Guatemala lies at the top of Central America, sharing much of its border to Mexico, while also bordering Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It’s a country that I never had much interest in visiting- until I took a limnology (water biology) course my senior year of college. There was a trip to Lake Atitlán after the course (so over the summer) to study well, the water. I didn’t go on that trip but it piqued my interest in visiting Guatemala and more specifically the lake.

Like most (all) countries, Guatemala has had their fair share of turmoil. The Mayans are the indigenous people and some still remain today. However there was a Spanish conquest in 1524, and in more modern times of 1960-1996, there was a genocide of the indigenous Mayan population. The country has also been exploited for its agricultural opportunities, which assisted in the political turmoil. Because the country lies on the intersection of multiple tectonic plates, Guatemala is prone to earthquakes, which have also caused devastation in the country.

Despite that, it is a beautiful country with kind people, beautiful culture, and delicious food!

Day 1 - Sunday

My United credit card gives me two free lounge passes a year. I hadn’t used any yet, so I took this flight as an opportunity to use one of them up. Not much was happening in the lounge, but it was nice to be away from the crowded and loud gate areas! I flew into Guatemala City and arrived around 6:00pm. Guatemala City is not so popular with the tourists, in part because of its safety. For my flight from Houston to Guatemala City I got bumped to first class (woohoo!) so I got food on the flight to Guatemala City and didn’t need to go out for dinner when I arrived. Louise’s flight arrived earlier in the day so I was left to fend for myself at the air port. The taxis cost more than the ubers, so I snagged an uber with the airport wifi I luckily still had in the pickup section. We rented an Airbnb in Zone 13, and it was the perfect place to spend the night before heading off to Antigua the next day.

Day 2 - Monday

We grabbed breakfast at La Tavola Creative Bistro in the Oakland Mall, and it was so good! I got the smoothie bowl and toast, as well as a fresh juice. Louise got cheesy tacos which I took a bite of and they were insanely good- I’m still thinking about them :) We also picked up altitude sickness pills from the pharmacy, which there seems to be one on every corner. If the pharmacy doesn’t have the medication in that building then they call in to the hospital (?) and that medication is brought over to the pharmacy right then and there. What service! We waited in the cafe in the lobby of our Airbnb for our shuttle to Antigua, and took that time to investigate how we would get a Covid test before flying back home.

The drive to Antigua took a few hours with the traffic. I got some shuteye during the ride, but while staring out the window I was impressed with the chicken buses and how decked out they were. What was once a plain yellow school bus was now pimped out with sheets of metal cut into a variety of shapes that glistened in the sunlight, bright colors painted over the standard marigold yellow, and massive rims that were so clean they looked straight out of their packaging.

If you’re asleep in the car and you reach Antigua, you’ll know before your eyes open. The streets outside of Antigua are paved, but once you enter the city you’re greeted with cobblestone streets. While they add to the charm of the city, they are quite bumpy!

The streets are all one-way and are filled with cars of all sizes, tuk tuks, and motorbikes. The buildings are colorful with terracotta tiled roofs and window sills hold plants and various trinkets. We settled into our room at Selina Hostel and set out to Cerro de La Cruz. It’s on the northern side of Antigua, up a hillside overlooking the town and boasts a straight view of Volcán de Agua, an inactive stratovolcano that towers over the city. For dinner, we Googled taco restaurants in town and we settled on La Taquiza Antigua- it seemed like more of a locals place vs for the tourists. But that’s good, because you know it’ll be eeeextra good, and indeed it was! The tacos were phenomenal and the price was a treat for me. In Boston, you’re paying around $15 for a plate of 3 tacos. These came out to about $1 USD each!

Day 3 - Tuesday

We headed out on an ATV tour to Altamira, a sculpture park built into the mountains above Antigua. Our guide rode on a motorbike ahead of us while Louise and I each had an ATV. We had 3 hours to kill at Altamira, and we didn’t think we would need that much time but we probably spent a solid two hours there, so more than we thought we would spend. Maybe the most notable sculpture there is Jeffrey, a giant build into the hillside from planks of wood. There is a man with a drone tented up by Jeffrey should you want a bird’s eye view photo (and video) of you standing in the palm of the giant’s hand.

