From Belize, we headed for Guatemala - known as the Mayan centre of Central America!
Guatemala doesn't exactly have a squeaky clean image in terms of safety and travel but I am happy to report that we have had nothing but amazing experiences with the people and communities we have visited in Guatemala.
The border crossing between Belize and Guatemala was... interesting! We exchanged our Belize dollars to Guatemalan Quetzales with a man who was standing at the border with a giant wad of cash in different currencies - it seemed a little dodgy but he gave us an unexpectedly decent exchange rate. From here we exited Belize and walked across the border into Guatemala, somehow managed to find a collectivo (shared Taxi) heading to our destination and braced ourselves for some crazy driving!
Flores and Tikal
Our first destination in Guatemala was the tiny island of Flores, which is located in the centre of Lake Peten. We got a Tuk Tuk from the main bus station to our hotel in Flores - the girl working there spoke absolutely no English, this was the first time I really had no idea what someone was saying to me in Spanish. Nonetheless, we managed to check in and then set off to do some exploring.
The taxi driver that had taken us to the Belize/Guatemalan border had had plenty of Flores recommendations and the top of his list was the street food / market by the lake (yep, the whole island is 'by the lake'). Anyway, we walked in the general direction that we thought he had meant and actually found some really amazing street food stalls!
We got lunch for less than £2 - some amazing guacamole and chicken burritos!
Also, Michael was thrilled by the huge selection of juices on offer!
The view of the lake when walking around Flores - it's extremely picturesque.
We were also quite pleased to discover extremely cheap happy hours - 2 x 1 cocktails, yes please! I think these set us back around £2 for both!
We spent much of the evening chilling at our hotel - there was a huge balcony with a pretty amazing view of the lake as the sun begin to set.
Night time views from our balcony.
The following day we were up early and ready for our tour of Tikal.
Our hotel (which we were less than impressed with) told us they wouldn't be serving breakfast, however, this actually turned out to be for the best as we ended up getting the most amazing breakfast from a cafe just down the street.
The best baked eggs I have ever had.
After our delish breakfast, it was time for Tikal.
While we are not usually fans of organised tours, this was one of the few times it seemed like a good idea to take a tour. The road between Flores and Tikal doesn't exactly have a great safety record and a full day tour, including transport and a guide for the entire site costs roughly £15pp - really affordable.
Tikal is an ancient Mayan site, located in Tikal National Park, and used to be one of the largest and most important Mayan sites in the region. Guatemalan people have a particularly strong connection to sites like Tikal because, as our guide explained, roughly 70% of Guatemalan people have Mayan ancestory / heritage.
Our guide was constantly referring to Tikal as the 'grand civilisation' as it was inhabited by Mayan's from 1000BC - 900AD.
For us, the thing that set Tikal apart from the other Mayan sites we have visited is how untouched most of it is. The site is set within dense rainforest and much of the rainforest vegetation has been left completely untouched - although there are plenty of tourists visiting, a lot of the trails between ruins are quite isolated and it almost feels like you are completely alone in the Guatemalan jungle.
Our guide explained that Tikal National Park is over 500 square km in size (huge) but about 80% of this space is yet to be, and will not be, excavated.
One thing that our guide taught us is the different between a pyramid and a temple. A pyramid has a flat top and a temple is pointed! Therefore, Michael is standing on the top of a pyramid in this photo.
Our guide told us that the stones in front of this pyramid were used as a style of noticeboard - priests / leaders would write instructions or events on these stones so the community knew where, when or what kinds of ceremonies or gatherings were taking place.
Our guide, while very informative and intelligent, was also kind of a mad man and spent about 15 minutes poking some grass into a hole trying to lure out a tarantula! It actually worked and a GIANT furry black spider did poke it's head out for a little while, our guide said 'oh she's beautiful' - however, 'she' seemed pretty scary to me!
Trekking through the Guatemala jungle at Tikal - we really loved how undeveloped the site was.
One of the temples / pyramids and hasn't been excavated. It's really interesting to see so many ruins completely covered and buried by grass and trees. There are hundreds (potentially thousands) of ruins, like this one, that are buried and will never be excavated.
Gran Jaguar - one of the most famous temples at Tikal.
Our guide explained that when this temple was excavated, archaeologists found a the remains of a Mayan ruler and also jade buried underneath - they determined that the burial had occurred and then the temple build around the remains.
While on our tour we also saw some howler monkeys! They are hard to see in these pictures but they are there, I promise! Later on we could hear them making loud 'howling' sounds (apparently this is a territorial thing).
