Guatemala: Volcanoes & Cred Hoes - Part 8 - Flores

[Hutch]

Before reading through this, please let me know if the pictures don’t turn out okay. I haven’t written a PTR since Imgur f**ked over the UK users so want to make sure everything looks good. I’m trying out imgbb, which others seem to have success with.

This primarily wasn’t a coaster trip, but it was organized by a coaster friend and included a couple notable parks. That said, everything else was way more interesting and some of it was a little different from my typical travels.

My mind has been focused on European trips over the last few years (can you blame me? Europe is awesome), but I owe it to myself to pay attention to other parts of the world. Originally, I’d been wanting to do a little trip to Mexico (easier flight options and good-looking creds), but after looking more into the Guatemala trip being presented, it was too tempting to pass up with a small group.

The main itinerary, which consisted of Antigua, Lake Atitlán, and the theme parks, only covered a long weekend with the group. Given the travel effort—I needed a layover each way from Boston—4-5 days didn’t seem like enough for a new country, so I was like “f**k it,” I’ll take the rest of the week off and spend a few days extra on my own elsewhere in the country. I’ve also been craving some more solo travel, so those last few days satisfied that. Anyway...

Part 1 - Arrival and a +1

Two weeks ago, I had an early flight Wednesday morning with a layover in New York, getting into Guatemala City around mid afternoon. I could’ve flown in on Thursday, when most of the group was arriving, but at that point there would not be any time for Mundo Petapa (Guatemala City’s theme park, and only open Thursday-Sunday). While that park would’ve been first on the chopping block out of everything, I probably would’ve killed myself if I made the effort to fly down here and NOT grab some sh***y Zamperla. As such, I flew down a day early so I could take care of the park the next morning.

One other friend from the group had also arrived early, so we settled up in a private room at a very basic hostel nearby. I never had any real desire to explore Guatemala City (there’s not much to see), so this evening was essentially treated as a stopover before rendezvousing with everyone. We stayed in one of the “safer” neighborhoods (Zone 10, for what it’s worth), which was close to the airport and filled with restaurants, cafes, and shopping centers. I don’t have many photos of the City, mainly because there’s not much to see. It’s frankly not that interesting.

So what was there to do? Grab some nearby creds.

This place was about a 30 min walk from the hostel. It didn’t look very promising upon arrival.

Not to worry, someone was happy to open the cred for us. A rite of passage. Luckily my friend was fluent in Spanish. The “Q15” refers to 15 quetzales, the local currency. Equivalent of about 2 USD.

The operator didn’t have to do much. A lever opened up the station brake and he pushed us out. A light switch turned on the lift motor. Three times around what is listed as "unknown" on RCDB.

There was another wacky worm nearby at some zoo, but it seemed the zoo was already closed at that point. We would try it again tomorrow. Instead, it was back to the hostel to freshen up before a fantastic dinner at an Argentinian restaurant, located in some newish plaza with a bunch of shops and restaurants.

That’ll pretty much do it for Guatemala City. Outside of the culture shock of being in a different country, it really wasn’t all that exciting as you can tell. That said, halfway through the trip I was glad I had the experience just to get a glimpse of the local life, since the rest of our stay was in popular tourist/backpacker areas.

 

[Hutch]

Part 2 - Mundo Petapa

The next morning we took a short ride back to the airport to grab our rental vehicle, which annoyingly took about an hour to deal with. We had a van reserved for six of us, but they had limited inventory so they gave us this f**king beast instead.

Glad I wasn't the one driving!

We had a few hours before the others landed, so the two of us went up the road to Mundo Petapa for some whoring.

The entrance is a bit unsettling at first. You wind up in a parking garage that’s immediately connected to the entrance. But once inside the park, I was pretty surprised to see this plaza:

The benefit of focusing on creds when planning new park visits, especially those with less desirable coasters, allows opportunity for a pleasant surprise when you realize the park is actually really pretty.

Oh, I should mention that the two of us split a ticket for 12 rides, for 60 quetzales (about 8 USD). Each ride is worth the same single hole punch. So the 12 punches allowed both of us to get all the creds, which some punches remaining. And if you have a couple left over, you can use them at the other parks (Xetulul and Xejuyup). This park also had a general park admission of I believe Q100 ($13) and a parking fee of Q20.

But enough of that, we had creds to get!!

First up was this powered Chinese dragon thing.

The park is laid out pretty nicely. The main strip from the entrance plaza is lovely, and then most of the rides are placed in the same area.

Next up was Moto Bala, a Zamperla motorbike. This is only my second one, so I’m not quite sick of them yet. The launch is really good but the rest of it is pretty awkward.

What I am sick of are these spinning mice, or in this case Raton Loroco.

To be fair, I did like this area with the mouse and the “big” Zamperla. The plaza is behind a food hall, so it’s a pretty cool approach.

Relámpago is basically a Zamperla eurofighter, nearly down to the Rage layout.

I haven’t done one of these models and always heard terrible things about the Thunderbolt clone, but this wasn’t too bad. It actually ran better than a typical Gerstlauer, so I suppose it’s a win. That’s probably down to the (admittedly over-engineered) restraints, which don’t really allow for headbanging.

+4 complete. Time to walk around. The park is on some pretty good terrain.

Down the hill behind Relámpago was a pretty depressing zoo.

The only other ride we were interested in was the drop tower, which I now realize I lack a photo of. It’s a pretty good combo cycle of a shoot up and a final, paused drop. We mostly did it for the view of the volcanos, but it was kinda freaky because the OTSR was oddly narrow, so my legs were kinda open (…please disregard the phrasing of that sentence…).

Nothing else interested us so we hit the road for La Aurora Zoo, which was near the airport and supposedly had another Wacky Worm. After paying for the cheap parking, walking past the security guard holding a pump shotgun, and paying for the entry (think it was another $10 equivalent, probably less), we walked over to the rides area.

Hmmmm...

There it is!

Oh. Nevermind then.

