Guatemala 11/5-17/2024

Day 1 11/5/2024

I cannot believe it but I started out at work.  Well, I can believe it, do not want to waste vacation time when I only get 2 weeks to start off.  Made it home about 1 pm and we were out the door on the way to Seattle at 1:45. We parked the Audi at the normal AJAX parking lot, they have been easy and great shuttle service for the last few years.  At the airport we had to go through the extra passport step but, no hiccups whatsoever.  Honestly, my major concern was flight grounding due to the election.  I have a cousin in LA where our layover was and I messaged her just in case.  Not that she could do anything, just a warning that we might be coming to hang out for a week. But we made it through! Food at LAX sucked, I slept all the way to Guatemala City (La Aurora International Airport).

Day 2 11/6/2024

As we were landing the pilot mentioned that we might see Volcan De Fuego erupting out the right-hand side, of course we were on the left hand, this is my Irish luck.  As we were landing, we did see some volcanos but nothing that was erupting.  Coming into Guatemala City seeing the infrastructure shocked me, I had the “what did I get myself into” feeling.  I know that Ross had an idea of how poor this country was, I was not prepared.  Customs was a breeze getting off the plane, Ross exchanged some dollars for quetzales, we got our bags, and off to meet our bird guide!  Josue De Leon with Guatemala Birding Adventures met us right outside and we were off! First stop was Restaurante Ricon Suizo. On our drive there Josue pointed out our first look at Volcan de Fuego and it was erupting! More about the first day bird adventure here:  For lunch we ate at our first bird spot which was Restaurante Rincon Suizo, it was amazing food (and a lot!) for a small price.  One thing that Ross noticed right away was the smog, he asked if it was fog but it was clearly from all the not well-maintained vehicles.  One of the worst culprits was the giant “Chicken Buses.”  These buses were so decked out with chrome and paint, Josue told us that they were American school buses once.  After a long day of birding, we ended up arriving at Lake Atitlan Hotel Bambu and got checked into our room.  We were in the Royal Suite for the first two nights which ended up being a little hut type of thing set away from the rest of the hotel which an amazing view of the lake.  We pretty much unpacked got ready for an early day in the morning and went to bed!

Day 3 11/7/2024

We got up before sunrise, we did have a nice clear view of the Lake and San Pedro across the way.  Hotel Bambu was nice enough to pack us lunches to take with us and they also had coffee made and ready for us before we left!  It seemed to be common to have security guards around all night, we saw some at gas stations with guns in the bigger cities.  For some reason ants were attracted to all my stuff in the room.  I could see them if I looked for them all over the room, I think that it was being further outside of the hotel away from the main area.  I had spilled a tiny bit of chocolate on my sweatshirt and they found it, they came in from the window and just swarmed it! Ugh, so not into it.  Today was another bird adventure and we headed to Los Tarrales Natural Reserve all day.  Here, as well as a natural reserve, was a hotel where our bird guides family lives (I think he said he grew up here, but the language barrier was confusing).  We had a nice buffet style lunch which chicken and rice, fresh bread, salad, and chocolate pie.  This looked like a great place to stay.  This was also our biggest bird list, there are lots of trails to explore also with a lagoon. We were gone most of the day and got back to Bambu after sunset again, still have not been able to explore where we were staying!  We had dinner, Bambu offers lots of food options (American, Guatemalan, Mexican…) and the hosts are very professional and speak English but also love letting you practice your Spanish (Ross appreciated and got into this).  Tomorrow we were switching rooms and leaving at 4 AM.  I was happy about the rooms because the ants found the chocolate from the airport in my backpack and just EW.

