Travelblog LA#15: Flores & Yaxha – Guatemala

5th – 8th July, 2023

 

Getting to the north of Guatemala from Lake Atitlan is a long journey. First, I had to catch a shuttle bus from Panajachel to a bus station in Guatemala City. From there, several night buses leave each evening, but none have functioning websites so I had to turn up early to ensure I got a seat. It is possible to make reservations on the phone, but if your Spanish is not fluent, this will be almost impossible as the people on the other side talk very fast.

I hoped that by turning up at the station early I would have a chance of getting one of their more comfortable ‘luxo’ seats on the first floor – perfect if you are travelling solo, as you can get one of the solo seats on the right-hand side – but those were all sold out, and even the second-floor seats were rapidly disappearing so I snatched one leaving at 8 pm. The bus station was a bit of a dive, which made me nervous about what the bus would look like, but it wasn’t too bad. I found myself sitting amongst a family who was friendly enough, the air conditioning worked, and my seat reclined just enough for me to get a bit of sleep before I found myself woken up at 5 am in Santa Elena.

It was only a twenty-five-minute walk from there to Flores, a small island on Lake Petén Itzá. It was understandably too early for me to check in to my hostel, so I left my bags there and decided to visit one of the attractions nearby. Actun Kan Caves.

Most tourists who come to this area stay here for two nights, book a tour to Tikal – its most famous ruins – and then leave, but I think they are missing out as there are other reasons to stay, and these caves are one of them. The admission cost was cheap and included a helmet fitted with a head torch. There are lots of caverns to explore, but the place is well signposted – a good thing as I can see how someone could easily get lost in here – and it is also home to many bats.

After that, I took things easy that first day. There were a few reasons for this. I was tired after my journey, and after several weeks in the highlands I was back in a tropical region again and had to acclimatise to the heat. I also had some work to do as my publisher had just sent me the first round of edits for Blood War – the third instalment of my Avatars of Ruin series – which is due to be published early next year, so I will be travelling a bit slower for a while.

On my second day in Flores, I went out for a while and caught a boat to a village called San Miguel on the opposite side of the lake. The nearby peninsular is home to some trails and a mirador overlooking the area.

There is also a Mayan site here called Tayazal. It is not very well known because most remains are still buried beneath the jungle, but you can see the signs from all the artificial mounds dotted about the place. I think the local authorities have plans concerning this area because I came across an excavation site and an incomplete boardwalk. It seems a place to watch over the coming years.

San Miguel is also home to a museum of Mayan artefacts. The place does look like it could do with more attention – as it is currently a bit short on displays and in a state of disrepair – but it is free, and the staff are friendly. I was its only visitor, and the attendant was very talkative and open to questions; it was almost like getting a free tour.

By my third day, I decided it was time to start exploring some of the Mayan ruins this area is known for, but with the weekend approaching I didn’t want to go anywhere near Tikal – as I knew it would be busy – so I instead went to the less explored Yaxha.

These ruins are on the shore of a lake with the same name, close to the Belize border. There are currently no transport options, so unless you have a vehicle your only option is to go on a tour. Luckily, these are reasonably priced and include a guide.

When I arrived, the guide told us about an optional trip to see a set of smaller ruins on an island in the middle of the lake; news somewhat sprung upon me, so I didn’t have much time to make an informed decision. I decided to give it a miss. It was a bit pricey, and I liked the idea of having some extra time to explore the main site of Yaxha by myself. After the others returned, I did speak to some of them, and it sounded like the journey across the lake was quite enjoyable, but the ruins on the island weren’t much to write home about. I don’t think there is a wrong or right choice when it comes to this, but I am personally happy with the decision I made.

I didn’t know what to expect from Yazha, but it was a surprisingly extensive network of acropolises, plazas, and pyramids dotted through a jungle teeming with primates – mostly noisy howler monkeys but also some spider monkeys too – which only added to the atmosphere.  

There are several pyramids that you are allowed to climb, which makes for some great views.