Spiteful Worm wasn’t having it today, so we grabbed lunch while we were here (surprisingly decent Guatemalan food in a quiet part of the zoo) before picking up the rest of the gang at the airport.

We had a bit of a drive ahead to Panajachel, one of the major towns on Lake Atitlán before taking a launch (or “lancha,” essentially a water taxi) to San Marcos La Laguna, where we’d be staying the next couple nights. The lancha service normally closes at 7PM, so we needed to arrive in Panajachel by then (where we’d drop our van for two nights). From Guatemala City, it can be about a three hour drive. We stopped a couple times (including a late lunch stop for the new arrivals—they were eager for the local cuisine... aka Taco Bell) and ran into some annoying city traffic, so altogether it took us about 5 hours. It was a pretty exciting drive to be fair.

One of Guatemala’s forms of public transit is their Chicken Buses, which are old American school buses and customized to look like Mad Max vehicles. It looks like a pretty wild ride at the speed they go, and they have a second worker on board to handle rooftop luggage and maximize efficiency at stops. They’re absolutely ridiculous and I love them.

The geography is very mountainous, so the main “highways” are very windy. There aren’t many branching roadways, and most of the businesses in between towns are on the main road.

The descent into Panajachel is a pretty sketchy road with minimal illumination, narrow and tight turns, and busted speed bumps.

We arrived around 7, narrowly securing a spot in a parking lot. The lot owners offered our group a private lancha transfer at a pretty good price, directly to San Marcos.

After checking into our airbnb, we had a brief look through the neighborhood. The main “street” is basically a nice little pedestrian path with some restaurants and little shops spattered about.

No crazy plans tonight, so we settled up at a very disappointing brick oven pizza place. Well, the owners were friendly and the vibe was there, but the pizza was bland. On the bright side, the restaurant had taken in some stray kittens.

Lake Atitlán adventures will be in the next part.

 

[ECG]

...There was another wacky worm nearby at some zoo, but it seemed the zoo was already closed at that point. We would try it again tomorrow....

Did you get the zoo cred? The park (Esquilandia) is actually located to the right of the zoo entrance, and I was able to get the cred while the zoo was closed. Too bad the 'death trap coaster' was removed in 2014. Still one of the most memorable experiences I've had riding a coaster.

I really enjoyed Guatemala City the week I spent there, and need to get back for that Relámpago cred. The folks running the parks in Guatemala were also among the most accommodating I've ever worked with.
Bring on Xetulul! Just getting to that park is an experience in itself.

 

[Hutch]

Did you get the zoo cred? The park (Esquilandia) is actually located to the right of the zoo entrance, and I was able to get the cred while the zoo was closed.

I'm assuming you typed this before reading the second part .

I don't recall there being a separate entrance to Esquilandia. There was an access road between it and the rest of the zoo, but it didn't look like the road led down to its own entrance (it probably would've been there at some point). It was all cheap enough anyway, even with the spite. That Galaxi looked ratchet though!

The folks running the parks in Guatemala were also among the most accommodating I've ever worked with.

Yes, all the staff we encountered seemed pretty efficient and friendly, even the dude that was happy to open the other Wacky Worm for us.

Bring on Xetulul! Just getting to that park is an experience in itself.

Thank you for the foreshadowing... lol

 

[Hutch]

Part 3 - Lake Atitlán

Today was our full day to explore Lake Atitlán. Our group had splurged on a pretty nice Airbnb, and this was the view we woke up to. Very nice to see after arriving in darkness last night.

A look back at our house.

Started off at a nice cafe for breakfast before taking a lancha to San Juan. Each ride is 25Q per person, or about $3. Most of the passengers get packed underneath, but if you’re lucky you can snag a seat on the bow for a better view.

Anyway, here’s San Juan.

Like some of the other lakeside towns, San Juan is situated in a hillside. The main touristy strip is pretty steep.

We were on our way to some viewpoint of the lake. I didn’t realize until after I took this photo that we’d be climbing up here.

It’s about a 15 minute walk up and they charge everyone a cheap fee at the base. Apparently it used to be free, but they probably realized they can charge everyone since it’s kind of “the thing to do” in San Juan. I don’t really have any photos of the path up, but there were lots of little, lonely shops for tacky things and refreshments. More shacks were being built too.

This was another shop being built partway down. I should’ve taken a picture on the way up, where some worker was just standing out on one of the beams, no safety harness or anything, hammering the foundation in. It’s a pretty steep drop-off.

Some barren "resort" at the bottom of the path:

Most of the lakeside towns aren't connected by road, but San Pedro was close enough to San Juan that a cheap tuk tuk did the job. Each lakeside town had its own little vibe or gimmick. San Pedro is a popular backpacker/party town. San Juan has more of a tourist/shop focus. San Marcos, where we were staying, is pretty small but has a hippie vibe—lots of white 30-somethings, tattoos, tank tops, messy hair, etc.

Anyway, we just did a walk around San Pedro, grabbing a chill lunch by the waterfront, and eventually taking a lancha back to San Marcos.

Some hotel resort in San Jaun, obviously catered toward the white tourists:

We did a brief regroup at the Airbnb before changing into our bathing suits for a dip in the lake.

Well, I wouldn’t call it “a dip” per se:

This diving platform is about 13 meters high (~42 ft) and was ridiculously fun. I was all pumped to go, but once I left the platform, I realized that this was the highest I had ever jumped in the water and the brief moment of free fall was actually pretty freaky. Landed okay though!

The water also felt amazing. I was expecting it to be frigid due to the altitude, but thought it was really warm. And the air was hot enough that a towel wasn’t absolutely necessary. That said, I’m used to cold New England ocean temperatures in the summer, whereas our Coast Rican friend couldn’t handle it after dipping his toe in.

My second jump landed a bit more awkward. I somehow lost balance midair and my body turned at a slightly awkward angle. Felt it a bit in my left hip/glute, but all good.

