Flores and Tikal- Guatemala

We left Semuc Champey by shuttle quite early in the morning, the bus ride to Flores was predicted to be 6 hours (took 8, so not too bad). Flores was to be our last stop in Guatemala...I think we were all ready to stay put for a while so we were all a little excited Belize was almost here.

Flores is a town in Northern Guatemala, on an island on Lake Petén Itzá, linked by a causeway to the town of Santa Elena. Many people stay in Flores as a landing point to get to the nearby Mayan ruins Tikal.

The welcome sign as you come over the causeway

Flores from the water

Flores itself is a great little town, very pretty with lots to do. We stayed at a Hostel called Los Amigos. We have been so lucky with hostels lately, this one was arguably the prettiest. Low couches, and hammocks all over with trees and flowers in every nook and cranny...making little private areas for people to sit and have drinks. At only $55 a night, this was a steal!

Liv and I catching up on our blogs

a hammock area

The dining area

We planned on doing Tikal the next day so we thought we would enjoy Flores...We walked around town had some lunch overlooking the lake and then went to Jeorge's Jungle Swing,  a famous swing, across the island on the main land...$5 to take a long boat and $1.50 to use the swing, totally worth it. 

The centre of town

Lunch overlooking the water

Flores

Taking the long boat across the lake

Something I have not mentioned is I woke up a couple of days ago feeling like crap (man, I really don't have time for this!) felt like a sinus infection.Getting meds in Central America has been fairly easy. Even in some seemingly remote places, meds were available...(have I mentioned Anneka had lice in Ometepe, UGH! Not sure how she got it...Thank goodness I brought my industrial lice comb, after the shampoo we were easily able to buy, and a LOT of combing we finally got rid of them, YUK). Anyway, went to the pharmacy for sinus meds and was able to communicate my needs...they sell you pills by the singles, kind of funny, but was able to feel somewhat better so I could enjoy the day. Went to Jeorge' s Jungle Swing and had a great time swimming and jumping into a beautiful fresh lake. To be honest it felt a little like home...

Sun off the water made the pics look magical

Liv taking off

 

Jumping platform

Anneka

Tikal

Older (900 BC) and more impressive then then Chitzen Itza (I have heard I will let you know next month when we visit Mexico), Tikal National Park is a UNESCO Heritage site, a Mayan ruin definitely not to be missed. We opted not to do the sunset or sunrise tour as the park charges you $15 more a person and we are trying to save where we can. I was excited to go, and was hoping the kids would be a pumped as I was...to be honest, they were quite bored....the temples are largely spread out, the day was really hot, thank goodness our walk was through jungle on nice paths or we would have been dying by the heat... Once we would reach a temple the kids were quite impressed (how could you not be!), climbing up the steep stairs, overlooking spectacular jungle...what a site. 

Notice how little Liv and Anneka are! Hardly any tourists anywhere

When we got to The Great Plaza (one of Tikal’s highlights) Liv said, "we should have just hiked here...this place is awesome and has basically everything we have been looking at for the last 4 hours".  |I see her point...All of the temples to me were so impressive, but maybe to a 6 and 10 year old they all looked the same. In The Great Plaza, you’ll find Temple I, (which you’ve undoubtedly already seen in tourism brochures). It’s a massive and awe-inspiring structure that rises to a height of 144 feet. Temple I is on one side and across the plaza is Temple II, which you can  climb to get views of the surrounding area.

The Grand Plaza

walking through The Grand Plaza, this was the palace

Temple 2, The Mask

Looking at Temple 1, the Grand Jaguar

The Mask, that's Johnny in the right corner

Overall we have LOVED Guatemala...I will say I still think I liked Nicaragua slightly better, but that's just me, many will disagree. After Antigua, every place we went had its own charm and uniqueness, even though you were in the same country, you really felt like you were exploring an entirely new area.We got around entirely by tuk tuks, private cars and shuttles. In the end that was a huge part of our budget (when we leave Belize and are in Mexico for a month I will have a whole post dedicated entirely to our Central American budget). Johnny wishes we had a car for Guatemala as he feels we would have saved a ton. Food was delish, and quite cheap in most places. Lodgings were slightly higher in Guatemala then in Nicaragua but we still managed to stay in MOST places for $50-60/night...(CAD) Some of our favourite hostels were here in Guatemala. 