We also passed by the court where the famous Mayan ballgame was played. Almost all large Mayan sites have these, but – like much to do with the Maya – some of the details of this game are a mystery. It is believed that the players were only allowed to touch the ball with their hips and shoulders, and there was a strong ritual aspect. I do not have the authority to weigh in with my opinion on this, but there seems to have almost certainly been some form of sacrifice made at the end of the game, and it was the winners – rather than the losers – that were the offering. What kind of form this ‘sacrifice’ took is still debated among historians, but my guide seemed to believe that it was one of blood (or expendable body parts such as ears and noses), so the players got to live afterwards.

One of the most intriguing things my guide revealed during the tour was that this little hollow is the oldest known part of the complex. This site was in use for thousands of years – from the pre-Classic to the late-classic – and many Mayan pyramids have hidden layers because they often build over them again and again throughout the generations.

Our tour ended with us climbing Yaxha’s tallest pyramid, from which one can watch the sun setting over the lake. It was cloudy that evening, but we got to see some nice colours ignite the horizon as well as some birds.

Overall, if this is one of the lesser-known Mayan sites, then I think I have a very rewarding few weeks ahead of me, and I am excited to see more.

 

Click on the hyperlinks for more photos from Flores and Yazha.

 

Travelblog LA#14: Lake Atitlan & Chichicastenango – Guatemala

30th June – 3rd July, 2023

 

I will start this blog with some things about Lake Atitlan. I spent about four days here but didn’t do any sightseeing. The main event happened when I first arrived and watched the sunrise from Nariz Del Indio (which I covered during my previous blog concerning my hike there from Xela). Besides that, it was mostly a place where I had some downtime.

Lake Atitlan is pretty. The photos speak for themselves. I stayed one night in San Pedro in a backpacker hostel with an amazing view but lacking soul. It was also close to the noisy strip of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs stretched along the shore, so I was keen to move somewhere quieter the following morning and caught a boat across the lake to Panajachel. My travel guide described Panajachel as the bustling tourist hub and San Pedro as the calmer backpacker retreat, but this information was obviously out of date as I found the opposite to be true. I stayed at Hotel El Sol, a quiet hostel on the outskirts with excellent facilities. It was a great place to lay low for a while.

My out-of-date guide also described Lake Atitlan as this idyllic place of picturesque villages and Mayan culture, but luckily other backpackers I previously spoke to had curbed these expectations. It has become common for tourists to be mugged whilst walking the trails around the lake, so it is not a place where we can currently wander freely. Heavy amounts of Gringo Tax are slapped onto almost everything you would want to do here – including the simple things such as public transport – many of the new establishments – hastily built since the tourist boom – are an eyesore, and it has a serious litter problem. The lake is heavily polluted and almost devoid of life due to the introduction of a predatory species in the 80s that destroyed its ecosystem by wiping out the native fish.

I think it is only fair for me to mention now that it is problematic to judge the local population for these problems. We can’t blame them for taking advantage of opportunities to make money when they arise because many of them are very poor, and this is primarily thanks to neo-colonialism from first-world countries. The destruction of the lake’s ecosystem was caused by a US-based company that unceremoniously airdropped the invasive fish from a plane in the 60s because it was a species considered more of a ‘sport’ for fishing.

I am not telling these things to put people off coming to Lake Atitlan – I am glad I came here – but I want people to know what to expect so they are not disappointed. Also, I want to use this blog to inform people about Guatemala’s problems and their causes.

So, whilst Atitlan was not quite the cultural adventure I was craving in this part of the world, it was where I based myself during an overnight trip to a place I found very rewarding in that regard: Chichicastenango.

My journey to Chichicastenango was also an occasion where I got to experience something else that is a part of local life in Guatemala; the chicken bus.

I have avoided these so far primarily due to concerns around safety. There have been incidents of gangs hijacking them and robbing the passengers over the years, but this usually happens in the area surrounding Guatemala City, and my trip from Panajachel to Chichicastenango was without incident. There were two transfers at the townships of Sololá and Los Encuentros, but it was surprisingly easy, and there was very little waiting. Once I got off one bus, people pointed me to the next one across the road, almost ready to leave. Some rides were quite bumpy, but that was part of the experience.