Our Airbnb also had a temazcal hut—essentially a sauna—-which obviously had to be done while we were still wet from the lake. After that I tried to go get some views of the sunset, but the clouds weren't cooperating (thankfully this was made up for a few times later in the trip).

A night of drinking was desired.

Dinner was at this homey Guatemalan restaurant.

Post-game was this little club in town with a live DJ. It was small and had maybe twenty people, but had a good vibe and had the hippies dancing the entire time. Drinks were incredibly cheap as well. We were gonna go to this other cocktail bar nearby but the drinks were twice as expensive and—who’d a thunk it—the place was dead. Instead, it was a trip to a market for snacks and chicken stock sangria to bring back to the Airbnb.

In the interest of keeping all the Lake Atitlán stuff tied to this part of the write-up, I finish off with some (admittedly repetitive) photos from the lancha journey back to Panajachel the next morning.

A preview of what’s to come:

After breakfast in Panajachel, we grabbed our van and hit the road, which I’ll discuss more in the next part.

 

[ECG]

I'm assuming you typed this before reading the second part .
...
Thank you for the foreshadowing... lol

Yeah. Should have corrected that, and sorry if I stepped on your toes.
Guatemala is one of my favorite countries to visit, so I'm enjoying seeing someone else's experience and hearing their opinions.

 

[Hutch]

Part 4 - Xetulul...

As hinted earlier, today was an ADVENTURE, to say the least.

After breakfast in Panajachel, we hit the road. Xetulul (and Xejuyup, a smaller park with a Vekoma family across the street), was always going to be a pain to get to. Driving is really the only option, whether it be through a rental car, private driver, or suffering through Chicken Buses (I can’t even imagine how long those would be). We were never interested in spending a night near the park to split up the journey (supposedly the park has their own hotel), so the plan was a 3.5 hour drive from Panahachel to Xetulul, followed by another 3 hour drive to Antigua, where we’d be staying. Quite long, but not unreasonable. It helped that I was with friends I hadn’t seen in a while, so conversations helped the time go by.

I should probably give you an idea of our route. The first drive has us going counterclockwise around Lake Atitlán to reach Xetulul. There was an alternative, clockwise route that showed a longer drive time, which we absolutely should’ve done. You’ll see why in a bit.

A few photos I captured on the drive that morning…

We were on track to reach the park by 1 PM. Less than 10 miles from the park, we hit what would turn into the worst traffic I have ever experienced.

For a while, it was a series of 15-20 minute standstills, then a gain of a few hundred feet, followed by another round of standstill. The opposing traffic had slowly but consistently gone past us. None of it made any sense. Impatient drivers on our side attempted to drive in the opposing lane, which exacerbated everything.

Three hours go by.

Our nav systems were all over the place at this point, but they seemed to suggest that the traffic should’ve been clear a half a mile in front of us. But at this point we hadn’t moved in over half an hour. A couple others and I finally decided to go out on foot to figure out what was going on. If anything, it was nice to just get out of the car and move around a little.

Less than 10 minutes later, we reached this. Okay, so the main road is closed and they’re redirecting all thru traffic onto this dirt road. Besides the arrow board and barricade, there was no traffic or law enforcement to be seen.

Yeah, we’re f**ked.

By now, we had already given up on attempting Xejuyup, the smaller park with the Vekoma +1, as it had a 4PM closure. We were still holding out hope for Xetulul, but regardless, we still needed a way through in order to get back to Antigua. Otherwise, we would’ve needed to drive all the way back around the way we came, which probably would’ve been close to five hours.

At the very least, we’re lucky we didn’t get stuck on this dirt road. Some of these cars were trapped between the tractor trailer stuck in the ditch, and the other one stopped behind them on the turn. Who knows how long it took them to get out.

Getting in touch with the rest of the gang on the walk back, we decided to attempt ANOTHER alternate route. We'd been eyeing one in the midst of all this but kept it as a last resort since the accessibility seemed… questionable for our large van. If we made it through, we could still attempt the cred run.

The alternate route took us through rural villages with tight corners, dirt paths through the jungle, and locals who seemed entertained by the unusual thru traffic. Here’s some cemetery in the middle of nowhere:

We were very lucky that it was still daylight out, wasn’t raining, and plenty of other vehicles going the same way so we weren’t getting lost. Thank f**k the dump truck ahead of us didn’t stall or bottom out.

Meanwhile, I had messaged a contact at the park confirming its closure and how late the rides (i.e. Avalancha) run. The park and all the rides close at six, but the parking lot closes at five… I received this response a little after four. He did say if we didn’t make it in time to let him know…

We arrived at the parking lot entrance at 4:55. The gate was closed. Security wouldn’t let us in. Claimed the park had closed at 4:30 (definitely not the case).

We were all pretty defeated at this point.

We NEARLY gave up, but then made a hail mary phone call to the contact I had been in touch with…

10 minutes later, they let us in! Additionally, we were informed to meet up with a park official inside the entrance. He escorted us to the creds we needed, without charging us for any of the rides (it’s a similar system to Mundo Petapa—cheap entry fee and pay per ride).

After 7.5 hours on the road, we had made it to Xetulul. And we had forty minutes to play.

I made sure to capture enough photos in our rush. I had heard the park was pretty, but we were all pretty impressed. It's bigger than you'd expect and seemed to be a bit of a resort. Supposedly their water park is pretty major.

The priority was Avalancha, the park’s pride and joy and, by default, the most significant coaster in Guatemala. All this effort for a sh**ty Intamin looper.

I know what you UK goons are thinking. “Oh, another Colossus clone?” Well, not quite. This is the last remaining 8-inversion model, with the last two barrel rolls swapped for a helix. Yeah, I bet you guys are now foaming at the mouth and looking up flights.

