Guatemala

Brief stint in Guatemala was surprisingly interesting.

Coming overland from Belize was by far the easiest border crossing to date – no need for fake flight tickets (but we had real ones anyway – typical).

Managed to get local SIM cards easily and money from the ATM and then off to TIKAL Archeological reserve. We decided to stay at one of the 4 hotels in the park so we could do our own thing in the reserve. Otherwise you stay in Flores 1.20 hours away and have to do guided tours with everyone else.

What a great choice, so quite here, hot but we have a lovely pool. One of the local endangered birds was strolling around the car park (ocellated turkey), very pretty.

The drive into the park is lovely – a good 30 mins from park boundary entry to actual ruins entry and all protected. Jaguars are occasionally seen on the road and lots of birders come here too.

There are sunset and sunrise guided tours but as it is mostly cloudy we decided to give them a miss and just go in at 6am.

Going in at 6am, no-one around and in fact we only saw about 3 other couples for the 1st 2 hours, then it gradually got busier. By the time we left there were coaches and queue’s to get in.

Massive park, the ruins are spread over a huge area with walks of between 15 and 40 mins between – and there are many of them.

Some unfortunately were no very visible due to trees, other’s not even uncovered yet but with pictures of what they believe is below. They are all very impressive and incredibly large, pity it was such a misty morning.

As our legs have not yet recovered from a number of days of steep walks and ruin climbs we stayed at the bottom of all these. At least it was cooler here than at our last ruins in Belize. One carving in particular was very large and impressive.

4 hours later and with having had no breakfast we were all pretty hot and exhausted. Off for a swim, lunch and more swimming. Lazy afternoon.

Next stop Antigua, about 1 hour from Guatemala City.

Forecast for roads a bit worrying – but luckily it did not affect us.

Flying in we had a great view of the smoking volcano FUEGO. The volcano blows ash and gas many times a day – quite a spectacle.

Pleasantly surprised about how nice Antigua is – shops are hidden in old houses, and most hotels have hidden courtyards, restaurants are also in courtyards with lots of greenery. If it was not for being surrounded by volcanoes you would think you were in Spain or Italy.

In their own style though the toilets in the restaurant courtyards and bright and colourful.

I love the colourful aspect of the streets and the clothing, amazingly many of the local women still wear their traditional dress on a daily basis.

Antigua appears to me very European with lots of very old Colonial ornate buildings, many from mid 1600’s, and many Christian buildings.

The inside of this church was pretty impressive.

Back in the 70’s the town started to look like the city with signs etc everywhere so the local people fought to get it protected, it is now a UNESCO site and the signs are all gone. Great what local people in a community can do.

One thing I love here is the street fruit sellers and the ice cream sellers (in like toy vans).

Lovely temperature during the day here, not so hot and sticky but a shock having to wear trousers and jumpers at night.

We have seen so many young women dressed up in some incredible dresses, apparently becoming 15 is a big thing and the parents spend a fortune on dresses and a party.

A couple of days wandering around and relaxing and Chris is off home after 3 months on this trip, we will miss her company.

Our first day looking for birds and we had to change destination due to protests and road blocks. Of to a private reserve called El Pilar. Family have kept it protected for years but since covid the younger owners are arguing and wanting to split it up and make money. Hope they don’t as a very special area close to cities with amazing birds.

There are 3 swimming pools, each lower than the last, all fed by the mountain. Very popular at weekends.

2nd day for birds – still no go due to protests on-going so off for a walk around town to look at more of the old ruins, most damaged by an earthquake in 1773 when this city was the capital for 200 years.

Finally on our last day we got to go our looking for more birds and in particular a Pink Headed Warbler.

It was a fantastic day although in the mist till around 10 which is not ideal for photography.

Last 2 nights in Guatemala City so we could have a look at 3 things that interested us.
1) Lots of amazing street art – birds and wildlife plus other stuff
2) Mayan Museum where a lot of the artifacts from Tikal are.
3) Palace of National Culture.

Well what can I say – not enough research, the palace was not open at weekends (would not expect that of a tourist place). As it was Saturday that was out.

Never mind, got a Uber to the Museum – not happening either they did not take credit card, or American Dollars and we only had enough Guatemalan money for one of us as it was our last day.

Street art was nearby but that was out too as the heavens opened and carried on for the rest of the day and night.