A Tour of Guatemala

Arrived in Guatemala during a trip through Central America that also included Mexico, Belize and Cuba, made with a friend from the Sorrento Peninsula. We arrived in this country by bus from the Mexican border at La Mesilla. In the evening, an overnight stay in Chichicastenango; it was Saturday evening and preparations were under way for the famous Indian market. The next morning we wandered among the characteristic stalls of the multicoloured indigenous market. At the centre of the town is the Church where rites born of religious syncretism mixed with Catholicism are celebrated: locals kneel before small stone altars where they light candles and make sacrifices using chickens. In the churchyard the sorcerers shake tin cans from which smoke comes out. The same things can be observed in the cemetery, whose tombs are as colourful as the clothes of these people.

In the afternoon, on a decrepit Guatemalan bus loaded beyond belief, we reach the Los Encuentros junction and from there, on another vehicle, to Solola, then to the modern and touristy Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. When we arrive the volcanoes surrounding the lake are obscured by clouds; we take a very fast boat and set course for Santiago. The town is not too welcoming but is certainly more authentic than Panajachel, the people have their own costumes and venerate a strange idol named Maximon. The next morning we leave from the pier, skimming the San Pedro volcano, and reach the village of the same name, more touristy than the previous one but also more interesting. Strolling along the lake you can see women washing clothes and boys swimming. We leave San Pedro by boat and return to Panajachel, from there to Los Encuentros, then to Antigua, the ancient and historic capital of Guatemala.

The city is beautiful and noble but everywhere there are the remains of the tremendous earthquakes it suffered, quite normal given that the place is surrounded by majestic volcanoes. Between intact churches and churches gutted by the force of nature we walk along the ancient cobbled streets on which noble buildings open with splendid flowering patios, remains of a glorious colonial past when Antigua was the capital of all Central America. We leave Antigua on a collective taxi reserved for tourists that takes us as far as Guatemala City, the current insignificant capital, then from there on a luxury bus to Puerto Barrios where we sleep.

The following day we board a boat that, crossing the Caribbean Sea bordered by beautiful palms, takes us to Livingston, a town connected to the rest of the country only by sea, where the Garifuna live, the descendants of African slaves brought here by the Spanish conquistadores. Again by boat we sail the waters of the Rio Dulce that cross a splendid landscape of mangroves and straw huts. The boat drops us at the village of Rio Dulce from which we take the first bus to Flores, a town set on a small island in a lake connected to the mainland by a bridge. Flores is very touristy as shown by the very many restaurants overlooking the lake. The next day, on an excursion, we reach the Maya ruins of Tikal early in the morning, tall pyramids set in a lush tropical forest where we are greeted by howler monkeys leaping from tree to tree. Once the visit is over we return to Flores where we sleep.

The next morning another early start, this time to leave Guatemala and enter Belize (see the related Tour).