Ok yeah, it’s not good, but I had a lot of fun riding it thanks to the excitement of actually making it to the park. We had the train to ourselves for a sunset ride, and they let us stay on for a second go. I've not done Colossus in almost twelve years, and I remember liking it because it wasn’t the death trap I was expecting. But I also only had about 50 creds then, so it was good to form a “proper” opinion this time. The loop is good, the hop afterward has no airtime, and it falls apart once you hit that cobra roll. The helix at the end is preferable to the extra two rolls though. I was at the back both times, but I probably should’ve tried the front.

Sadly I don’t have many more photos of the coaster. The other creds were in a different area, so this was our only chance to really be near Avalancha. Had to complete the mission!

Choconoy. Can’t go wrong with a Tivoli.

Last up was this spinner thing, which was actually a new model for me.

Better than a Reverchon at least.

Sadly that was about it for our time in Xetulul. Was it worth the effort? I can’t exactly answer that considering there was no way we could’ve planned for the road closure. I guess I could say no regrets. It’s a shame we didn’t have more time to explore the park (there weren’t many other unique rides, but everything was very nice), but I don’t think we would’ve had that excitement we had when we finally won and entered the park.

Yes, it was a pretty stupid and ridiculous journey, but one we were all ready to laugh at that same day. Most importantly, I’m feeling pretty good about that cred exclusivity. Honestly it may end up being the most remote park I’ll ever visit.

Shoutout to the park staff! The park contact, one of the ride engineers, really saved our asses when we couldn't get into the parking lot. The management guy that also escorted us around was also super friendly and excited to show us their park. Ride ops were all positive as well.

The day wasn’t over yet. We managed to reach our hostel in Antigua at around 10 PM, with a stop at Pollo Campero (Guatemalan fast food) on the way. We had another very early and challenging day ahead of us, but after the day we just had, some of us NEEDED a beer. The plan was “just one beer,” which we managed to hold ourselves to, but we wound up here per the recommendation of some guy from a Hindu wedding.

Didn’t stay long. Nearby was the Arco de Santa Catalina, so we checked that out real quick.

And to make the day even more interesting, and to keep the theme of sneaking a cat photo in each report, a friend snuck into our private hostel room and spent the night with us.

 

[ECG]

Part 4 - Xetulul...

As hinted earlier, today was an ADVENTURE, to say the least.

After breakfast in Panajachel, we hit the road. Xetulul (and Xejuyup, a smaller park with a Vekoma family across the street), was always going to be a pain to get to. Driving is really the only option, whether it be through a rental car, private driver, or suffering through Chicken Buses (I can’t even imagine how long those would be). We were never interested in spending a night near the park to split up the journey (supposedly the park has their own hotel),..

I feel so sorry for you all having gone through that, but at least you made it. And yes, the park has a great hotel, which I highly recommend because anyone making the trip will want to spend two days there (one for the main park and creds, the other for the beautiful water park). It will also give you time to eat in the park's affordable 4-star restaurant, if you're into fine dining.
Anyone driving to Xetulul from anywhere in the country, even directly from Guatemala City, can run into something like you experienced. It's tough to get there even without a middle-of-nowhere road closure. The four-lane highway from the City extends for quite a while, but then it drops down to single lanes in each direction for the vast majority of the drive. At times, the roadway turns into dirt to slow down traffic. Locals damage the roadway so they can sell their wares to commuters passing through.
And you were right to avoid taking any side roads. I tried that and had to avoid questionable characters who tried to stop and rob me, but gave up after I almost hit one of them with my rental car.
Anyone traveling from the Capitol to the park should either hire a reputable driver or take a helicopter (yes, the park has a heliport), which is what I'll be doing on my next visit.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Yeah, I bet you guys are now foaming at the mouth and looking up flights.

I've been foaming at the mouth for an 'almost Colossus' clone for years, shame the Chinese one died too soon.
Love the dedication here regardless.

 

[Hutch]

I feel so sorry for you all having gone through that, but at least you made it.

It is what it is honestly. We were this close to throwing in the towel and having a waste of a day, but we were very lucky to squeeze in and have an employee show us around. Obviously we were spited by Xejuyup, but Xetulul is obviously the winner. As I said, it's already been pretty fun to look back it.

This was also where the large van turned out to be useful, since we all had space to spread out as opposed to being cramped in an SUV.

And you were right to avoid taking any side roads. I tried that and had to avoid questionable characters who tried to stop and rob me, but gave up after I almost hit one of them with my rental car.

Yeah, it definitely helped that everyone else was trying to get through the jungle road, so it wasn't like we were just some tourists out by ourselves. The village we passed by seemed fine though. Good number of families just hanging out and kids playing on a soccer field.

Once the path connected back on the main road, it was clear the section that's closed off is completely unusable for the long term—asphalt completely ripped up and piles of material just completely blocking it off. Not even a motorbike could've crossed. That was all just a few miles west of the park, so if anyone were to drive, whether it be from Panajachel or Antigua, keeping Lake Atitlán to your north is a must so you don't get trapped.

Anyone traveling from the Capitol to the park should either hire a reputable driver or take a helicopter (yes, the park has a heliport), which is what I'll be doing on my next visit.

Our friend who drove—an absolute champ for doing so—is from Costa Rica so he has the experience of driving on less-than-desirable infrastructure and obviously speaks the native tongue (he ended up talking on the phone with the park engineer who got us in). There was no way I would've been comfortable driving. I can't even drive manual, but even if I did all the chaos in the more localized areas would've been a lot.

Supposedly the park has its own shuttle bus from the airport (no idea if it has stops in Antigua), which may be the best choice if a car rental isn't an option.

Love the dedication here regardless.

The things we do for the creds man.

 

[Hutch]

Part 5 - Acatenango Volcano Hike

Your fingers will probably get tired from scrolling, but trust me, this is cool.

One of the primary motives of this trip (and for many others visiting Guatemala) was the chance to do one of the most accessible active volcano hikes in the world. There’s actually two volcanoes involved here: Acatenango, the dormant one we’d be hiking and spending the night on, which provides the view of Volcan de Fuego, which generally erupts every 15 minutes.

