01/06/2017
GUATEMALA - OUR FAVOURITE
First impression - amazing. The border crossing went pretty much hassle free, even with our limited Spanish. We are starting to understand how these seemingly unorganised things works now. We did paid a local kid to help us out though, just to make it faster. He took us back and forth and in the very front of every line we had to wait in. Despite this, the crossing took quite a while as Barcelona was playing Real Madrid on TV and every border official was more interested in watching the game on the TV behind them, than actually doing their job. We didn’t really mind though, it was a pretty exciting game.
During our last days in Mexico, we were told about this place deep in the Guatemalan jungle with amazing beauty all around – A national park called Semuc Champey. We spent five hours driving on a thin gravel road over the mountains, only passing the occasional small Mayan villages. The views were stunning, our first impressions of Guatemala was growing stronger for every rocky meter we drove. The nature is very hilly and green. Looking out you see hundreds round topped hills all the way to the horizon, coated in the greenest grass and bushes. There are also plenty of volcanos, 22 to be exact. Guatemala is actually the country with the most active volcanoes in the world!
We arrived in the park at sunset and words can simply not describe how beautiful the nature was. Hillsides covered by green jungle trees with the sun setting right between two mountains while reflecting its light on a curvy river cutting through the deep forrest, perfectly placed for a great photo. Breathtaking. Semuc Champey, you were just as beautiful as people claimed.
Here in Semuc Champey we had our best hostel stay so far. An Israeli guy rolled into this place a few years back on his KLR and built the hostel, fully emerged in the jungle with little river running through the property. The place had it all, nice private rooms and dorms, a great restaurant, volley ball field, ping pong table, exercising area, awesome people and hot showers. In fact it was the only place in the park with hot showers, which he was pretty proud about. It’s called Greengo's Hotel and is one of those places you just have to see experience to understand the beauty of it. Consider yourself advised!
Semuc Champey offers some incredible natural beauties. The whole park is situated around a river than flows down the valley, which has created one natural infinity pool after the other. We signed up for a tour held by a local guide who knew the area by hand. We swam in the pools, explored a deep cave with candle lights where we cliff jumped in pure darkness, and yes, it was as scary as it sounds. Then we floated down the river on tire tubes, with local kids throwing beer at you from the bridge. It didn’t matter if you didn’t want the beer, if they threw you one they said you had to pay. One of the beer sellers was 9 year old Maria, who also sold her mothers homemade chocolate. This was her chore on weekends and holidays. This sweet girl had actually learned quite a lot of English, German, French and even Hebrew, only from doing this while growing up. We were so amazed. The adventurous day ended with jumping off a tall bridge and into the river. It was maybe a bit adventures for Peter, who took almost 10 minutes to man up to do the jump.
On our way out the park the shaky gravel road made quite an impact on Christians bike. The rear brake shook completely apart, ruining the entire calliper and bracket. We had a nice route laid out through the backcountry of Guatemala, but had to head straight to the capital to get it fixed. Peters twin brother stayed with a Guatemalan family during his exchange year in Dominican Republic, and his host mother, Sonia, happened to be in Guatemala City when we arrived. She owns a house there and very kindly offered to host us. She took us all around town and introduced us to some guys at our age. We bought a ton of fireworks and Christian almost blew off his hand. It was great fun.
We dropped the bike off at a local mechanic in the most sketchy part of town. Our course we didn’t know that at the time, we just drove around until we found mechanic. Sonia was terrified we would never see the bike again, but as it turned out he did a remarkable job. The bike had never felt that good.
Antigua, located 30 minutes away from Guatemala City, is a town listed on UNESCOs world heritage list and is a must visit if you ever find yourself in Guatemala. It’s a old colonial town with old and elegant buildings in different vibrant colours. Walking around the streets is breathtaking as you have a backdrop of two huge volcanoes just outside of the city borders. We met up with our friend Patrick, which is the first other motorcycle traveler we met on or trip back in Alaska, and got a new friend, Moto Poet Society. His a Colombian, living in New York, who’s heading south on his Yamaha 250.
Our Spanish is always improving, but we knew from early on that Guatemala is the cheapest place to get classes to learn it. We drove to San Pedro, located on the shore of Lago Atitlan, which is a massive volcanic lake with many small towns along the shore and tall volcanoes peaking up around it. We got each our own private teacher and had 5 hours of classes for 5 days. It was very intensive, but so effective. Between the countless Spanish schools in San Pedro, we chose Corazon Maya. It’s a family run school situated right on the lake side. The classrooms were small individual bungalows in a beautiful garden were you could pick mandarins from the trees during breaks. While attending the school we were hosted by a local Mayan family. This is organised by the school and is a great way to experience the Mayan culture and practice what you’ve learned in class. And Guess what? The man of the house, Felipe, was actually a mechanic and his workshop was just outside of the house. So ironic, given that we constantly have bike problems, but not when we have a mechanic just outside our bedroom!
In San Pedro we felt an earthquake for the first time of our lives. Peter actually didn’t wake up. Being the sound sleeper that he is, he didn’t notice the bed shaking heavily from side to side. It was a pretty crazy experience.
After five intensive days we left back towards Guatemala city, but ended up back in Antigua to meet up with a friend of Peter’s that he met in Dominican Republic. He convinced us to stay the night, which wasn’t hard to accept as he put us up in one of the nicest hotels in town. Gracias JuanCa! We partied and had fun, followed by the most comfortable nights sleep. It was the first time in ages we actually slept with a proper comforter and air condition. Big change from our usual dirty hostels!
The following morning we drove far up in the mountain side to a small little resort called Hobbitenango. It is a hotel and restaurant built like the Hobbiton village in Lord of the Rings. Each room is a small house with the typical big round doors. We had lunch and some disturbingly good hot chocolate with amazing views of the two volcanoes in the distance. Juan Carlos even took their guitar and put on a groovy live performance for the restaurant. Hobbitenango served as the perfect hangover cure!
With this it was time to leave Guatemala. It is a country we had come to love after our 5 weeks there. The beautiful volcanic landscapes got us hooked very quickly, but it was the people that really made Guatemala great for us. The best part of travelling is to spend time and really get to know the people of a country, and we really achieved that here. The recent history of Guatemala is filled with brutal civil wars and horrendous genocide, but it is very hard to notice that. You will always find the people smiling and laughing. The Guatemalan spirit is strong!
MORE PHOTOS FROM GUATEMALA IN A SEPARATE ALBUM
P. S. Here’s a Netflix recommendation for you: One Dollar a Day. This is a documentary about a group of American college students who goes to a poor village in Guatemala, just outside of where we studied Spanish, to try and live like many Guatemalans do, on one dollar a day, for 50 days. It is a powerful documentary that in a very good way portrays the struggle these people go through everyday, but also the joy and the strong spirit they have!