I have forgotten that I meant to add a highlight reel for every country...I am a little behind so I will try to quickly summarizes

My Guatemala Highlights include:

Montericco and the baby turtles...so cute!

Semuc Champey for sure!

Climbing Masaya and roasting marshmellows

Lake Atitlan 

My Nicaragua Highlights include:

Granada

Islets of Granada

Apoyo Lagoon (one of my faves)

Ometepe (all of our faves)

Note: we did not make it to Leon or Corn island. but heard both are spectacular and worth the trip...for sure next time!)

Lanquin and Semuc Champey- Guatemala

As you may remember, from time to time our plans change, based on recommendations of fellow travelers. We had no intention of travelling to the remote Semuc Champey, but have been told over and over that it is an absolute must if we are in Guatemala. We knew the ride wouldn't be pretty but we decided to brave it anyway and away we went.

Try 13 1/2 hours!

With our tablets charged we were ready....after 3 hours stuck in traffic we knew this would be a long ride...my friend Candy asked me what it was really like to travel with the kids...honestly, I would love  to tell you we played licence plate games and other various car ride activities , did some homework, and just talked..but really we watched downloaded Netflix almost the entire way. We were all crammed into a shuttle like sardines, two by two, I sat with Johnny and the girls sat together, if we did not have tablets I have no idea how the ride would have went...but as it was,except for leg cramps here and there, and Anneka occasionally feeling sick, the ride was fine...(and Johnny and I crushed a whole series). We arrived in Lanquin (a small town about 1/2 hour away from Semuc Champey). 13 1/2 hours after we left Atitlan. We had booked a very cheap,( kind of gross and cool all at the same time) hostel for two nights so we could enjoy Lanquin the next day, (we heard there is a cool bat cave and that you can go river tubing).

beautiful views from our gross/cool hostel El Muro

Market day in Lanquin, very authentic, we were the only tourists there

The tiny town of Lanquin

The next morning we woke up walked the small little town, checked out the market, got some fried chicken (Central Americans LOVE their fried chicken!) and booked a tube ride through our hostel, after a little debate about pricing we were off. Tubing was fun, would have been much nicer if the sun was out, as it was overcast the kids were a little cold but we made the best of it...

At about 4 we took a tuk tuk to that bat cave. As we were walking we met a local who offered to take us through the cave (for a small fee of course) we took him up on his offer and went inside...this cave was so impressive, huge cavernous areas 50 ft high in some places. The most amazing site was at around 5:30 we walked to the entrance and just sat still...thousands of bats were leaving the cave at dusk. we just sat there mesmerized as they swooped passed our heads, it was pretty crazy to see. 

the entrance of the bat cave- me with our guide

This is actually inside, pretty crazy how big the cave was

That was it for Lanquin, not a heck of a lot to see see or do, but a gateway to Semuc Champey, if I had to do it again, we probably would not have stopped in Lanquin I would have just kept going...as Semuc is absolutely incredible. We stayed at an awesome hostel, (up there in the top 5 nicest places we have stayed). The tour was at 9:30 in the morning, so we really had no time to explore, Greengo's hostel sent a big 4x4 truck (looks like it was from the set of Jurassic park) to pick us up from El Muro. We then traveled 40 minutes up a windy bumpy dirt road to Greengo's where we literally dumped our stuff, and joined the tour. 

Our ride to Greengo's Hostel

Our beautiful hostel for the next couple of days...We stayed in the light blue building at the back overlooking the river

The dining area where we enjoyed the BEST MEALS so far on this whole trip...seriously amazing food.

Our full day tour included a visit toi the Ka'Ba Caves, river tubing, a hike up to the overlook El Matador, lunch, a short hike to a spectacular water fall and Semuc Champey 

Now by this time we were old pros in caving...girls and I were fully confident this would be an amazing experience. We managed to get a life jacket for Liv and Anneka, (not mandatory, we insisted- crazy!), were handed a candle each, and proceeded to follow our group into this very dark, very wet looking cave...the further in we went the deeper the water was, before you knew it, we were waste deep with nothing to see but the person in front of you and the occasional stalactites sticking out.  They had ropes above you in the deeper sections, and our guide was great with the girls helping them through he more difficult parts. We had to climb up a latter through a water fall, slide through a hole to a pool of water and we all were given the opportunity to climb up 4 m high rope ladder to jump of a rocky ledge into pools. (Anneka and I passed, but Johnny and Liv braved the jump). All this was done by candle lite. Unfortunately I do not have any great photos but have a look google , search caves in Semuc Champey and you can check out all the images to have a better idea. 

