September 2001, I had just graduated from university and had hardly been outside of Belgium and the neighboring countries but somehow, inspired by travel books and stories from fellow students, I found myself on a plane to Guatemala to live with a host family, study Spanish and do volunteer work. After those three months my life was never the same. Arriving back in Guatemala in February 2024 was the start of a great trip down memory lane.
We entered the country through a small border crossing in El Peten and drove across what used to be all jungle to Flores a little island in the Peten lake. This town is used by most travellers as a basecamp for the ruins of Tikal but it is also a pretty little town that is constantly battling floods as the lake goes up and down with each rain that passes. So, after a long day (and our first Central American border crossing) we treated ourselves to pizza on one of the sunset terraces. It immediately became obvious that the country is not as ‘dirt cheap’ anymore as it used to be 23 years ago!
But as nice as the town may be, we were here also to see the ruins of Tikal. the ruins are about 1.5 hours drive from Flores and the best strategy for Tikal is (still) to drive into the park in the late afternoon and then walk into the actual ruins at daybreak the next morning. The hotels at the ruins are very expensive but they also have a campground so that was perfect for us. The next morning, Caro left at 4am on a guided ‘sunrise’ tour. And the kids and I went at 6am sharp when the gates opened for the ‘general public’. There were a handful of other visitors but after they took a ‘shortcut’ to the main plaza, we were all alone in this immense jungle and saw plenty of cool birds and also the first Coati or ‘nose bears’ as we called them. We went to the templo IV viewpoint where Caroline had watched sunrise a couple of hours earlier (and myself also 23 years earlier). Templo IV has an amazing view of the tops of the termples sticking out the Jungle canopy. A view that George Lucas also liked a lot already in the 1970’s. It is in a scene in the ‘New Hope’ Star Wars film. No Millenium Falcon could be spotted this morning but there were plenty of other flying things; toucans and parrots for example.
After that we went to the main plaza to find back Caro. She had had a very interesting tour but the weather had not been cooperative and so it wasn’t the “most magic sunrise ever” that I had witnessed and sold to her.
We spent a couple of more hours in the park and I discovered several temples that I had not visited last time. Some of them because I skipped them as I was on a bit of a tight schedule. But others because they were still completely covered by the jungle 23 years ago. Together with Caro, we have visited at least a dozen of Maya sites all over Guatemala and Mexico but Tikal is still hands down our favorite one. The jungle setting with all the animals has a lot to do with it but we find the temples also the most spectacular and diverse of all the sites.
By 10 o’clock we decided to get out of the ruins for some proper breakfast and some rest. By now busloads of visitors were heading into the park. In the afternoon when the busses had left, Caro and the kids went back once more in search of some more animals. We arrived back in the civilized world just in time before it got dark. Just like in Mexico (and for the rest of our trip probably), we avoid driving in the dark at all cost.
February and March (dry months) are supposed to be the months with the most comfortable weather in this part of Guatemala, but we were suffering from the heat anyway. We wanted to get to the highland region as fast as possible but this was vetoed by our kids who wanted “to see more jungle and also more Maya sites”. In the guidebook, we found the perfect place on the way: El Seibal. But when we got close to the site, the road all of a sudden stopped at a river. Before we could say “now what?”, we noticed lanchas (speedboats) going across the river with cars in it. Luckily there was also a bigger ferry (a platform propelled by 4 outboard speedboat motors) as we were not looking forward to put our van on one of these speedboats.
El Seibal turned out the perfect Maya site to visit for our kids’ request (jungle+ruins). The site has been completely mapped out, but only a very small portion has been excavated and renovated. So like Indiana Jones wannabe’s we headed into the jungle trying to identify the structures that were on our map. We climbed on hills that were actually pyramids, through the ‘ball courts, over altars & water canals. We found indications of what was still hidden everywhere: inscriptions, carvings. This was a completely different experience than the other Maya sites and we loved it! It also gives an idea of all the treasures that are still hidden all over this region. And talking about treasures, on our way out, the park guard showed us a bunch of beautifully carved stones. They are over a thousand years old and are stored under a tin roof in the parking lot of the site, waiting to be placed back when their finding spots are one day excavated and restored.
After a last hot night (luckily next to a refreshing lake), we headed towards the cool air of the town of Coban. We camped in the garden of a coffee plantation/cooperative and had a very informative tour on our ‘drug of choice’ the next morning. Ofcourse we had a tasting at the end of the tour. We bought some supplies there also. It is nearly impossible to find the good quality coffee within the country. 99pct of the production is exported across the globe. There is simply no ‘market’ for ‘quality’ (read expensive) coffee within the country.
To get to our next destination, we drove right across the Guatemalan highlands. It was a gorgeous but difficult and slow drive along narrow and very steep roads. The inhabitants of this region are almost all of Mayan indigenous descent. This is where the worst atrocities were committed by the army during the civil war (that ended in 1996). It is said that as a result these people can still be ‘unfriendly’ or even ‘hostile’ towards ‘foreign’ (as in not from their village) people. We did not experience this at all though.
After an exhausting full day of driving (just 185 km), we arrived in Chichicastenango on Saturday evening. Perfect timing to visit probably the biggest market in Central America the next morning. The market attracts people from all across the highlands. They come to shop (you can buy everything there), visit friends and family but also to pray.
The religion here is a very interesting mix of catholic & ancient Mayan beliefs. In the churches the catholic elements are strongest but with abundant use of candles and incense. However the further away from the church the more the Mayan elements become visible with plenty of flower altars, fireworks and even some animal sacrifices.
Next up we drove to a place that is often called ‘the most beautiful place in Central America. Lago de Atitlan is a deep blue lake surrounded by towering volcanoes. To get there we had to drive down probably the steepest road in Central America to a campground right on the edge of the lake. Testing our brakes and motor braking skills to the limit, we made it down. But we also decided that we would look for another way back up to spare our campervan a bit.
We were supposed to stay only a couple of days but the campsite was so nice that we stayed almost a week. We visited a couple of villages by ‘public boat’ and also did some hiking. It had been a long time and we needed to warm up our legs for e very big hike that was coming up.
Our next stops ,the Xetulul and Xocomil parks, were a big surprise for the kids. These two amusements parks are the pride of many Guatemalan workers. They are being funded by the employers who pay a yearly amount to the parks for each employee in their organization. And the employees get one yearly ticket for the family to visit. But foreigners are also very welcome and they come over from all over Central America.
Amusements parks are always a bit of a ‘magical/dream world’ like environment. But here the contrast between the poor environment and the world class amusement park is even more striking. If it wasn’t for the Maya theme that is often used, you could mistake this place for any park in Europe or the USA. The waterpark Xocomil especially was amazing and far beyond any of the water parks we have seen before. Never have we seen this many (different types of) slides in one place! Even though we were there on the busiest day of the week and the parking lot was filled with busses, it is so big that it never felt crowded. Our kids really loved it!
And after the hikes at Lago de Atitlan, they also got some additional training by climbing up all the towers for the waterslides. That training would come in very handy in the next week as a big hike was being planned to see another major highlight of our trip so far…