Altamira has sweeping views of the volcanoes Agua, Fuego, and Acatenago, and you can’t leave Altamira without taking a photo in one of the three hand’s (Jeffrey’s included). If you’re hungry, you can grab a bite to eat at the restaurant. The tour we did had food credit included in it and I got the Hawaiian burrito- definitely recommend!

Upon returning to Antigua, we caught a taxi to Caoba Farms in hopes of dining at their restaurant. Welllllp we got the days wrong and the restaurant was closed that day. So we walked back into town (about a mile) and hung out for the afternoon.

Day 4 - Wednesday

We were awoken at 1:15ish am to an earthquake aftershock, and another set of tremors followed. It lasted only momentarily, but it did enough damage to cause a landslide on the road that connects Guatemala City to Antigua. Aka a very important road! We took our time in the morning as we both felt sick the night prior, but I seemed to have slept it off while Louise was greeted with a bout of food poisoning. We were supposed to arrive to the agency at 8:00am for the briefing and gear rental, but we showed up at 8:20am and the tour operator didn’t seem too happy about that. Oops. We booked the Acatenago Volcano hike through Wicho & Charlies, and they have some gear you can rent like jackets, backpacking packs, hiking poles, head lamps, etc, so after the briefing you have time to get situated with these items. You’re given your lunch to carry, and you *have* to pack 4 liters of water. One liter goes towards cooking dinner that evening, and there is no water source on the hike so the rest you better ration!

Well, we took the 45 minute bus ride from Antigua to the trail head, and about 50 steps in Louise decided this was not going to be happening. The communication between the guides was INSANE (like good insane) and so when we turned the corner with the trail head back in view, a Wicho and Charlie’s employee was already waiting for us. Rather than waiting for a chicken bus, we paid a taxi (him, haha) to take us back into town. We grabbed a hotel, Hotel Posada Doña Luisa, as it was cheaper than the private room at the hostel that was available. Louise slept while I explored more of Antigua.

Day 5 - Thursday

A day of rest did wonders for Louise and we walked around in the morning. We wouldn’t have time to go to any of the cultural markets by the lake, so we opted for the one in Antigua’s city square. The Mercado de Artesanías seems to be a tourists market, and it was somberly quiet when we went. In pre-covid times I assume this market would be busier during the day, but we were one of maybe five others perusing the stalls. There were a variety of ware- from textiles, clothing, pottery, paintings, jewelry, bags, shoes, and more. They even had the newly popular “Popit” fidget toys.

Our bus to Lake Atitlán was also through Wicho & Charlies. Because of this, our shuttle bus was full of people who we would have been hiking with (a lot do the hike and then shuttle to the lake upon return). When we got to the lake, we followed the hotel’s instructions to head down to the docks and pay no more tan 20 quetzals per person for the boat ride. Well, it seems like it is now 25 quetzals per person, the captain wouldn’t budge. The boats don’t leave Panajachel unti lthey are full, so we made a few other stops on the lake before we reached La Casa del Mundo in Jaibalito.

Carved into a cliffside, La Casa del Mundo is made up of stone buildings terraced in layout, with a plethora of tropical plants draping everything in sight. It looks amazing online but it is even better in person. We booked a Deluxe Suite, Room 20, and WOW. There were two beds, a desk, sitting area, and a private balcony with the most perfect view of the lake. We also had our own bathroom (some of the rooms have a shared bathroom outside of the room). We explored the hotel grounds and then headed to dinner.