Pretty much everyone hikes Acatenango through an agency, many of which have their own base camps at the top of Acatenango. Our hostel had its own tour group, which made it easy for us to check in first thing in the morning

The tour package includes four meals, shuttles between Antigua and the hike, hiking guides, and overnight lodging, all for around $100. They also give out hot chocolate and wine at night (not that I’m into either). In total, there were about 30 attendees, with about half—who had paid for the “nicer” cabins, including us—leaving Antigua at around 8 AM, and the pleb cabin having a later start. The shuttle ride is about an hour.

There’s a bit of faff once you arrive, including the opportunity to rent hiking poles and headlamps, but we eventually began the hike at around 9:45. We already start pretty high up.

But this is what we faced:

I was pretty shocked to see how crowded it was, not only around this plaza but on some of the early trails. As you get higher up the crowds ease off a lot, but it was still pretty jarring at first, especially in some of the narrow trails surrounded by barbed wire (these trails squeeze through some farmland). The crowds were likely thanks to the previous Saturday night tours.

As you might guess, the hike was very difficult. Our group took many needed breaks, probably every half hour or so, but it got tougher as it went on. There was a decent amount of proper rest areas, with little shacks to buy extra snacks and fluids.

This is gonna sound very privileged, but you could not pay me all the money in the world to do what these porters do. If you didn’t want to lug your backpack, you could hire a porter for like $20 a bag (possibly more depending on weight), but these guys would carry several bags on their backs up and down, most days of the week. I don’t know how they do it.

Two main aspects of the challenge are the constant uphill slopes, with endless switchbacks and lack of flat parts. And the other being the sheer altitude tiring your body quicker.

Further up, as I started slowing down more and more and "separated" myself from the group, I learned to take more frequent, but shorter (e.g. 30-60 seconds) breaks, which helped a lot.

Mercifully, the last 30 minutes of the hike was more level.

One misstep could still spell certain doom for you though.

After 5.5 hours of hiking (including breaks) we had made it to the reason we visited Guatemala.

We dropped our stuff in our cabin and pretty much chilled out for a couple hours. Just hanging out, exhausted from the hike, and having this view was the reward we earned.

Even the toilet (hole in the ground) had a great view…

I hope you guys like volcanoes, because this is just the start…

There was an optional evening hike (for an extra charge) that gets you properly on Fuego, as close as about 200 meters from the lava. As tempting as it was to hurl myself into the caldera and relieve myself from the hiking pain, I chose to stay at base camp and enjoy the view.

I stayed put because I had heard the Fuego hike can be pretty horrible. You’re led down the valley and up Feugo’s ridge, but then you have to haul your ass all the way back up in the darkness. The difficulty comes from only having about an hour between the main hike and the Fuego hike, and it’s another 4.5 hours round trip. After all the effort of getting up here, I’d much rather sit back and maximize my time with this view. Everyone that did it loved it though—good on them—but again… f**k that.

See? I’m satisfied where I am.

We had lucked out big time with the weather. I’ve seen videos of overcast clouds absolutely RUINING some people’s experience. It was dry season this time of year, so we had better odds, but I don’t think it’s always a guarantee. Imagine hiking all this effort and you can’t see s**t the entire time you’re there.

I should mention the sun in Guatemala was very strong throughout the trip, I assume because of the higher altitude. As a couple examples, Lake Atitlán is about a mile above sea level. The top of Acatenango is around 12,000 ft. On a clear day it feels hotter than it actually is due to the sun just vaporizing you. Pretty much right before sunset I remained in shorts and a short sleeve shirt.

Speaking of the sunset…

The mountaintop was a desert though. Within 30 minutes, I went from shorts/shortsleeve shirt to four upper body layers, sweatpants, hat, gloves, and scarf. It was very windy too. I might as well have experienced all four seasons that one day.

Once the sun went down, Fuego began putting on more of a show.

I did receive a few photos from someone who DID do the Fuego hike. This gives you an idea of what their view was like, and how close they could get.

The trail of white lights are the hikers with their headlights coming down Fuego. There were multiple groups from different agencies, so there were dozens of them up there.

I had heard that the volcano typically erupts every 15-20 minutes, but today it was popping off every 5 minutes. “Smaller” eruptions were more frequent, and you’d still get a good sized one every 15 minutes or so. But once in a while there’d be a huge, apocalyptic one like this that would leave everyone stunned.

It’s a good thing I didn’t do that bonus Fuego hike, because there was one eruption that honestly looked like it had come close to the hikers...

I had to go to bed a little earlier than I would’ve liked (around 9) as I had gained a pretty bad headache due to dehydration. I had more water available, but there was nowhere to replenish at the base camp, so I was kind of rationing some for the next day. In hindsight, I should’ve just drank the rest of it that day, since hiking down was easier and I had opportunities to purchase more fluids on the way down. A few others on the hike had this issue as well.

I slept about as best as you could in a shack filled with seven other people at the top of a volcano. There were some overnight eruptions that woke everyone up—between the noise (sounds like loud thunder or a bomb) and vibrations of the earth.

There was another optional hike to the top of Acatenango starting at 3 AM for a panoramic sunrise view that I was interested in, but the guides didn’t do a great job selling it the evening before. It was supposed to be a fast-paced hike, incredibly windy, and absolutely frigid. The headache also did me in, so I decided not to bother. Instead, I got up at five, pulled up a chair outside the cabin, and sat down for an hour in silence on my own.

It was still very cold at this point, but I brought out the thermal blanket from my bunk and wrapped myself in a cozy cocoon—it honestly saved me. I was told by a couple guides after the fact that I wasn’t supposed to bring the blanket outdoors because of all the dirt (nonsense, these blankets probably hadn’t been washed in months), but I would’ve done it again. It helped that I was out on my own for a good while.