Day 4 11/8/2024

We set our alarm for an even early day!  We had to get up early to start our hike up Atitlan for the Horned Guan and possibly Resplendent Quetzal.  Spoiler, we saw them both.  Read about it here Guatemala Birding 11/6-8/2024   By the time we got back they had moved our stuff out of the ant room into the main complex.  The room was great, on the second level with a patio and a really nice view of the lake.  We went and immediately sat down for lunch as we were eating, we debriefed over the bird hike. We finally got to see the hotel in the daylight! We also saw that the group that we saw at Los Tarrales came and sat down next to us.  Of course they had to tell us about the birds they saw, I feel that normally birders are not competing with each other but I felt like this group was. We went back and took a nap, or tried. 

Day 5 11/9/2024

Day of rest! We looked at some birds around the hotel, it had been landscaped with lots of trees and flowers so there was a variety of birds.  We hit the pool.

For dinner we ventured into Santiago Atitlan via tuk tuk (which was an experience in its own).  The town was different, I am still in awe about the housing.  Store up front and house in the back, I wish I could have walked in one! It is all CMU with some kind of boundary elements on the corners. Ross looked up at one point why they all seemed unfinished, like they left rebar lap to work on another story.  Apparently, there is a law if the building is unfinished, it gets taxed less.  As we were walking, we picked up a Guatemalan elderly man who was dressed in traditional clothing (nice shirt, hat, and basically capris) he had a ID around his neck which we think was made by himself that claimed him as a “tour guide.”  He walked with us and tried to get us to eat at a certain restaurant but we had one in mind already.  He wasn’t too pushy; nobody really was with trying to sell things.  We ate at Le Antigua Restaurante, it was nothing special but still good.  Afterwards, we walked around the town a bit took a picture of Inglesia Santiago Apostol and made our way back via tuk tuk.

Day 6 11/10/2024

Today was our first travel day on our own! I did miss Josue! He made things so easy, but Ross stepped it up and did well the whole trip with communicating with everyone.  I have a hard time because I do not want to sound stupid so I hardly ever used my Spanish.  We made our way to the ferry terminal in Atitlan and got on one to Panajechel.  This was a little nerve-wracking for me, we had to figure out how to get from the ferry to the shuttle.  Right on time, someone came around and yelled for Ross and we got on the shuttle to Antigua! WO! Everything here shuttles, ferries, whatnot seemed to be right on time.  The shuttle dropped us off right at our hotel which was a VRBO this time that I found. It was Antigua Rentals on 4 Avendina Norte, this ended up being my favorite place that we stayed. Antigua was definitely more geared towards tourism, I felt more comfortable walking around.  The streets were made of cobblestone? People were friendly and spoke English, there were beautiful old ruins with new construction right next to them, views of the volcanoes everywhere you looked.  We had our meeting for the Volcan de Fuego climb at 5 PM and for dinner we found a pizza place that was close by, nothing special just something easy on the stomach for the next day! We got what we needed cash wise and went to sleep.

Day 7-8 11/11-12/2024

This was all the volcano trip!  Read about that here https://lifeofkristen.com/volcan-de-fuego-and-acatenango/

Day 8 11/12/2024

We ended up getting back to Antigua a lot later than I thought we would.  We got back to the OX headquarters at about 1:30. Which is fine but I had told the people at our Vrbo that we would be back so they could come take our laundry (so thankful for the laundry service! It was $20 for however much we had, which probably was two loads).  We got back and relaxed for a bit; we had one more night in Antigua.  We walked around a bit to see some sites, we walked to Parque Central, Antigua Colegio, Iglesia de la Merced.  We had dinner at Fridas which was recommended to us by our volcano climbing guide.  It was like Guatemala Mexican, everything was good, nothing spectacular. Honestly, the breakfast in Guatemala were my favorite meals. Minus the beans, I just do not like beans in general.

