel, which we knew was a more feasible approach.

Parking on the edge of the lake gave us magnificent views across the lake at the towering Volcanoes Atitlan, Toliman and San Pedro

Joined the next day by our favourite Stalkers Sandie and Karsten we set up for the next few weeks.

Atitlan Sunset

Thanks Sandie

As mentioned earlier, the towns around the perimeter of the lake are hard to access by road, so the preferred mode of transport is the small community run boat/ferry service that criss cross the lake constantly, stopping at all the major towns and Villages.

By an unbelievable coincidence, we found ourseves parked next to our old American friends Sara and Ben, whom we had last bumped into in Copan, Honduras in March 2023.

In true Overlanding tradition, when two or more nationalities meet, lots of alcohol is consumed. "Beer Oclock" as it became known seemed to get earlier and earlier.

Karsten, Sandie, Sara, Ben and Pat

The 40 minute boat ride to the the western town of San Pedro La Laguna was pleasant but wet as it bounced through the waves splashing loads of water through the side windows onto your lap.

You arrive at a small wooden dock that can be tricky for getting in and out as the boat rises and falls with the swell of the waves.

From this point on everything in San Pedro is seriously uphill. We had plenty of places to visit so opted for a Tuk Tuk that struggled to ascend the steep streets.

The pleasant Catholic Church of Saint Peter ( San Pedro ) was our first stop.

The Views from the Mirador across the lake were pretty impressive

We were very impressed with the most beautifully painted toilets we had ever seen.

The Bird shown in the painting is the Quetzal. its the national bird of Guatemala.

It is estimated that there are now only between 20,000 and 50,000 left Worldwide.

We have yet to see one.

The small museum called Tz'unun Ya is run by local people from the Tz'utujil people who are part of the wider Mayan community.

The small entry fee was well worth as the hand crafted displays and films enlightened us to this historic culture and how it is being preserved in modern times. We also learnt about how the lake was formed.

Upon arrival at the Museum, they asked us to sign the visitors book and supply our dates of Birth. Feeling a bit suspicious of this I instinctively supplied slightly inaccurate dates. At the end of our tour, they presented us with Mayan astrological charts based on our false dates of Birth. Feeling totally embarrassed and foolish, we didn't have the heart to tell them and simply thanked them and left.

So if anyone was born exactly 1 year to the day before me, I have your chart and your future is looking good.

About 40 km away through winding roads and tight villages is the market town of Chichicastenango, which is famous for Artisanal Crafts and locally grown produce.

We have long since realised that the Western World fails to embrace colour. When someone from Asia, Africa or Latin America wants to look important, they wear the most beautiful, colourful garments. We put on our grey or dark blue suits.

Colour is everywhere here. It's in everyday dress, paintings on walls and even in the Cemeteries.

Unfortunately, the day ended with Pat being stung on the face by a Bee. Obviously, this could have been a lot worse, It could have been my face.

Another town at the western end of the lake is San Juan La Laguna. Its famous for its textiles, Honey and crafts.

Pat arranged to spend a morning at a local family run weavers learning how to use a hand loom.

Another nearby weaving centre gave us a tour of their cooperative industry and demonstrated to us how the locally picked cotton is spun into twine and then dyed using various Herbs, Plants and Trees Bark.

Whilst Pat was doing this, I visited a honey making centre that employ very small stingless bees.

Some of these bee species were literally no bigger than mosquitos, others were the size of small flies.

Their man made hives were about the size of an upturned shoe box.

San Juan itself was a lively busy town.

Another nearby town on the lakeside is San Antonio Palopo. It's famous for its Pottery. Pat wanted to take part in a pottery day but when we arrived, there where no available courses and the pottery was very underwhelming.

The town, however, was very pretty.

The 40 minute TukTuk ride to get there was an experience. the return Journey in the back of a Collectivo Pickup truck was equally interesting. Pat got in the front and I got thrown around in the back until I felt sick.

Painted Houses of Santa Catarina Palopo

Every year there is series of Open Water Swimming Events that take place at three locations in Guatemala. The first one being at Lago De Atitlan in March, and the other two at Laguna Santa Izabel and Laguna del Pino later in the year. These events cater for all age groups and have several different distances from 750m to 6km.

We weren't aware of this event until literally hundreds of competitors and their families descended on our peaceful lakeside location in Panajachel.

It was a really great spectacle to watch with a carnival atmosphere.

We managed to get to know a few of the competitors.

Unbelievably, three of them actually came first in their classes, and the other came third.

If only we had placed some bets.

Alan representing Guatemala and New Zealand

She couldn't keep her hands to herself

Alma 1st in 1500m 50 to 59 Years

Alan 1st 6 km

Alma

Alma 1st Place

1st in the 3km over 60's. Not bad for 75 years old

Right by our camp was the "Reserva Natural Atitlan" Stand by for loads of Butterfly Shots.

Mexican Silverspot

Julia Butterfly

Blue Morpho

Rusty Tipped Page aka The Brown Siproeta

Owl Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

Mexican Longwing

Pink Spotted Cattleheart

Zebra Longwing

White Nosed Coati

There were a few camera shy Spider Monkeys hanging around.

Having spent 26 Nights together on the lakeside we all had to eventually go our separate ways so a posh farewell meal in the Hotel Atitlan was the order of the day

Pat, Sandie, Karsten, ben, Neil and Sara

Hotel Atitlan

The Fuentes Georginas hot springs is located 2500m above the the town of Zunil in the Province of Quetzaltenango.

The last 8km drive up the single track road to the entrance was hampered by thich cloud. We litterally had about 3m of vision, which didn't bode well with Pat as there were cars and Chicken buses heading towards us

We found the Hot Spot. Thanks Sandie for the pictures

Might have spent a bit too long in there

The road back down was more pleasant through rich farming land

I have previously mentioned to province of Quetzaltenango. This translates as the place of the Quetzal.

The Quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala. It features in nearly every part of their Indiginous history and their currency is even named after it.

Unfortunately, due to their beautiful feathers being a prized addition to national costumes and a diminishing habitat, their numbers have decreased drastically.

There are however, a few places, that with a little patience, you might be lucky enough to see one.

El Refugio Del Quetzal in Qutzaltenango is one such place. This Comunity run sanctury is well kept and they allowed us to camp out in their car park.

It is However, many kilometers up a very steep road. I think I was in first gear for nearly 45 minutes.

Pat and I spent 9 hours over 2 days being bitten to death in the middle of the Jungle hoping to see them.

Having briefly seen two in flight at the start of the day, it seemed like forever before we were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a pair at their nesting site.

Sorry that some of the photos are a bit poor quality, but it was along shot.