Dinner was deeeelicious. I got the garlic butter shrimp dish, and I’m still thinking about it. The fluffiest rice, flavorful shrimp, and a solid portion size to boot. I also grabbed a glass of house wine, and what a view from our table. Sigh, it was perfect. I saw a google review and this guy was complaining about the prices- but uhhh buddy the food prices here were a f*cking steal for the quality and portions. The guy probably only ever dines at Olive Garden. Yeeesssh.

Day 6 - Friday

The lake is a lot calmer in the morning, and gets rougher as the day goes on. I took some photos on the balcony bright and early (had to get the perfect shot haha), and then we swent swimming before breakfast. The lake water was chilly but it felt sooo damn good.

Breakfast was a smoothie and huevos rancheros, and then it was off to the kayaks! We stayed close to shore and paddled in front of Jaibalito, the village that Casa del Mundo is technically in. I also saw my first “real” wildlife: I thiiiiink it was an egret?! I was able to get a video of it flying, which resulted in a sick screenshot of it flying with one of the volcanoes behind it. Lunch was delicious (of course), and it was a shrimp salad that (again) I’m still thinking about. Insert drool emoji here.

The hotel grounds have two trails at the top- one that goes to Jaibalito and the other to Santa Cruz, both villages on the shores of Lake Atitlán. We chose to walk to Jaibailito because it was closer and we could walk back along the shore to the hotel. On the path there though, we encountered an American man who looked like he lived here now- and he recommended a German bar and told us to check out a party that was just getting started (and we could hear it from the trail too). Then some dogs appeared out of nowhere and followed us into town. We didn’t go to the paty at the pastor’s, and instead headed down back towards the water. The dogs continued to follow us and we passed by two angry dogs that were literally stalking the ones following us. By some miracle, a boat came to drop people off and the dogs happened to belong to a foreigner living in the village. We told him they’d been following us around and had been good boys, and he exclaimed that they weren’t even supposed to be out in the first place! We walked back along the water to the hotel and then spent the rest of the day relaxing. It did get pretty windy so some of that relaxing happened in the comfort of our room.

Day 7 - Saturday

Travel day! But, first we caught some rays. Checkout was at noon, but our shuttle back to Guatemala City wasn’t until 4:00pm. We took a boat back to Panajachel at 2:30pm so we waited a bit until the shuttle came. Buuuut we never saw the shuttle come. We wandered around where the shuttle was supposed to pick us up to no avail, but luckily some other shuttle driver saw our wandering and assisted us. He called the company and got in contact with the driver who came back for us hehe oops. We drove to Antigua first and dropped off the other people on the shuttle, and then we got onto a different shuttle to continue to Guatemala City. We got in late, probably around 8:30pm. Instead of being dropped off at our hostel we got dropped off at the airport so we could take our covid tests.

Once your nose was swabbed you sat in a waiting area as they printed out your results for you there. Having not made it back from Iceland, I was sooo anxious while waiting for my results. Louise had a second bout of covid a little less than a month before our trip so we knew she would be good to go. Me on the other hand, it was still up in the air! For a lot of the trip we were outside or in buildings that were very open to the outside (seems to be the style of buildings where we were), but there were still moments (like the shuttles) where ventilation wasn’t so hot. Louise got her results back a few minutes before me- and PHEW my results were negative! We grabbed a taxi back to Hostel Guatefriends in Guatemala City and instantly fell asleep after a long travel day.

Day 8 - Sunday

Louise’s flight was at 7:00am so she headed off to the airport around 4:30am. My flight wasn’t until 1:00pm but I had airport anxiety and wanted to make sure that long lines wouldn’t prevent me from getting home! I got to the airport at 10:15am… yeah way too early. I didn’t have any lines at the airport! I had to finish checking in at the counter because of the covid test, but I have premier status with United Airlines so I was able to use the premier line and avoid waiting. Security didn’t have a line either! I walked around, sat at the gate for what seemed like forever, and was so happy to finally get on that flight. I flew Guatemala City to Newark, and in Newark the customs and immigration line was also surprisingly quick- I waited no more than 10 minutes. A quick flight back to Boston, and it was good to be home!