Behind us is Temple V - many of the temples are named with numbers, apparently this was done by archaeologists if they could not figure out the actual name of the temple. As you walk through Tikal you can see many of the bigger pyramids poking out above the trees.
Gran Plaza - the centre of Tikal.
On the right hand side is a different view of Gran Jaguar.
While taking in this view, our guide explained a little about how the Mayan civilisation ceased to exist. According to him, the Mayan's of Tikal destroyed the rainforest in this area in order to build their civilisation (hard to believe since there is so much of it here now), this effected weather patterns and caused the rain to occur. Given that the Mayan's relied on the land for growing crops, the lack of rain ruined their agricultural practices, which ultimately meant that they were forced to leave this area.
I am still not sure what become of the Mayan's or where they went - I am not sure that historians or archaeologists even have a concrete answer for this!
More views of the Gran Plaza - stunning!
From here we headed to the most famous viewpoint of Tikal - the top of Temple IV (apparently this is featured in star wars? I was more interested to learn that several of the temples on this site were featured in Survivor Guatemala).
The top of Temple IV.
The photo doesn't really do the view justice - from here we were above the trees had an amazing view of the luscious and dense jungle surrounding us.
You can see the bigger temples poking out above the treeline.
Selfies on top of Temple IV.
The last site our guide took us to visit was called El Mundo Perdido (the lost world) and functioned as a sundial for the Mayan's. This is the oldest building on the site and was built in 800BC. This was clearly our guides favourite ruin as he spent a lot of time here explaining it's function, which I only semi understand.
This structure was build to measure time, as a kind of calendar. There are five platforms on the structure and 73 steps - when you multiply these numbers you get.... 365 - the amount of days in a year! For the Mayan's, there are 5,126 years (our years) in a full calendar cycle. The last cycle ended on 21st December, 2012 and our guide explained that he was here celebrating on this date.
That pretty much concludes our long but really interesting tour of Tikal - definitely the best and most authentic of all the Mayan sites we have visited in our travels so far.
After a long day of walking around the huge Tikal site, it was time to treat ourselves to some more happy hour cocktails! Since it is low season, many of the restaurants and hotels were almost empty, which sometimes means that waiters are happy to see you and spoil you - hence, my giant cocktail!
Utopia Eco Lodge + Semuc Champey
From the tiny island of Flores, we jumped on a shuttle towards the town of Lanquin. The shuttle was well organised and on time but man, it was LONG! For about the first 6 hours of our drive it was smooth sailing, however, the last 40km took a 2.5 hours to drive! It was pouring rain and the roads were bumpy and unpaved. Once we arrived at Lanquin, we then had to get a 4x4 to our accommodation, which took another 45 minutes of bumping and bouncing along crazy roads!
Finally, after dark, we made it to Utopia Eco Lodge.
This is our amazing little cabin at the Eco Lodge. There were no windows, only fly wire so you could see / hear the jungle at all times. There was limited power (only in the morning and at night), definitely no internet and no enclosed showers (we had an outdoor shower on that little balcony in front of our cabin).
I absolutely loved our little cabin - a truly unique Guatemalan experience!
One of the girls working at the Eco Logde promised us an amazing view when we woke up and she wasn't wrong!
I absolutely loved our acommodation, so I also took a short video that gives a better idea of the little cabin we stayed in: https://youtu.be/gmhagjkzq_I
Above is the main dining / social area - with an amazing view of the Guatemalan rain forest.
Every day the Eco Lodge offered breakfast, lunch and dinner - there were fairly limited options but that didn't matter as the food was all freshly prepared by local Guatemala women and it was delicious.
One of the staff members explained that when land in this area is bought from the local Guatemalans, it is customary for whoever has purchased the land to then employ these locals / families or provide them with work on that same land. I really love this concept as it meant that people from the local community were able to keep their houses and live in the same area but also meant that they were able to make money and earn a living in their local area. The owner of the Eco Lodge had employed locals to run tours, drive cars, wash, cook, clean etc. Another thing I really liked is that the owners also donated 10% of their profits to the local community - to maintain schools, bring electricity to communities and maintain buildings.
We were lucky enough to enjoy breakfast every morning with a beautiful view of the jungle.
Our main aim of staying off the grid was the opportunity to visit Semuc Champey - this is a collection of natural fresh water pools in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle.
Our accommodation offered tours of Semuc Champey but we opted just to pay for transport to and from the site.