I was a little apprehensive about finding somewhere to stay here – as the few places listed on Booking.com were expensive – but I found a hostel called El Mashito, which was basic, clean and reasonably priced. I caught my first hint of the local customs when I saw their shrine room by the courtyard.

And this is one of the reasons why Chichicastenango is so interesting: it is a part of the world where Mayan animism has fused with Catholicism and created a set of unique traditions.

My next point of call was to have a walk around the nearby cemetery which was very colourful, and whilst there, I heard some sounds and saw smoke wafting from nearby so went to investigate and found myself stepping into a ceremonial site called Plaza Baktun.

I was hesitant to approach at first. For those who don’t know; I am spiritual, an animist, and have had a lifelong interest in shamanism, so I feel a strong affinity to traditions such as this and am very drawn to them. But I am also aware that in foreign places, I am a visitor and, to them, I am just another gringo so I did not want to annoy them. One of them, however, turned to me and made a gesture that made it clear that I was welcome, so I came and watched for a while. They were even kind enough to let me take some photos.

Two things were going on at once. First, a man had arranged petals, eggs, and other items into a floral pattern: an offering he eventually set alight. He then chanted as he stoked the flames, pouring spirits and other things onto it occasionally.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the space, an elderly lady – whom I guessed to be a shaman – was performing spiritual cleansing on the members of a family. She did this by blowing smoke onto them and spraying spirits over them from her mouth; this is a practice I have encountered before during vodou ceremonies I have attended and also witnessed among shamans in the highlands of South America.

Later that day, I also visited a few other sides, including another ceremonial space called Pascual Abaj on a hill overlooking the town. I had the place to myself but could tell someone had used it recently by all the offerings of flowers and the embers still smouldering from one of the platforms.

On my way back into the town, I also visited the fascinating Museum of Masks. I read later – in another museum – that these are worn by townsfolk during festivals throughout the year. That is something I would very much like to see.

This town certainly made a big impression on me, and I find it strange that most of its visitors do not explore this side of it. On the day that I arrived, I didn’t come across a single other gringo, but that changed the following morning when all the shuttle buses arrived for the thing this town is famous for; market day.

Don’t get me wrong. This was interesting too, and I did spend some time walking around all the stalls filled with arts, crafts, street food, and other such things – but after everything I have just shown you – it was one of the least memorable things about my time there.

That morning I also – for the first time in many, many years – attended Catholic Mass within the Iglesia Santo Tomás.

Well, some of it at least, because it was just as long as I remembered it. It was a very colourful ceremony, and the music was nothing like I have heard elsewhere, but after about thirty minutes I left.

And when I did so, I witnessed another curious scene outside; people were burning incense and making offerings on the steps.

I later did some reading and found out that this is because the colonials built the church upon the foundations of an old Mayan temple, but the steps leading up to it are original, so the shamans still use it. There are eighteen steps, each representing a month in the Mayan calendar.

Despite this only being an overnight trip, I think Chichicastenango will be one of the places in Guatemala that made the biggest impression on me, and it was a great way to finish my time in Guatemala’s southern highlands.

After returning to Panajachel, I spent one day decompressing at Hotel El Sol before my journey north to Flores, where I will visit Tikal and other Mayan ruins.

 

For more photos from Chichicastenango, click here.

 

Travelblog LA#13: Hike from Xela to Lake Atitlan (With Quetzaltrekkers) – Guatemala

25th – 29th June, 2023

 

This hike was not part of my original itinerary – or even something that I knew was a thing, as I don’t recall previously reading about it in places such as the Lonely Planet – but a last-minute decision inspired by a leaflet I saw in the hostel I was staying at in Antigua, advertising a three-day hike from Quetzaltenango to Lake Atitlan. When I did some reading online, I discovered that ‘Quetzaltrekkers’ – the lovely outfit running this venture – not only had glowing reviews but were also a non-profit organisation run by volunteers raising money to fund a school and a children’s home in Guatemala.

After paying my deposit online, I caught a bus to Quetzaltenango, a city also known as ‘Xela’, which is an abbreviation of the name of the original Quiché settlement. It was somewhere on my radar as a potential place to visit when I first read about Guatemala but crossed it off when making the final draft of my itinerary. Now, I had found myself here and had a day to explore before the trek began.

