Guatemala and Honduras

Where to begin! Guatemala was in my opinion the best vacation of my life. I took a tour with Mundo Guatemala, which for anyone who has contemplated a trip you should all check into this company I was extremely well taken care of and everything was absolutely wonderful. But on with the details, I arrived on Saturday and immediately transferred to Antigua, the original colonial capital of Guatemala and the headquarters when Central America was its own unit during Spanish rule. I arrived late afternoon so I just went to my beautiful hotel and prepared to leave bright and early for Chichicastenango.

Chichicastenango is the world famous Indigenous market in Guatemala. It is the largest market in all of Central America, and while it was spectacular I had suspected many bargains and a huge variety but I found that later in the week was when I actually found more authentic items and better deals, but that does not take away from the fact that it was still extremely interesting to see this market and explore and buy a few souvenirs. After spending the day at the market I took a shuttle to Panahachel, the largest town that surrounds the world famous Lake Atitlan, which is currently being voting on as one of the finalists for the top 7 natural wonders of the world that gives you some idea as to how impressive this place was. I stayed there over night and the next day took a lake tour and visited the surrounding villages, each with their own flair and characteristics. The lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and tons of high mountain tops it is just absolutely breathtaking. I visited San Pedro, San Antonio Palpao and Santiago Atitlan around the lake. Santiago is known for its artist and their paintings, and since going to Paris and studying art I kind of have a fascination for local painting so of course I definitely bought myself one here. San Antonio is like looking at a Latin American version of the Italy or Greece Cliffside with all the houses with a stunning cathedral right in the middle of the town. San Pedro is a very hippie new age oriented place, really different as you tend to not see new age/hippie go hand in hand with traditional Latin culture. I absolutely loved the boat tour it was great.
The next day I was back in Antigua and had the day off from my tour so I actually went with Elizabeth Bell, the owner of Antigua Tours, on one of her tours of the city and in the afternoon a tour of the architectural and art history of the surrounding small indigenous villages. Both of the tours were fantastic and worth every penny I got to learn so much about the city, its history, its people past and present and just really see the city through the eyes of a local expert which was incredible. At the end of the second tour I got to visit a very cool fair trade style co-op run by 12 indigenous families with all their textiles, these were some of the best artist in the country and I got to learn the different techniques and how the styles give you insight into the class structure and community dynamics within these communities just based on this workmanship, really interesting and I bought a beautiful door hanger with the national bird the Quetzal really pretty.
Over night I took the bus to Flores to go see Tikal, the largest Mayan ruins, the following day. It was one of the most mysterious and fascinating places I’ve ever seen. I think after visiting Stonehenge in England I have a connection with ruins and I definitely had the same feeling here. It was like I could close my eyes and just see the Mayans running around or holding rituals, really bizarre but absolutely incredible; I even got to climb some of the ruins. I came back on the overnight bus again to Antigua. The next day was another free day in Antigua so I relaxed and did my work so I wouldn’t have to do it the rest of the time when I was enjoying myself. Antigua is an incredible city; I honestly think I could stay there for much more than a few days. It is similar to Grenada in Nicaragua but nowhere near the same level of poverty, it has definitely prospered the only problem now is its becoming too touristy, that’s the opinion I kept hearing from the locals but despite all that I loved the city and would have really liked to explore more.
Bright and early the next day I was off to Honduras to visit Copan. Copan are the most well preserved ruins in the entire Mesoamerica region, you can still see some of the colors on the hieroglyphics. Copan is nowhere near as large as Tikal but its known for its incredible preservation, and that is no joke it’s incredible how well preserved all the designs still are, and like I said you can even still make out some of the colors on the statues. I stayed in Copan over night and the location in Honduras in extremely rustic but very peaceful. The hotel was incredible so when I wasn’t at the ruins I got to enjoy the beautiful scenery from the hotel into the country and the mountains. Let’s just say me and the hammock had a good time that evening relaxing.
Well that’s the short and sweet version of my stories from Guatemala I hope you enjoy the photographs of this incredible country, I know I sure enjoyed visited this incredibly beautiful country with its extremely friendly colorful people.


Enjoy!