Day 9 11/13/2024

Check out day! We had a shuttle coming at 2 pm.  I forget when we got breakfast, we tried to find a coffee place that we had seen on previous days and we couldn’t find it so we ended up at Starbucks. We got up and walked to Cerro de la Cruz.  We took our cameras and did some birding along the way.  The trail up there was difficult to figure out which one was the right one? Gaia and trail maps showed a couple but there were a lot that were braiding throughout the area.  We got up there and we were almost the only ones there, made for good picture opportunity.  On the way up the birds were sparse, as the sun came up while we were at the top there was a flock flying through.  13 Nov 2024 – Antigua Guatemala–Cerro de la Cruz I started getting my travel anxiety and I was trying to get back.  We took the road down which also seemed like not the right way? I think I was tired and everything was too confusing at the time, but I also do not think trails are as maintained here and we probably did the right thing. 

Luckily, the Vrbo allowed us to keep our bags in the room, we were able to use the gate key to get back in occasionally.  On the way back from the walk I did find a painting of a Quetzal being sold by a toothless guy walking outside of Iglesia de la Merced.  We had a hard time figuring out exactly how much he wanted but we got it!  It was cheap for an actual painted painting in a frame. We did some more site seeing, we paid to go into the Ruinas Del Convento Mercadario which had a cool old fountain, you could also go up the bell towers on the second floor and down to a crypt looking thing. We walked by Iglesia de Carmen and a round town a little bit more.  A little after noon we retrieve our bags and Ross suggested going across the street to Aqua Antigua.  Here was got some lunch, it was nice but geared towards tourists.  There was a pool and I think rooftop seating but it was a good place to chill for an hour before our shuttle.

We left the restaurant and waited out side on the tiny sidewalk.  Ross proceeded to have a freak out because he made the reservation for pick up in the same address but Guatemala City.  Of course, his phone was running out of battery, he did end up getting ahold of someone but he said it was bad service and bad communication.  I just started looking for a private shuttle or another one or something.  I think worst case was we would find a place to stay one more night in Antigua.  Eventually about a half hour late the shuttle showed up and we squished into seats not next to each other.  We ended up picking up like 5 more people, I was uncomfortable, I think every one was really.  Finally, we were off on our estimated 2 hour and 30 minutes ride. 

5 hours later we got to El Paredon.  The shuttle hit some massive traffic on the HWY over.  The shuttle driver at one point pulled into the oncoming lane and passed miles of stopped cars, if a car was coming, he would pull off on the should and then just get back on the road.  So wild!  We eventually got to a block, the driver got out and was gone for a while, eventually he came back and explained that the locals were blocking the highway to impede the port traffic in leu of the recent government retaking over the local prison.  Apparently, it had been taken over by the locals and they were allowing gang members or criminals to still operate their sex trafficking or drug trades while serving prison time.  (This is my very scraping the surface understanding after reading a couple articles).  At this point people on the bus were all riled up and would not stop talking, I needed a break from all the stimulation and suffocation of the buss.  Slowly we got going again. 

El Paredon was noticeably hotter and more humid driving through.  Once we found our hotel Paredon Surf House we checked in and had dinner there.  They had a couple refrigerators full of drink and beer that you could make a mark next to your name when you took them instead of having to order them constantly.  Right before we went to knock off, we noticed two guys who were on our shuttle, we chatted with them about the ride and surfing.  It was nice to have them around.  What a day, I know that I was exhausted and I could not wait to sleep and sleep in, I really accepted the fact that I had caught some kind of bug and I was getting sick.  But the ocean fixes that!

I did not sleep until 4 AM when the music stopped. There was club music coming from the hotel next to us and it kept getting louder and louder.  The Driftwood Surfer Hostel I’m still angry as I write this, fucking assholes.

