South Guatemala

With just one week left before our flight home we headed back into Guatemala to finish off the southern part of the country. Semana Santa (holly week) was about to start and we heard that Antigua was the place to be for Good Friday - the climax of the event. This is the most popular event of the year and on countless suggestions we headed straight to Antigua to book a room for the following weekend. Our plan was to be in and out but by the time we got into Antigua I had developed a full blown cold and could hardly open my eyes. It took 2 days of full on recuperation before I was well enough to continue. In the mean time, Todd looked high and low for an available room. Most places were charging 4x the original price and after 11 months of hard core budget travel we were just too stubborn to pay up - even for the last weekend of our trip! But luck was on our side. After searching through 20 or so places Todd came across Hotel Arizona, a tiny guesthouse run by a young Mayan family. Not only did the owner have an open room but that sweet sweet man charged us the usual price of $15. After checking 5 times to make sure we understood him correctly we reluctantly left, afraid that he might think we are crazy and change his mind.

With two days lost in Antigua (an amazing place to waste time) we had to choose between Lake Atitlan and Semuc Champey Waterfalls in central Guatemala. We chose the latter. While we love the colorful refurbished school buses from America we decided to take the tourist shuttle instead. We try to avoid these whenever possible but in this case it did save us $10, 4 hours of travel and 4 bus transfers. On the flip side we did endup spending 5 hours listening to handful of 18 year old Americans complain about how they miraculously kept loosing their $300 cameras (dear mom and dad, please send more money). The highlight of our long journey was a stop in Coban for a 20 minute break. As the young Americans downed beer and complained about the heat, we noticed that our driver walked off and settled down on the nearby steps with a beautiful Mayan woman and three young kids. He later explained to us that because of his long days shuttling tourists he only gets to see his family on his 15 minute stops through town. It was really sweet - his wife brought along a standard meal (fried chicken, two small tortillas and salad) and the kids were super excited to spend the short break with their dad. Watching this young traditional family have fun in a dirty parking lot gave me another jab of whats really important in life - you don't need a big house, a fridge full of food or money to enjoy your family. Just being together is whats really important. This family truly cherished the little time they had together. As we piled back into the van and got back on the highway I was in my own little world imagining the sweet days of family life ahead. That is until I heard one of the annoying kids behind me exclaim that he left his camera at parking lot. I couldn't make this up if I tried - when we got back to the parking lot he realized that it was in his backpack all along!


We got into Lanquin, a small village an hour outside of Semuc Champey, in the afternoon and decided to settle in at Zephyr hostel on a recommendation we got from a friend. This was a great choice. The hostel is situated right on a top of a mountain with sweeping views in both directions. We got the very popular dorm bed # 7 - a double bed separated from the rest of the dorm by a stairs and a small wall! This bed had a floor to ceiling window next it with the most amazing views. The fun didn't stop there - the hostel had outdoor showers with hot water. Once the sun got close to the horizon where the mountain range touched the sky I would rush over. Imagine taking a warm shower, feeling the cool breeze and enjoying the wild colors illuminating the untouched valley spread out before you. Zypher lodge could be a destination on its own. Their common room is filled with hammocks and couches. For $20 the owner can fill up your 40 gig ipod with the latest music and movies. The town itself was very quiet and cute with a small market and very sweet traditional Mayan people.


The next day we took a truck to the Semuc Champey waterfalls. The falls were absolutely breathtaking. 7 or so clear turquoise pools surrounded by lush green mountains. The 1 hour hike to the lookout was well worth it and we spent 20 minutes marveling at this little gem. We rewarded ourselves with a nice long swim in the cool refreshing pools and some local bbq - I love the food here! You can get a small plate of carne asada, some chorizo, refried beans, grilled veggies and two tortillas usually for a couple bucks. On our way back we got a small batch of home made chocolate from a local farmer.

Later that night we walked out to the Lanquin caves about half an hour outside of town. We heard that this was the place to be around sunset when thousands of bats fly out of the cave at sundown. We toured the deep cave for about 30 minutes before finding a good sitting spot on the inside of the mouth and waited for the dark to set in. As the sun came down we started to see a few bats flying out here and there. Within half an hour as the last of the light slowly disappeared we saw hundreds of bats flying past us - just marginally missing our heads. It was pitch black inside the cave and we could only see them through the flash of cameras. What an amazing experience.


With time slowly slipping through our fingers Friday rolled around and we found ourselves back in Antigua. Our last and final destination. Semana Santa is quite amazing. Its the ultimate colonial town to visit in Central America and during this special time the churches in town take turns hosting city wide processions four times a day (with the last one at midnight). Before each procession people come out to decorate the cobble stone streets with colored sand and flowers. Thousands of people line up to see these - First hundreds of men in bright purple robes carrying flags and filling the street with smoke from swinging thuribles, then a large statue of Jesus (in various forms - bearing the cross, being laid to rest, rising) on a large platform being carried on the shoulders of 60 or so devoted men and then women, dressed in black and white, follow carrying a large statue of Mary on their shoulders. The procession is followed by a dramatic band with New Orleans funeral type music.

Unfortunately our last few days Todd picked up...anyone?....Giardia. This one was pretty rough and after a few days of little improvement we had to get medicine. The little champion pulled it together for our last day - a hike on Volcano Pacaya. A pretty spectacular attraction a few hours outside of Antigua. Pocaya is still extremely active and approximately 2,000 tourists pay $10 each day to hike up this dangerous volcano to a pool of red hot lava. While this was extremely cool it was a bit nerve wracking. The volcanic rock is very hollow and can easily crack under a wait of a person. No big deal until you look down and see lava flowing 10 feet underneath you through the little cracks between these rocks. After 3 hours of hiking we stopped 5 feet from the flow. The heat was so strong and unbearable that the soles of our shoes started melting. We hiked down in the dark occasionally stopping to look up the volcano that continued to shake and spew 20 feet into the air. While something like this would be highly illegal in US, the Guatemalans have made into quite a profitable venture - the bottom of the volcano is littered with little kids selling hiking sticks, hot dogs and marshmallows for westerners to heat up over the lava pool. Lazy tourists could also get a poor underweight pony to drag them to the lava rock.

The next day we waved goodbye to the kind Mayan family that took such good care of us for the last weekend and got on a shuttle to the airport. I was in good spirits getting on the plane - happy that I got to sneak in a bag of Guatemalan coffee for our friend Troy who was kindly watching our car in San Diego. My happiness was short lived until a mean lady confiscated a jar of coffee jam that I was bringing to my mom in Florida.

whatatrip!