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Guatemala

11/1/2014

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While we were in El Salvador, we decided to make a quick trip to Guatemala. We’d only allowed ourselves 5 days and wanted to return back to El Salvador, so we only had time to visit two of the three places we most wanted to see in Guatemala.

Our first stop was Antigua, Guatemala’s (and arguably Central America’s) most beautiful colonial town. After 6 months in Central and South America, we were starting to get colonial town fatigue and we really didn’t need to see another statue of a spanish conquistador on a horse. Antigua needed to be impressive and, luckily for us, it was. Although beautiful old churches, cobblestone lanes, green plazas and colorful old houses were nothing new to us, the special thing about Antigua is that it offers all of these on a grand scale. The icing on the cake are the three 3700 meter-plus volcanoes that surround the city and provide a beautiful backdrop.
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Antigua’s reputation as Guatemala’s top tourist attraction, combined with its perfect year-round climate, has made it a hub for tourists, many of whom stay long term to attend one of the town’s countless spanish language schools. This international interest, combined with plenty of local and regional visitors, means that Antigua is well set up for tourists, offering a wide range of accommodations and nice international food. We’re told that the town is a hub of activity on weekends, but we opted to take advantage of cheaper accommodation and a more relaxed vibe by staying midweek.
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Our second stop in Guatemala was Lago Atitlan, a large lake surrounded by mountains, both a product of lots of volcanic activity a long time ago. There are a number of small towns on the shore of the lake. We chose to stay in Panajachel, the largest town and best known entry point to the lake. From there we took boat tours to four other small towns, our favorite being San Juan, where Cindy bought a beautiful scarf that had been hand made with locally produced cotton. Many backpackers stay in Panajachel for much longer than we did, frequenting its many bars, but we found the town pretty dirty and relatively lacking in good food options. For us, the clear highlight was getting out onto the lake on a clear sunny day, but after that, and visiting some of the smaller towns, we were ready to go.
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Lago Atitlan was as far north as we travelled through Central America in this trip. We’ll have to do the rest of Guatemala (especially the mayan site Tikal), as well as Mexico, Belize and Honduras later, which shouldn’t be too hard living in California. This wasn’t the end of out 2014 adventure, however. Far from it. Details in our next post.
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