Day 10 11/14/2024

Ross woke up his normal early and went and got coffee (free coffee all day!) and went to the beach, I was semi up and definitely sick at this point. Complaining about the music was quick and short lived, what’s the point? It doesn’t change anything.  We had breakfast at our hotel and got ready to go out on a bird walk down the beach.  We started out walking down the road behind the Surf house and immediately saw some Roufous-backed Wrens.  That ended up being the most excitement, there were also Tropical Kingbirds everywhere! I was hot, like so sweaty and uncomfortable hot.  El Paredon is supposedly and up and coming beach tourist town.  I still felt that things were run down, I told Ross that it reminded me of that one festival that got really hyped up and people spent so much money on ticket and showed up to tents blowing over in the wind.  I felt like that was all of Guatemala, unfinished, abandoned, not taken care of places.  We kept walking all the way to the Rio Acome, here we saw lots of wading and shore birds.  Most exciting was the Roseate Spoonbill, I love them. 14 Nov 2024 – Aldea El Paredon

I was really content to work on my photos and hang out in the room and read.  It had a hammock just out side and you could prop the doors open.  The room was open on the other end too where you were basically showering outside, it was a really cool set up.  They did ask you not to flush your toilet paper which grossed me out…  The bugs did not seem so horrible most of the time, but I was for sure wearing bug spray every day.  Ross would come in and out and go to the beach and try and ride the waves.  We could see that someone was setting up some kind of giant booth for a surfing competition which I was excited to watch too!

For lunch we went to a place called Emma Cocina Glocal.  Tiny little thing but the food was great! I got a quesadilla and ross got a smoothie and something else he enjoyed.  I will say we went back to this place two more times, I had never had an acai bowl but damn this one here was good!  For dinner we went North to a place Ross had read about called Swell Surf, which was another resort type of place.  The food here was also really good! I had a Cubano which was amazing. 

Day 11 11/15/2024

Another great thing about the surf contest right outside of our place was the started playing music at 6 AM.  I was hoping it kept all the 20-year-old all night partiers up! Who knows, lol, there was not any good time to get rest around here.  Ross and I did walk up to the 24 hour market and they did have very expensive cold medicine which did help me sleep.

We had a surf lesson today!  We had two Guatemalan instructors and they were super helpful and friendly.  I had done a surf lesson before and I felt that I had an idea of how it was going to go for me but Ross was a wild card.  I picked up standing up pretty fast and stood up most times, I “caught” three waves and rode them to shore.  I feel like Ross was getting frustrated at first but he finally figured out how to stand up and was able to ride a bit.  I think he is not very flexible, but we both ended up doing really well!  The afternoon was the same as the day before, just chilling.

Day 12 11/16/2024

Last full day!

We got up early to go see the turtles be released!  Ross told me that the whole thing about this place up the beach was they buy turtle eggs from people selling them to eat.  They take them back to this sanctuary and then hatch and release them back into the ocean.  For some reason we picked the same day as the “stay up until 4 am” people and we followed 30 people up the beach.  Not sure if every morning was like this or not.  They gave a quick little speech about what they do, I could not hear much because my ears were plugged and the ocean was loud and it was in Spanish.  Also, I was not very happy with all the people there and their late-night shenanigans.  They released the baby turtles on the sand from a 5 gallon bucket and everybody crowded around and fought to get the best look… Probably should have gotten up on another day.

We ate breakfast at the Surf house again.  Ross and I went out for a swim, he was in and out constantly.  The waves seem a little bit more than yesterday.  Ross got up the nerve to rent a surf board and he was out for a bit, he said he did not even try to stand up but just body surfed.  Ross checked with the hotel front lady and triple checked our ride for the morning, which was a private taxi because it was so early.  I think Ross said it ended up being 100 dollars. We had dinner at our hotel and then we got all packed up mostly and ready for tomorrow adventure!

Day 13 11/17/2024

We got up and our private taxi ride was there right at the correct time.  I slept pretty much the whole ride, there were no slow downs or anything to note.  The airport was semi easy, it is pretty small comparatively.  We had a little issue with the customs people because nothing was in English and they were in a middle of a change shift so when nobody said anything to us, we tried to walk right on through.  There was not a line or any barricade or whatnot, not like you would expect in the US so we were all confused.  Anyways, we got some Starbucks at the gate and got some final souvenirs, Ross had bought a couple things but I had not, besides the painting.  The flight home was so uneventful I do not even remember! I did get seats on the correct side to see the volcano but of course it was overcast.  Home is good.