Guatemala

Sushita and I traveled to Guatemala in November of 2024. We spent a week exploring the colonial city of Antigua, Guatemala's old capital. We explored the city and acclimated to the elevation before taking on a greuling hike up a dormant volcano to watch an active volcano erupt. We then spent a few days relaxing on Lake Atitlan, the deepest lake in Latin America, before returning to Antigua. Volcanoes are an enormously prominent feature of the Guatemalan highlands and our trip up to the top of one of them was one of the most memorable experience of our lives. The city, the lake and volcanoes were so incredibly picturesque. I took so many photos that it took more more than a year to process all of them and now I'm finally ready to share some of them.

Antigua was every bit as beautiful as we had heard. It had a colorful colonial downtown with stunning views of enormous volcanoes. The city suffered many brutal earthquakes and remnants of the devastation are almost everywhere along with signs of resilience like the handful of 16th century buildings that remain largely undamaged. It was a busy city with thousands of tourists and plenty of hotels, bars and restaurants to explore. The city is relatively small but filled with interesting old churches and other remnants of Spanish rule. We explored the cobblestone streets of the city and took a short day trip to Hobbitenango, a hobbit-themed nature park with wonderful views of the city.

We were both pretty nervous about the big hike. Sushita did all the research and booked us a tour with sleeping arrangements at Acatenango basecamp. We had heard it was one of the most challenging hikes most people do in their life but also the most rewarding. We turned up at the tour agency headquarters at the crack of dawn and were given a very light breakfast. The agency loaned us all the gear we needed including trekking poles, water bottles, backpacks and many layers to wear because the summit gets down below freezing and few people bring winter gear to a tropical country like Guatemala. We were bused to a tiny village that had one tiny coffee shop and we began to climb. The hike didn't seem challenging at first but the diminishing oxygen quickly started affecting people. Those of us not in the best of shape and those that live at sea level struggled more than others. There was little visibility as we arrived to the point in the hike that our overnight gear was brought to. We got to basecamp and had nothing to look at because of dense fog. We got up early to hopefully see the volcano and this time the clouds had cleared and we watched incredible volcanic eruptions right until until the sun came up. Heading down we saw the incredible views we missed the day before and it was absolutely magical walking. After a few hours of tricky downhill hiking we arrived back to the same cafe and were driven back to the city.

Our legs were completely destroyed by the hike and every step hurt immensely. Luckily for us we would spend the next few days relaxing at the side of a gorgeous lake. The lake is framed by even more tall volcanoes and is dotted with a bunch of tiny villages. Every village has its own personality so its a bit of a choose your own adventure process deciding where to stay. We chose Santa Cruz for its natural beauty and low key vibe. We booked a great little house along the water with hummingbirds zipping around the surrounding garden. There is a restaurant run by a non profit in the Mayan village portion of the town and we had breakfast there every morning. We took the public ferries to visit some of the other towns as well including bustling Panajachel, San Marcos which is known for it's nature and hippy energy, San Pedro and a few others. It was a stunning place to slow down and relax for a few days and I'm glad I brought my bird lens.

On the last day of the trip I was getting antsy to ride a bike. I had seen a few people biking around and felt like I needed to get a bit of the same experience. I rented a fat bike from a local shop and rode a tiny distance to the next closest town called Jocotenango. It had a quiet square surrounding a beautiful church and for the first time on the trip there were no tourists as far as I could see. I stopped into the one tourist destination in town though, a famous coffee plantation. It was called Finca Filadelfia and was situated in a large compound with beautiful colonial arches. I bought some of their coffee to take home and snapped photos of a strangely gothic looking church on the way back to Antigua. When I got home I found the coffee I purchased to be wonderful, particularly the one in the silver packaging. I've since ordered more directly from their website.

---