From volcanos, caves and ropeswings
From Belize we went by bus to Guatemala. The border crossing was easy, we even had WIFI on the bus.
First stop there was Flores, a historic town located on an island in the middle of Lago Petén Itza. We arrived by bus, had to shuffle into minivans as the streets on the islands are tiny. In these minivans were so-called “coyotes”, men that try to sell you overpriced tours and tickets that sometimes are even fake. Luckily Tory had heard about it before. A few other girls bought tickets and got screwed. At Flores we stayed at “Los Amigos” Hostel (reservations just over their website: http://amigoshostel.com/) which was amazing! Definitely eat at the hostel, the pasta with pesto was heaven! It has a beautiful green backyard with the bar and restaurants, they offer a steam bath, have cinema nights and a pool table. I also liked that (we had that everywhere in Guatemala though) they had mini lockers where you could charge your devices securely. Unfortunately Guatemala turned out to be quite expensive but we were knackered anyways so stayed a whole day just at the hostel backyard in hammocks reading and eating. The weather was very hot and very humid which didn’t help us much. What raised the mood though were Rhys and Alex surprisingly walking into the hostel at dinner. They were meant to travel to Colombia after Belize but a few circumstances made them go to Guatemala first. They didn’t even know we were staying there. Anyways: a great lil reunion. We went together with Rhys on the Sunrise Tour to Tikal which is the massive Mayan city hidden in the jungle. We climbed up a pyramid to watch the sunrise but unfortunately it was so misty over the trees that you couldn’t see the sun until it was already quite high. The colors were amazing though and it was great to watch the rainforest wake up with all it’s animals like birds and monkeys.
We explored some other spots of Tikal until lunch and went back to Flores then. A hidden pearl at Tikal is “Jorges ropeswing”. We asked reception to call them for us (don’t use the watertaxis!) and got told a time Jorge would pick us up from the hostel. He took us with his boat to his private premisses across the lake where they had build two ropeswings and a diveboard. His family was there, his wife served us drinks and snacks and we enjoyed swinging into the sunset. Again the water was muddy but – of course – I jumped. Jorges sons took us back on the boat whatever time we wanted. Definitely one of my highlights of Guatemala!
We then made our way to Lanquín, a tiny village in the highlands of Guatemala. It took us about 9hrs (we were told way less) and we drove on windy gravel roads with massive drops to the right (apparently there’s loads of accidents) through the middle of nowhere. Beautiful views though. In Lanquín we had booked at “Zephyr” which is located a bit out of town on hop of a hill with a fancy infinity pool. This is also the only nice thing to say about this hostel. Staff were rude (especially at the bar area) and it had ridiculous rules (WIFI just from 7am-7pm, no own foods,…). We met a bunch of British med students who bailed their internships in Belize to travel. So we decided to go to the main (I’d even say only) attraction in that area: Semuc Champey. It’s basically a river that goes underground for a bit, above that some natural pools have built up and it comes back to surface with a big waterfall. Just next to the big river is also a cave with a tiny river inside. We were told to just go to the main road in town and wait, a guide will offer us a tour. So did Adolfo, offered us a really good price and made us jump onto the back of a truck. The drive took forever and it was physically exhausting to hold on to the bars as the road was pretty dodgy. Still good fun! In Semuc Champey we got escorted by Adolfo and a 13-year-old called Daniel to the entrance of the cave. We had to leave everything behind except shoes and bikini, everyone got one candle and the caving adventure began! First I though I couldn’t do it – dark water. But I had paid and it sounded like so much fun so I had to get over my fear again. I forgot about it quite fast as we were climbing up 6m ropes under waterfalls and ladders that were just simply strapped to each other, balancing on ropes to squeeze through crevices and jumping 3m off rock walls into shallow waters – all while holding a candle in one hand! Health and safety is also not a thing in Guatemala. We were lucky to be a small group so we could even go the the back of the cave. On our way out we met a group with around 35 people at the natural slide and they haven’t had half of the fun we did. I think that was also the historic moment were I got over my fear completely! Whoop!!
The caving was followed by a huge ropeswing into the river (unfortunately Tory face planted on her first try and hurt herself) and some swimming underneath the big waterfall, even climbing up to the waterfall (Tory hurt herself again and broke her toe) and jumping down from two different spots (around 8m and 11m). Time for some relaxed river tubing. The young boys who were helping the guides were selling beer on the water.
(Video will be posted after)
We had a quick lunch and went on to the next adventure: hiking up to the lookout. I was so exhausted from the caving and jumping from the waterfalls, all the adrenaline got me. We spend a few minutes at the lookout to get a good picture and went on our way to the natural pools. Crystal clear water with these lil fish that nibble off dead skin and natural slides from pool to pool. After we had a last short hike back to the truck and we were done. An absolute amazing day full of activities, fun and adrenaline!
Back in the hostel I met a massive spider in our room and that got me sorted for the whole night – I didn’t close my eyes for a single second. I know I’m constantly talking about fighting my fears…blablaaaa. But this is the only fear I don’t even wanna try to get over it! Everything else I will at least try, not my arachnophobia though, sorry.
On to the next stop (and it turned out to be the last for me): Antigua Guatemala. The former captial of Guatemala is located close to the three volcanos Agua, Acatenango and the active Fuego and has a historic and charming architecture. The actual plan was to hike Acatenango and stay on top overnight. Unfortunately I got a severe food poisoning in the first night and couldn’t recover until I left. We stayed one night at the hostel “Capitan Tom” but were not amazed, so moved the day after to the “Three Monkey Hostel” and this was probably the best thing I could have done. The owner Matt went to the pharmacy for me straight after we had checked in, I got a double bed for my own and watched all seasons of “The Inbetweeners” plus the movies at the TV room. Tory had met a few girls from England and their mission was to try all the high rated restaurants in town. I was really weak, didn’t eat at all for about 8 days in total and therefore couldn’t go on the hike or to any meals. So this was also how my trip ended basically. I took a coletivo to Guatemala City to the airport where a security officer tried to rip some dollars off me. That was unfortunately my last impression of Guatemala.
Guatemala was really expensive, highlights were definitely Jorges ropeswing and Semuc Champey. The harassment that I had experienced constantly in Mexico was quite similar in Guatemala.
I got on a plane to México DF where I stayed 13hrs overnight at the airport and had to give out my facebook details to pass the security control after the officer had pulled out all my panties (it’s ridiculous but there’s just nothing you can really do). After off to SanFran, then to L.A. where I met the lovely Holly G. while doing some squats and stretching at the gate and back to Auckland… (see next article)