It is admittedly not the prettiest place in the world. The plaza is a pleasant place to go for a little stroll and is home to a cathedral with a sixteenth-century façade, but other than that, it is a city that tourists primarily use as a launching pad for day trips to nearby volcanoes, hot springs, and Quiché villages. You don’t see many foreigners here, and most of the ones you do encounter are volunteers, researchers, or NGOs working on various projects to help enrich the area. I think it is always good to visit a few places such as this if you are a long-term traveller – who wants to properly ‘know’ a country by the end of your time somewhere at least – as if you only hop between tourist hotspots and notable attractions during your time in a country, you will leave with a very warped and sanitised idea of what it is like.

That evening the other trekkers and I attended a meeting at the Quetzaltrekkers office so that we could go through the itinerary and those who needed it could borrow from their cache of communal equipment. This wasn’t something I required, but if you happen to be reading this and are a traveller that lacks gear: it is possible to borrow just about everything needed for this trek. I would still recommend you bring some of your own if you do possess it though, as some of it is – whilst fully functional – a bit old. This is not meant as a criticism of Quetzaltrekkers – as their trek is more than reasonably priced, and they offer their communal equipment to hikers for free – but I want those who can feasibly bring their gear to know that you might be more comfortable using it. My equipment is modern and compact, so I was carrying a lighter load than most other hikers.

The following morning, I woke up at 5:30 am. By strange coincidence (or perhaps just a lack of foreigners visiting in Xela), one of my fellow hikers was staying in the same dormitory as me in Kasa Kiwi Hostel, so we caught an Uber to Quetzaltrekkers together. The other hikers consisted of a French family of four, two Guatemalan boys from the school that Quetzaltrekkers help to fund, and our guides: Jackie and Mathieu.

We started by walking to one of Xela’s bus stations to catch a chicken bus to a village called Xecam, and within minutes, we were climbing up a steep trail into a cloud forest.

We were blessed with clear enough skies to get a good view of the surrounding area at one of the viewpoints during the ascent. From there, we could see Xela and many of the volcanoes surrounding it, including the infamous Santa María whose 1902 eruption devastated the area and killed thousands of people. It is still erupting to this day in the form of a lava dome complex that needs monitoring.

After that, we continued climbing up the mountain, and a dense fog descended upon us. In one way, this was fortunate, as the lack of direct sunlight made for comfortable hiking, but it also meant that once we reached the summit of the highest point of our trek – a place where on a clear day one can see even as far as Lake Atitlan – the fog was all we could see.

The sun did briefly appear again when we reached Nuevo Xetinamit – a village surrounded by very scenic farmlands.

After that, we descended into a cloud forest again, and the mist returned. We hiked to Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, where we stayed our first night.

After setting up our sleeping mats and bags on the floor of a homestay, we each got to get inside a temescal in pairs to wash. Within was a small fire burning and two vats of water – one scalding hot and the other cold – and a small bucket on the floor where one can mix the two kinds of water (using a pail) until you get the right temperature. There wasn’t much space, so I sat on a bench as my companion washed himself, and the wait was similar to being in a sauna. By the time my turn came, I was covered in sweat, and I washed and rinsed myself quickly before going outside to dry myself off.

It rained all night, but I slept well and woke up feeling refreshed. After breakfast, we were back on the road again.

This day was better than the first, not just because of the weather but also the scenery. I did enjoy the cloud forests on the first day, but I have hiked through plenty of those before, and what made this trek stand out from all the others I have done over the years is that you get to see rural life in the Quiché region of Guatemala. During the morning, the landscape was quite dramatic, and we passed through a series of rocky karsts dotted with farmlands.

Before lunchtime, we reached the village of Tzucubal which – like most of the places we visited on this trek – is not listed on Google Maps but was surprisingly big.

We stopped for a while and ate ice cream whilst our guides told us about its people and how many families in this area resort to sending members to the United States to work so that they can send money back to them.