My phone’s camera (iPhone 17 Pro) was doing a lot of heavy lifting with the lighting, but this photo is a better idea of how dark it actually was:

Most folks were up by around 6:30. There was a light breakfast followed by a quicker-than-expected departure down the trail. Some others might disagree, but I found hiking down much better than hiking up. It’s not easy—the loose soil is challenging to find a grip, causing lots of sliding and some falls—but I’m not putting in as much work going up. With breaks, we got down in about two hours.

There was a bit more faff down at the starting plaza, waiting around for stragglers in our group and allowing time for people to purchase food, but eventually we got our shuttle back to Antigua.

Obviously that was a long write-up, but it was my motive behind the trip and possibly the coolest thing I’ll ever do. The opportunity to witness a volcanic eruption is obviously amazing, but then consider the performances that Fuego can show, the rate at which it was doing it, and the amazing weather we had, it was truly an unforgettable experience.

It obviously had to be earned. I was very concerned going into the hike from a physical standpoint, and while it obviously sucked, I’m proud I was able to climb it, especially given that this was only my 4th or 5th legit hike I’ve done in my life. Can’t think of a better reward for going through all that.

This sentiment goes hand-in-hand with the rest of Guatemala, but I can see this hike being way too popular in five years’ time. It’s already very popular among backpackers now and I was surprised to see how crowded it was towards the bottom, but if this is something that interests anyone, do it sooner rather than later. I should also mention there was a fair bit of trash along some sections of the trail, with the last rest area before the summit being somewhat of a dump.

But yeah, unreal experience. During the whole two days there I was like, “Yep, I’m satisfied. Don’t need to do this hike again.” But not long after that I could honestly see myself doing this again in the future.

 

[ECG]

Very impressive! A few too many similar photos, but I can understand why you posted them all—since it's likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Especially with that weather.

 

[Hutch]

Very impressive! A few too many similar photos, but I can understand why you posted them all—since it's likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Especially with that weather.

Ha, I need to do another run through of my Tikal photos before I share them here... I have wayyy too many of the same view and they aren't quite as exciting as this.

Even during these excursions, I tried to remind myself to cool it with the camera and just enjoy my precious time. Probably why I don't have "as many" nighttime Fuego ones.

 

[Hyde]

Amazing photos @Hutch! Just phenomenal views of the volcano activity!

 

[Hutch]

Part 6 - Antigua

I had a couple more nights in Antigua after the hike, so I’ll put it all in this part to keep it all together. The two remaining friends who had hiked with me had flights out that evening, so I spent a couple hours with them in Antigua before their Uber back to the airport. We got lunch somewhere and briefly walked around.

I was pretty dead at this point, coming off sleeping on top of a rumbling volcano and my body depleted from hiking two days. I finally got my shower back at the hostel and just chilled out in bed for a bit. In the evening I grabbed a beer at the rooftop bar before running into a couple friends I made on the hike. We went out to some pizza restaurant to meet up with some more hikers. Honestly could not have asked for a better evening chilling with new people after a grueling couple of days.

It was a relatively early night this time, but look who showed up in the hostel again!

The next day was my proper sightseeing day in Antigua. I started the morning off at a cool French cafe terrace.

After that I began my wander around. Antigua itself is pretty small, with everything being reachable on foot.

The Santa Catalina Arch was on my way to my destination, so I have a few more photos of that. Being one of the touristy highlights of the city, it draws a lot of locals trying to sell you useless s**t and tuk tuk drivers harassing you for a ride.

I was on my way to El Cerro de La Cruz, a hillside plaza overlooking the city. If you’re a lazy tourist, you can probably get scammed by a tuk tuk driver for a ride, but it’s really not far at all on foot.

Pro tip—if you want to see the lookout, don’t do it the day after climbing down a volcano for a few thousand feet, otherwise your legs will hate you for all these steps.

I meant to arrive here much earlier as I heard it can get kinda crowded, but I slept in a little and the breakfast at the cafe took longer than I would’ve liked. That said, it wasn’t bad at all. This was a Tuesday for what it's worth.

Antigua is nestled into this nice valley, with Volcán de Agua dominating the background. It was being a spiteful bitch with the clouds though.

Since it was a bit of an effort to get my sore ass up here, I chilled out for the better part of an hour.

I saw on Apple Maps that there was another plaza nearby, a little bit further up the hill. Despite my body hating me right now, I figured since I made the effort I might as well go a little further to check it out.

I probably should’ve listened to my body, as there wasn’t much up here. At least it was quiet.

I stumbled back down into the streets, in search of an ATM and some food. Near the base of the hill were these earthquake-ridden ruins.

A bit of a history lesson: back in the Spanish colonial days, Antigua was the country’s capital. A 1773 earthquake devastated the city and caused them to move the capital to today’s Guatemala City. Supposedly the population never fully recovered, but obviously tourism has risen since then.

Still can’t believe I climbed that (Acatenango on the right):

I steered clear of restaurants immediately next to the main square, but this little spot caught my eye and was only a block away.

The place was run by a woman and her old mother in the kitchen. There was no menu. All I got from them was “Right now we have beef.” So I sat down and they gave me this:

All for less than $6, including a refill and whatever fruity drink they gave me. Excellent.

I sort of wandered a little more after that. There were a couple old churches with terraces that I could’ve paid to go into, but honestly I could not pretend to care at this point. Maybe if it was the first day of the trip where I’d have a better sense of purpose.

I chilled out at the hostel for a bit and grabbed dinner with one of the hiker friends. Tuesday nights were beer pong night at the hostel, so OBVIOUSLY I was playing. The tournament winners won a cheap bottle of tequila, and I got roped into taking shots with a bunch of Brits. This was after a few cheap cocktails, so I was feeling GREAT at this point. Then we wound up at some salsa club with live music. That will do!

Miraculously, I was not hungover the next morning. I had no plans until my 3 PM shuttle back to Guatemala City’s airport, so I slept in a little and chilled out in the central park for a bit. I hadn’t really had the chance to see much of it outside of passing through multiple times. It’s pretty nice, but good luck fending off the street vendors.

