Signed by Scarlett

Welcome back to part three of my travel diaries, Guatemala!

Flores

Another ferry and a shuttle later, we made it across our next land border crossing and was in our third country of the trip, Guatemala. One of the countries we were most excited to visit whilst backpacking and it definitely wasn’t a disappointment.

The first stop was Flores, a small island consisting of bright and beautiful buildings in Lake Petén Itza, which is connected to the mainland via a road.

Hostel: Hostel Macarena – £15.51 pppn (inc. breakfast)

Our hostel followed the bright theme with hints of pink and orange across the building and the entirety of the hostel, it was very clean with multiple bathrooms and nice rooms. However whilst we were there, we had a few power cuts due to the weather and there was no backup generator!

If you want some great food here, head up to the basketball court where you’ll find a few stalls. One of the stalls we had 2 tacos, a tostada and a burrito with a drink for only 35 Guatemalan Quetzal, which is the equivalent to £3.48!

3:30am the next day we woke up bright and early for an early morning bus to visit Tikal, a city in the Maya civilisation with pyramids and palaces and was home to an estimated 100,000 people.

It is a very large and beautiful national park but also now a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. Make sure to have a guide because not only is it very easy to get lost, the guides are incredible and make the day fantastic.

Here are a list of just a few of the animals we saw: Tiger Herring Bird, Coati, Capybara, Parrots, Toucans, Tarantula and Howler Monkeys (If you’ve never heard a Howler Monkey, then I highly recommend searching them up because it’s one of the loudest and scariest sounds you can hear in the middle of the jungle.)

You could climb up to the top of some of the pyramids and the views were beautiful, I was also particularly excited as one view that we saw had been used in Star Wars!

That evening we went for dinner and some drinks with two girls from our hostel called Abby and Ruby, who were both really lovely!

Lanquin

An eight hour shuttle journey later on some very windy roads, we made it to our second stop, Lanquin.

Hostel: Zephyr Lodge – £18.26 pppn

Zephyr Lodge is well known to backpackers who visit Guatemala because of its truly beautiful views and its infinity pool.

The room was a bit basic and there is a huge ant problem (which they do recommend you keep any food in the lockers outside!), but you go for the view and it’s definitely worth it.

TIP: The food is quite expensive, but the portion sizes are big, share breakfast or lunch and you’ll still have plenty between you if you’re with someone.

Whilst there isn’t a ton to do in Lanquin, it’s the main place to stay to get a TukTuk to visit the beautiful view of Semuc Champey.

Semuc Champey is arguably one of the most beautiful views I’ve had the pleasure to see. It is a natural limestone bridge that spans a short section of the Cahabón River in central Guatemala, the river has carved a tunnel through the rock, leaving behind this 300 metre long bridge topped with a series of stunning blue pools.

After paying a small entrance fee, we recommend you first do the walk to the top ‘El Mirador’.

This 30-45 minute walk consists of some wooden stairs and many rough paths or huge steps up rocky stones in the heat, it’s harder than it seems that’s for sure!

BUT THE VIEW.

Afterwards take the walk back down and then left as you can enter the many pools to cool down and relax for hours as you take in the scenery. Absolutely beautiful.

It also has those fish that bite the hard skin off your feet, that was a shock to say the least.

Lake Atitlan: Santa Cruz

Another eight hour journey later and we made it to one of our favourite stays of the trip.

Hostel: Free Cerveza – £20.31 pppn

Treating ourselves to our very own private tipi, we had the stunning view overlooking volcanoes on Lake Atitlán.

The eco-hostel was very clean, the tipi and the bed was perfect and there was so much to enjoy. Tons of seating areas, paddle boards, cooking classes and games.

Each night they do family dinner which for just Q80 Guatemalan Quetzal (£7.95), you receive 3 courses and unlimited beer for two hours! Along with a music quiz which we joined with Amber, a girl we made friends with on our shuttle.

We woke up bright and early for yoga before having a relaxing day reading by the lake, a cooking glass and then joining the family dinner with Amber again and two other girls Laura and Tamara – it was a really lovely evening!

Waking up at 5am for sunrise-paddle boarding was another thing they have on offer, sadly no sunrise, but what a beautiful start to the day on the lake.

Lake Atitlán: San Pedro

A short speed boat and we made our way across the lake to another area called ‘San Pedro’.

This area was completely different to where we’d just been chilling as this had a ton of bars and cafes, along with a huge bar crawl which we would be joining that evening.

Hostel: Hostel Amigos – £7.35 pppn

Our cheapest hostel to date and it showed as we were opposite a very loud bar and not the comfiest of beds, however for the price, it really wasn’t that bad!

However San Pedro is loud practically most of the time as you have firecrackers going off throughout the entire day as this is a popular way to celebrate any form of celebration.

Mr Mullet’s bar crawl is notorious in the area as you walk from bar to bar with workers pouring shots in your mouth throughout the night and a shot of vodka at every venue. I’d never seen anything like it before but it turns out this is just your regular night out in Central America as we would soon find out.

Joined by Amber and meeting Kate and Erin (who will be a regular in our travels!), we had a very messy and chaotic night but a lot of fun.

San Pedro is also a very popular place to take classes and stay at a Spanish school which Kate and Erin did together, we celebrated their “graduation” that night – congrats girls aha!