This is a significant investment that will often take several years to save up for and comes at high risk, not just in terms of safety but also because the ‘coyotes’ – the people who smuggle immigrants across the Mexican border – do not give refunds if they fail. It goes to show just how desperate these people are if they are willing to work so hard and take such a gamble for a mere chance to better themselves. Our guides also informed us about some of the larger contexts by telling us about Guatemala’s socio-economic history and why its people are so poor. I do not have the space to go into the details here, but I will say that neo-colonialism from the United States and other first-world countries has played a huge part, and we should all educate ourselves on it. In my last blog, I made some criticisms about Guatemala’s government being weak and not doing enough to help better the circumstances of its population, and this is true, but I should also clarify now one of the reasons for this. US-based corporations such as the United Fruit Company appropriated much of Guatemala’s lands and infrastructure in the early 20th century, and establishments such as the CIA have had a history of orchestrating coups whenever someone has tried to correct this and return Guatemalan lands back to its people.

After we left Tzucubal, we passed through more hills of gorgeous farmlands before plunging into a valley where we had to make several river crossings by either removing our shoes or skipping between stones. As we did so, we began to hear thunder roiling in the distance, and clouds appeared, so we quickened our pace, climbing up a steep hill and eventually seeing something that we had not glimpsed for quite some time; a concrete road.

It was only a ten-minute walk from there to our next homestay, Casa Don Pedro, in the hamlet of Xiprian, just outside of Santa Clara. Just as we arrived, the storm reached us, so we hurried inside. We were now just a stone’s throw away from Lake Atitlan.

Pedro and his family cooked a fantastic meal for us that included tamales, and we sat around a fire afterwards. I didn’t stay up too late as we were due to rise at 3:30 am to reach Nariz Del Indio in time for sunrise.

Despite the early hour, this walk was surprisingly easy as we were already close to the top of the mountain. The only gruelling things about it were the early hour and all the dogs that came out to bark at us as we made our way down country lanes.

The spot that Quetzaltrekkers use to watch the sunrise is a different place to most people, located on some private land a little to the west of the summit.

And as the sun gradually rose, Jackie and Mathieu prepared a little breakfast picnic for us, including hot water for drinks.

Those of you who have heard about the safety issues around this part of Lake Atitlan will also be interested to hear that we had a pair of policemen present. For those who don’t know: there has been an ongoing issue during the last few years concerning gringos being mugged on this hill and the nearby San Pedro Volcano. I can’t help but suspect that the locals weren’t in too much of a rush to resolve the issue because it forced people to hire guides for safety reasons (for trails that frankly shouldn’t need them). There has also been an ongoing problem on the Nariz Del Indio because the communities on both sides were trying to charge foreigners conflicting ‘entry fees’ from each side. If I am honest, when I read about all of this stuff online, it almost put me off coming – not just because of safety reasons but also out of principle – but it seems that they are starting to make efforts to turn this into a more welcoming place for foreigners.

We stayed there for a couple of hours, as the sun gradually rose and the lake brightened and then began to make our way down to the town of San Juan down a steep trail. The police escorted us during this too.

Once we reached San Juan, we stopped at a café called Alma De Colors for a quick drink. It is run by disabled people who would otherwise have few opportunities or much social support in Guatemala. For us, it was just a flying visit, but I did see some tasty food going out to some of the other tables, it had a lovely atmosphere, and there is also a craft shop, so it is somewhere to check out if you happen to be passing through.

And then after that, we finally caught a ride to San Pedro on the back of a truck before having our final meal at a restaurant overlooking the lake.

Overall I am very pleased with my experience with Quetzaltrekkers and would encourage others to consider them. Another company does offer a similar hike and does so at a slightly lower price. I obviously can’t judge theirs having not done it myself, but I do know that they are profit-based, their reviews aren’t as good, and their itinerary takes a different route and doesn’t involve some of the things such as the temescal, which made this experience more special to me. When it comes to investing in something as long as a three-day trek, paying that bit extra to ensure that everything is a bit more rewarding is worth it for me, and with Quetzaltrekkers you also know that much of your money will be going to a good cause. Click here for more information about them.

 

Also, click here for more photos from this amazing hike.