Jungle is Massive ! (Guatemala)

Member Name: emmdee

Product:	Guatemala
Date:	04/10/01 (493 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Diverse, Friendly

Disadvantages: Bumpy roads

Guatemala is an excellent destination for anyone who enjoys adventure. I have recently returned from a 3 month travelling expedition with my girlfriend through Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Guatemala.

Guatemala is a beautiful country, covered in dense jungle, with mountains, lakes, volcanos and ancient ruins,

From Belize city we caught a bus to the border of Guatemala, where another bus took us to lake Piten Itza. Busses are frequent and very cheap, although slightly uncomforatble. We had decided to stay in a small area by the lake called El Cruce, which meant getting of the bus before it arrives at its main destination, Flores. We stayed in one of the many guest houses - Casa Del Don Douglas. Douglas is a great host, the rooms are very basic, but Douglas is happy to cook, serve beer, arrange trips, give you lifts around the area etc. We stayed here as a base to visit the Mayan Ruins at Tikal. Douglas arranged a bus to come and pick us up in the morning and take us to the ruins. Its worth getting to the ruins as early as possible because there are much less people around and you get to hear the Howler Monkeys. Tikal is by far the most impressive set of ruins I have ever seen - and I've seen alot ! Mayan pyramids and temples cover an area of about 50 square miles, the views above the Jungle canopy are breath taking.

After a couple of days at El Cruce, we headed on to Poptun. We had heard from another couple, about a place call Finca Ixabel. We took another bus from Flores to Poptun, and then a short taxi ride from Poptun to Finca Ixabel. Finca Ixabel is a type of resort. Accomodation comes in the form of either tree houses, bungalows or dormitories, all pretty cheap. The accomodation is set in a pine wood, with a small lake (excellent for swimming and sunbathing!). There is a main communal area where you can order drinks and food, there is one main meal a day which has one sitting for everyone. The food was really good, and you can ea
t as much as you like. This is a great place to stay just to relax, but the owners of the business also run tours and activities such as horse riding, white water rafting, caving etc. After about a weeks stay here we moved on down to Rio Dulce

Rio Dulce is a beautiful place, again surrounded by jungle and set on a huge lake. We stayed in a hostel called backpackers which is situated right on the lake (the rooms are actually on stilts over the water), reasonable rates, with a restaurant and bar.

From here we took a water ferry upto Livingston. The ferry is a small boat, carrying about 10 - 12 people. The jouney along the lake and up the river is fantastic, there are hundreds of birds, turtles in the water, amazing views.

Livingston was not such a nice place to stay, so we only stayed one night and headed of to Honduras for a couple of weeks (Honduras review coming soon!)

After a couple of weeks in Honduras we headed back into Guatemala via Copan. From copan we took a minibus to Anigua Guatemala. The minibusses are easy to organise, and cost about 20US$, they are a much easier way of travelling around southern Guatemala, the busses here are not so easy to figure out, due to the quantity and randomness of their timetables!

Antigua Guatemala is at quite a high altitude, so it's quite cool - which is a refreshing change from the humidity of the jungle. The town itself is great, small cobbled streets, with markets, restaurants, churches, cathedrals etc. The town is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. From here we decided we would take a day trip up a nearby active volcano. Trips are organised by the many travel agents around the town, at a reasonable price, and its well worth the effort.

Our next destination was Guatemala City, where we were flying home from. The city is very busy and polluted, but its worth having a walk around during the day. I don't recommend going out at night, I got the feeling th
at I was a major target, and received a bit of racial verbal abuse from some of the locals, no major problem, but it was better to be indoors after dark.

That was the end of our Guatemala journey. I'll get around to writing about Mexico, Honduras and Belize at some point.

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