Once we had been dropped off at Semuc, the first thing we did was the hike to the viewpoint: El Mirador. It was about a 30-40 minute hike, pretty much up stairs the entire way and as the sign says it is 'dificul.' It had rained the night before so everything was muddy and slippery and you had to be really careful when making your way up.
The view of the Semuc pools from El Mirador, surrounded by the lush green Gautemalan jungle.
Michael and I at the view point.
This was followed by another 30 minute hike back down from the view point - there were a lot of slippery rocks and thankfully some helpful stairs.
The start of Semuc Champey - it is hard to explain what this natural formation is. Is is a limestone bridge that has formed over the top of the Cahabon River, the 'bridge' extends for about 300m and features 5-7 bright blue freshwater pools. In this picture I am standing on the beginning of the limestone bridge and you can see one of the pools that has formed in the background.
Next it was time for a swim!
After a really sweaty hike, we got into our bathers and jumped straight in!
The fresh water pools and cool and refreshing - the perfect place to chill after our hike!
Although everyone initially starts off in the same pool, you can climb, slide and stumble over the slippery rocks into many other pools. Since less people seemed inclined to leave the first pool to do some exploring, we decided that this was definitely the best option.
Some of the less popular pools at Semuc Champey.
We saw some local guys showing tourists how to use the slippery rocks as a form of slide to get into the pools and decided we had to give it a go, here is a video of me doing just that: https://youtu.be/pQd2Wkv9qL8
Some of the beautiful little waterfalls at Semuc - note the gorgeous turquoise blue colour of the water!
We spent most of our afternoon exploring, swimming and generally relaxing in the gorgeous Semuc pools. It was hard to stop taking photos as the pools were beautiful and the view was absolutely stunning!
Even as the left Semuc the views of the amazing blue pools, amidst the bright green jungle, was beautiful!
On our way out of Semuc were locals selling BBQ'd meats. Their daughters were roaming around, speaking excellent English, in an attempt to buy food from 'mi madre.' The girls were really cute and we ended up buying some food for lunch - it was super cheap and delicious!
I also got sucked in to buying some chocolate from these little Guatemalan girls, they hand make their own version of chocolate by crushing cacao seeds and adding in sugar and some flavouring (ie. cinnamon or vanilla seeds) - it was less than £1 to buy three little chocolates.
After this it was back to the Eco Lodge for an outdoor shower in the afternoon sun - not a whole lot of privacy but a pretty beautiful view!
While our next few days at the Eco Lodge weren't particularly full, we did manage to do a little exploring of the local area.
One of the staff suggested we go for a walk around the property - they have started to create little paths throughout the property, so you can go on a short hike and explore the local area.
They have also started to build little hanging rope bridges - this one was brand new.
One of the hiking trails on the property.
Later that same afternoon, we also went 'extreme' tubing on the Cahabon river.
As you can see it was slightly awkward, we had a non-English speaking guide, who hooked all of us together (meaning that I was hooked onto his feet - a little weird).
The water was really cold!
There was also lots of little rapids as we traveled down the river - Michael tried to take a video but since it was hot outside and cold in the water, the lens of the camera kept fogging up - you get the idea though: https://youtu.be/1u0lP9APi5Q
On our final day at the Eco Lodge, some of the staff took us on a hike to 'the cliff' (we later found out that this hike had been closed due to landslides).
As it is the rainy season in Guatemala, we had to make sure we hiked in the morning - typically, the rainy season means that it rains every day but not all day long. We have found that the mornings are usually clear and sunny and around 3-5pm, clouds roll in and it begins to rain / storm - sometimes it pours with rains and there is crazy thunder and lightning.
Michael and I hiking through some of the local cornfields.
While on this hike, some local children, picking oranges, offered some to us - we found this incredibly sweet as these children have next to nothing and usually sell the fruit they find for very little money.
Some amazing views of the Guatemalan countryside - I especially liked being able to see the Cahabon river winding through the dense rainforest and the small communities surrounding the river.
You wouldn't guess from these photos that it is the 'rainy season.'
It was pretty sweaty work hiking up the steep track!
So far we have been incredibly impressed by Guatemala - the people we have been have been amazingly friendly (and extremely tolerant of my poor Spanish) and willing to share their country with us. We have also been impressed by the huge and diverse landscapes of Guatemala - from dense rainforest, Mayan ruins, small island towns and beautiful natural pools, there is such a huge variety of natural and man made attractions.
From here, we will continue to travel south to the small Guatemalan city of Antigua.
