Oh beautiful Guatemala

I fell in love with Guatemala as soon as I crossed the border from Mexico. The nature is beautiful; winding roads through never-ending green hills and mountains, cornfields as far as the eye can see, pine forests and tropical jungle in a wonderful mix all dotted by bright and colorful women walking along the roads carrying heavy bundles of food or firewood on their heads and a baby on the back.

The firs days in this country that I’ve been looking forward to visiting for so long, I spent in Antigua, a colonial town with bright colored buildings, cobbled stoned streets and a beautiful central park set in a valley surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. There is not much to do in Antigua so I strolled along the streets, got lost several times in the huge marked where you can find almost anything you could possibly want and I climbed the only active volcano in the area; volcan de Pacaya. It was an hour an a half walk straight up through beautiful surroundings and we were followed by a bunch of locals with horses trying to sell us a “taxi natural”. The last 30 minutes we were walking on old lava that got warmer and warmer the higher up we got. After grilling marshmallows on the lava and watching the sun set behind another volcano we made our way down to the waiting bus in the dark.

Antigua

Volcan de Pacaya

A few days in Antigua was enough so I went to stay at my friend Nelson’s house for two days. He lives in a small village called Chixolis and I can honestly say that I don’t think there has been many foreigners there before me. I got a lot of curious and surprised looks from the villagers as I made my way up through the hills with my big pack-pack to Nelson’s house. It was a nice change to get away from the tourist circuit of Antigua for a while to the quiet hillside village. I enjoyed listening to the birds sing all day long and as the dark came I sat watching the fireflies light up the cool night.

My next destination was Lanquin and Semuc Champey (meaning hiding river in the local Maya language). I got there and it was raining pretty heavily, but with the view from the guest house I was staying at the rain really didn’t matter. Surrounded by jungle and mountains the spectacular view was breathtaking as the heavy rain clouds hang low over the mountains.

View from the Guest house

The first day in Lanquin was spent in the hammocks, reading books, playing cards, chatting about all and nothing and enjoying hot chocolate and cinnamon buns hidden away from the rain. Day two I went out with some other travelers I had met at the guest house ventured out to Semuch Champey and the caves despite of the heavy rains. Inside the caves runs a river that is normally quite calm, but because of the rains the last days the reality turned out to be quite different. The currents were strong and the water level way higher than normal so the normally peaceful walk with candles through the caves became a struggle as we fought our way against the currents, swimming with one hand, holding on the to the walls trying to keep our candles (our only source of light) from going out as well as not to be dragged out into the big waterfall outside the cave. Quite an adventure if you ask me.

The sign outside the caves where we went in...

Semuc Champey