Food Recommendations: No Hay Deer and Sabada Restaurant

Antigua

Hostel: Casi Casa – £18.38 (inc. breakfast)

Antigua is place where most people visit in order to partake in the Acatenango volcano hike due to the tours being based here, but its also a good place to be a few days before to start getting acclimatised due to being built 1,500 meters above sea level.

Antigua was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1773 but the incredibly beautiful buildings that have stayed in tact since the 17th and 18th century are a large reason as to why Antigua is considered a UNESCO World Heritage sight since 1979.

This also means that despite the area having quite a few chains, including Starbucks and Subway, their buildings are kept intact with the original structure and design which makes for a truly unique and beautiful experience everywhere you go.

Including the McDonald’s, which fun fact, the happy meal was invented in Guatemala.

Food Recommendations:

• Incredible street food all lined up outside the church, we got lunch for the equivalent of £2.
• La Pasta Nostra – may have been the best Italian food I’ve ever had
• Pappy’s BBQ – Great burgers and fries to fuel up before the hike, also the best place to watch a Copa-America game

Our hostel here was one of mine and Danni’s favourites of the trip due to so many reasons but most importantly was the bed. An incredible mattress, two pillows and a duvet!

We’d never been happier to have two pillows and a duvet.

The rooms had their own bathroom, free breakfast and loads of spaces to sit – including the rooftop which has a stunning view of the surrounding volcanoes.

Hostel: Central Hostel – £10.53 (inc. breakfast)

When we arrived back from the hike we went straight to Wendys as we were in desperate need for fast food before heading to our hostel for the night.

This new hostel followed the style of the Japanese pods with slide down doors to shut off your bed (note: not on all beds), lights and a personal fan, free breakfast, kitchen and a huge shower and toilet area.

That evening we met up with Tamara who we had met a few hostels ago for some dinner and drinks. We went to a restaurant with a beautiful outdoor area which had a ton of vegetarian options for Tamara, unfortunately I can’t remember the name. Sadly it wasn’t my fave meal, but I know Danni and Tamara had some really yummy food.

We then headed to TaCool for some much needed frozen margaritas that I still think about to this day.

One more day spent walking around the stunning town, buying postcards, ice cream from ‘ChocoMuseo’ and some great greek food from ‘Santo Gyro Antigua’ and then we had an early night for our 3am wakeup call for our 20 hour bus journey (more on that next time!).

Acatenango Volcano Hike

To be honest, the Acatenango hike deserves its own article but this “little” summary will have to do for now.

Before booking a single flight or hostel, we knew that this hike was going to be THE thing we had to do, because sleeping on one volcano whilst watching an opposite erupt, is something you can’t miss.

Before you go away, if you know you’re going to do this hike, then make sure you have some warm gear with you or thrift some whilst you’re there if you’d rather.

What I will say is that whilst you’ll go into this expecting it to be difficult, it will still shock you by just how difficult, however you can absolutely do it.

But to those people that say “it gets easier after halfway.”, they’re lying to you…

We went with Tropicana Hostel, as our friends Kate and Erin from San Pedro would be doing the same hike that day, so we knew we wanted to do it with them!

We arrived to the hostel at 7:30am for breakfast where you can then get some gear included in the price, or hire additional gear, food for the next two days and 4 litres of water to carry in our backpacks.

A 45 minute bus journey later, we reached the start of the hike where we could rent walking sticks (DO IT) and a porter (ALSO DO).

The hike takes around 4-6 hours, it took our group 4 hours 30 minutes, with breaks every 500 metres due to the steepness and becoming adjusted to the altitude changes and a lunch break.

You can take more breaks yourself and a guide will also be at the back no matter how many breaks you need, but just be aware that you will come to hate hearing the guides shout “VAMOS!” to keep you moving at the front.

Reaching the top was the most unbelievable feeling as all of us could say we did it.

The clouds to start with were very bad so for a couple of hours we weren’t sure we would see the volcano erupt, which is always something you should be prepared for. So to preoccupy ourselves, our group played campfire games when all of a sudden we could see the volcano and then it was just waiting to see the eruptions.

The sound and the view is truly indescribable and I’ll never see anything quite like it.

A phenomenal experience to experience with your best friend.

Now the cold.

The cold has to be one of the hardest things we’ve had to deal with as it reaches up to -10 degrees overnight whilst at 3976 metres above sea level. All I’ll say is I had three pairs of socks, tights, leggings, joggers, one thermal top, two more tops, jumper, two coats, gloves and hat and I WAS FREEEZING!

Chances are you’ll head to sleep around 8pm because you’re too cold to be outside, even with a fire, and would much rather get in your sleeping bag and blanket surrounded by random strangers and their body heat for the night (but the sleeping bag sadly doesn’t do much difference).

Very early wake up call for the sunrise hike to the top, unfortunately quite a few of us, including me and Danni, had to give this a miss due to the altitude sickness, however the view from the base camp is still phenomenal.

After a quick breakfast, we started the hike back down which took us just under 3 hours as coming down was so steep you almost had to just run down!

But was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And that is Guatemala.

What a truly incredible country that will always be a place I’ll remember and potentially my favourite country of the trip.

Next up: Nicaragua