For anyone who has read my Facebook, you will know how incredibly proud I was of the girls. They both dug deep, faced fears and came out as warriors

Our guide paited our faces with the soot from the caves, in Mayan Fashion

After the caves we went for another tube ride (different river then the day before), walked to a beautiful water fall then stopped for the most amazing lunch. 

Semuc Champey means "Where the river hides under the stones" is a natural monument in Guatemala, it consists of a natural 300 m limestone bridge, under which passes the Cahabón River. Atop the bridge is a series of stepped, turquoise pools, perfect temperature to swim in, jumping from pool to pool. the waterfall was at the bottom of the pools. 

from the lookout...it was a looooooong way up! 

with Mia a little girl we met that spent the day with us

As usual, pictures do not do this place justice, it really is a natural wonder, just so lovely. We went back the next day to just to swim and take it all in. In the afternoon we headed back to Greengo's where we met some awesome travelers and hung out all evening playing beach volleyball and eating the MOST amazing food. This place was pure bliss, we could have easily stayed another couple of days. 

one of the pools

The water really was turquoise, looked different from every angle

Greengos

Lake Atitlan- Pana and San Pedro

After we left Monterrico we headed to Lake Atitlan, we had to go through Antigua again (this was just the quickest route). We knew we would be getting to the lake rather late so we decided to stay in the main town of Pana for one night, (the boat across to San Padro stops running at 7pm). We had heard Pana was not that great to stay in, very touristy and busy...when we got there we actually liked it. Very narrow streets with stalls lining up and down. We stayed in a basic hotel, walked around, got dinner then went to sleep...

A street in Pana

Downtown Pana

on our way to the boat launch

The beautiful view from Pana dock

The boats to ferry to to the places around the lake

The next morning we caught the boat to San Pedro ( about 20 minutes across the lake). There are many places to stay around Lake Atitlan, we decided on San Pedro as it seemed to suit us the most. Many head to San Marcos, we thought it was a little to Yogi for us (very Zen, maybe great for couples or people wanted to meditate...so not us). From the moment we arrived in San Pedro, we really liked it. Such a beautiful setting, most establishments overlook the water and the rest of the town is built on a hill behind it... Lots of hustle and bustle, but we have realised we all kind of like that...We were staying in a hotel called Hotel Delfine, very nice, brand new and modern amenities, but kind of boring, just a nice place to sleep really...good thing there was so much to do around the town.

taking the Tuk Tuk to our hotel- pretty tight sqeeze

Arriving at San Padro dock

The next few days were spent exploring San Pedro and surrounding towns. We visited the small town of San Marcos and went to the Nature Reserve. This is the only place where you really feel comfortable swimming as the rest of the areas the water looked a little cloudy., (not too appealing looking to have a swim). They have a jumping platform at the end of the hike and the girls and Johnny took advantage of the big jump.

San Pedros Look out

streets of San Marcos

Jumping Platform from the nature reserve

view from the nature resrve on San Marcos

We visited the neighbouring town of San Juan, where there are many women weavers giving free demonstrations on how they take the raw cotton and turn it into the beautiful blankets and textiles Guatemala is known for. We bought a beautiful purse for Liv and two ponchos for Anneka and I.

It really is an amazing place, I can understand why people stay for much longer. I wish we would have done better planning and stayed to attend language school. One thing I have not mentioned is how awful we all feel to not know any Spanish. On the advice of our friends Nick and Kath, we really meant to take classes before our trip, time got the better of us and with Johnny working so much before we left there just wasn't any time. I feel somewhat arrogant coming to Central America and barely getting by. We all still try our best and use Spanish wherever and as much as we can. word of advice- if you are coming to Central America, plan to stay somewhere for a few weeks and take classes, great way to get to know the culture of a place as well as it will be very helpful throughout your travels.