Per the recommendation of some of the hikers, I got a massage at some spa nearby. This was my first time doing one of these, and it was amazing. Pretty cheap too for just over an hour.

Near the spa, which was among the outer edge of the city, was the local, non-touristy market. It was great! I was the only white person in there, and never really got harassed to buy anything. Probably because the shops—which were mostly produce, meats, and clothing—had genuine business among the locals, rather than the usual souvenirs that tourists will browse and never buy. Anyway, I got lost in there for a bit and grabbed some cheap tacos.

I still had a bit of time to kill, but I was pretty satisfied and just chilled at the hostel for a bit before my shuttle.

I had a great time in Antigua, but mostly because of the people I was with rather than the city itself. The city is very nice to explore—the Spanish colonial architecture and hidden terraces are great and there’s a solid atmosphere. But there’s not a TON of things to see, outside of like, go see the Arch, go see the viewpoint. It’s not like I was running out of things to do, but the highlights were definitely the restaurants and bars we went out to.

Antigua pairs very nicely with the volcano hike, especially as so many agencies are based out of there. Come for the volcano, and have a night or two to hang out in the city is a pretty good deal. I think I spent the right amount of time here, though I probably would’ve swapped the nights around. Start out with a couple nights in Antigua, do the hike afterward, then either have one more night in Antigua to recover or move onto the next destination. A lot of people also like to spend a day in Antigua to “get acquainted” with the altitude before the hike, as the city is still pretty high up.

I think if I had an extra day I would’ve started to get a little bored, or at least itching to go somewhere else. Luckily, that was my plan!

 

[Hutch]

Part 7 - Tikal Mayan Ruins

Here's another long one.

I had a stupidly short evening flight from Guatemala City to Flores, taking about 40 minutes. There was the option to take a shuttle bus from Antigua, but it would’ve been a ten hour journey and involved a transfer at the airport anyway, so at that point it’s a no brainer to take a quick $50 flight.

There was a slight delay, so I got in a little later than I would have liked (landing around 8:30), but it’s not like I had any plans that evening. The airport by Flores is incredibly small and very close to town. I figured I could just hail a taxi or tuk tuk right then and there, but there didn’t seem to be many options (there were loads of private drivers though). Before long some guy came up to me and offered me a seat on a shuttle to Flores for 25Q, leaving in three minutes—perfect, that’ll do.

I just checked into my hostel and had a quick shower and off to bed. The next morning I had a sunrise tour to Tikal, an ancient Mayan city. I had to wake at 2:30 AM, which I think is the earliest I’ve ever gotten up, for a 3 AM shuttle. At first I was kind of regretting having the sunrise tour on my first day in Flores, partly for getting in later than I would’ve liked (didn’t get to bed until 10), and also hearing about the potential for morning fog. It worked for the best though as I made friends with another group of backpackers that I hung with for the next couple days.

Anyway, that early start sucked. You might be wondering that a 3 AM shuttle is way too early for a sunrise tour, but the journey was way more involved than expected. We had an hour drive to the park entrance, followed by another 20 minutes to be dropped off at the main pedestrian entrance. A bit of security faff, and then a hike through the darkness to one of the old city’s plazas.

Part of the draw for the sunrise is to also hear the jungle wake up. Pretty soon we started hearing howler monkeys in every direction—quite haunting if you ask me!

Some stuff we passed on the way:

Soon it was time to climb Temple IV, one of the tallest Mayan structures in the world. Wooden staircases get you up top, with a balcony connected to the structure, but you can sit up on the (restored) stone steps.

As you might guess, this was why it was called the “Sunrise Tour.”

We got up top at quarter to six, and we had an hour to sit up there in silence until the actual sunrise. The silence (barring the occasional bird chirps and howler monkeys) was very peaceful. It was cloudy, but there were breaks in the sky, and thankfully no fog. So the weather worked out very nicely. These photos are pretty repetitive, but they’re a fraction of what I actually took, so I did my best to show the highlights over time. Also, for any Star Wars fans, this might look familiar.

Once the sun was up, our group met back down and we continued through the rest of the park.

A couple notes about the tour. I think the whole thing cost about $60 across three tickets. There’s the general admission into Tikal, but the sunrise (and sunset) tour requires its own special ticket since it’s technically outside public hours. Additionally, the sunrise/sunset tours require you to accompany a tour guide (makes sense given the darkness).

I should mention our tour guide did give us the option to wander the park freely on our own (at least after the sunrise) and meet back at the departure time. I stuck with the group to learn a little more about the city’s history, which consisted of a LOT of speculation, the guide admitted. I don’t recall much from the tour, though a lot of the temples face the sun and moon, offering hints of the history.

The tour went on for another three hours, which seems long (especially after having been up for a few hours already), but it went by pretty well. There was a lot to cover, and I don’t think we even covered all the structures. Also, supposedly only 10% of what’s been uncovered is open to the public. And there’s possibly even more that hasn’t even been discovered, still buried beneath the jungle.

Some other pyramid we climbed. If one were to do the sunset tour, they’d park you up here.

This was the temple we sat up on top for the sunrise:

I had a very hard time maintaining my sense of direction throughout the park. There were maps here and there, but I could barely identify where we were. Everything is pretty spread out, and the pathways would go in all different directions.

I forget what this plaza is called, but it’s one of the most recognizable sites in the country.

The tour was pretty much complete after that, so it was a walk back to the main entrance area. There was a bit of time to hang around for a breakfast option, though a bunch of us were kind of over it at that point and were ready to get going. Not that we disliked the place, but it had been an exhausting morning. A seven-hour deal so far.

I wasn’t too excited the day leading up to it, but Tikal was very nice to see. Once again, we lucked out with the weather. I was told by a few other travelers that the sunrise tour can be hit or miss given the morning clouds, so I was a little worried going into it, but it was perfect. Another guide showed us a photo of the previous morning’s view, and it was completely foggy.

Our shuttle got us back to Flores around midday. I’ll share all the Flores stuff in the final part. I was hoping to have it wrapped up by now, but I’m about to head off on another trip, so you’ll have to wait a couple weeks or so.

 

[Rob Coasters]

I really wish I could admire this report as much as I could, but the sheer quantity of photos is causing things to tank a little on my end and everything loads incredibly slowly as a result, if at all. From what I've seen your visit looked absolutely stunning and mind-blowingly beautiful, but it seems that for the later parts I have to use my imagination. Wish I could see everything!
FTR - this issue isn't popping up anywhere else for me

EDIT - viewing this thread on my mobile device instead of my PC, the photos load a lot faster, but still "eventually", especially towards the tail end of it all, but I'm now finally able to see the jaw-dropping beauty of where you've been.

 

[Hutch]

I really wish I could admire this report as much as I could, but the sheer quantity of photos is causing things to tank a little on my end and everything loads incredibly slowly as a result, if at all. From what I've seen your visit looked absolutely stunning and mind-blowingly beautiful, but it seems that for the later parts I have to use my imagination. Wish I could see everything!
FTR - this issue isn't popping up anywhere else for me

EDIT - viewing this thread on my mobile device instead of my PC, the photos load a lot faster, but still "eventually", especially towards the tail end of it all, but I'm now finally able to see the jaw-dropping beauty of where you've been.

There was a lot to capture on this trip and I enjoy sharing it with others. Perhaps I could've trimmed down more on some (and I have for a couple sections), but it's easier for me to just dump them in and call it a day (the more I write these reports over the years the more I want to streamline them). This is also my first time using imgbb, using the "large photo" format, so it's possible that might have something to do with the loading of the images.

I think a common inconvenience that a lot of multi-day PTRs run into (mine and others) are the multi-day posts lengthening the depth of the page and need for scrolling. I think the forums can handle 20 posts before the need for a "Page 2"? Take a PTR covering 5+ days, one post per day etc, even if they're each not excessively long, that adds up for some minor navigation annoyance when loading up the page.

 

[ECG]

I really wish I could admire this report as much as I could, but the sheer quantity of photos is causing things to tank a little on my end and everything loads incredibly slowly as a result, if at all. From what I've seen your visit looked absolutely stunning and mind-blowingly beautiful, but it seems that for the later parts I have to use my imagination. Wish I could see everything!
FTR - this issue isn't popping up anywhere else for me...

There was a lot to capture on this trip and I enjoy sharing it with others. Perhaps I could've trimmed down more on some (and I have for a couple sections), but it's easier for me to just dump them in and call it a day (the more I write these reports over the years the more I want to streamline them). This is also my first time using imgbb, using the "large photo" format, so it's possible that might have something to do with the loading of the images.

I think a common inconvenience that a lot of multi-day PTRs run into (mine and others) are the multi-day posts lengthening the depth of the page and need for scrolling. I think the forums can handle 20 posts before the need for a "Page 2"? Take a PTR covering 5+ days, one post per day etc, even if they're each not excessively long, that adds up for some minor navigation annoyance when loading up the page.

The issue is not only the sheer number, but also the size (4284x5712) of the photos, which is huge. If the photos were 1920x2560, for example, loading and scrolling wouldn't be a problem.
So I open this page in a separate tab and look through other threads while waiting for it to load, but I imagine plenty of people try to load this page and give up without seeing much.

 

[Hutch]

Alright why don’t I try the medium sized images for this one (I’ll try them again in future threads since there’s already a lot previously posted here already).

Part 8 - Flores

After getting dropped back off in Flores, myself and the friends I made on the tour went to an excellent cafe for lunch. We dispersed after that, with plans to meet up again for dinner and drinks. In the meantime, I took the time to explore town. Flores lies on Lake Petén Itzá, with the old town, where I stayed, lying on a little island connected by a causeway. It draws lots of backpackers, serving as a base to visit Tikal.









They say you can walk around the island’s perimeter in 20 minutes. As usual, I kinda just wandered.











































The island has a perimeter road/walkway, but it’s mostly flooded. I’d seen photos of this from the past but suspected it was more of a seasonal thing with the wet season, but it hasn’t recovered. Apparently, there isn’t any sort of retention basin adjacent to the lake, so all the excess rainwater just builds up over time. I had heard the water level was a meter or two lower about a decade ago.



















I got some much needed rest back at the hostel—I had been up for over 12 hours at this point—before meeting the others at a rooftop bar for a drink. We grabbed some street food up on the hillside, before returning to the hostel for another drink (or five). The hostel has its own little club, which was actually really fun as we were all into it.

The next day was another leisurely morning. The main activity of the day (well, afternoon really) was taking a launch over to Jorge’s Rope Swing, a little hangout area in a cove with—you guessed it—a rope swing. We made a deal with the launch driver to pick us up in a few hours.







The swing itself was way more fun than expected. There’s a slightly sketchy spot you can climb up to, giving you a much bigger swing and dive into the lake. I must’ve done it about 15 times, and it actually left my body pretty sore the next couple days.















It was a perfect final day of the trip. Very chill and a ton of fun. We got back to Flores around sunset, and eventually went out once more for a nice dinner. It was a Friday, but we were all exhausted from swinging and swimming all afternoon, so it was a relatively early night for me. It had worked out that the previous night was our drinking night, as I had an early flight out the next morning.





The next day involved a 17 hour journey back home. I had an early flight from Flores to Guatemala City, an unfortunately long layover before a flight to Fort Lauderdale, and a connecting flight back to Boston. It was Saturday by this point, so at least I had the next day to rot before getting back to work.

Here’s one last view of Mt. Fuego, as seen from the window seat I paid for on my morning flight.



I sound like a broken record, and recency bias might be a thing, but I think this is my favorite trip I’ve done so far. Part of it was that it was a slightly different trip from what I’m used to—there was more of an emphasis on nature rather than the typical city sightseeing, and it was a perfect mix of a friend group trip with some solo traveling. It was obviously light on coasters (and good coasters at that), but at least the parks we visited were very nice.