Recently I traveled to Guatemala for just over a week with one of my best friends. I absolutely fell in love with Guatemala. It was easy to travel through, it was lush and beautiful, and the people were so friendly that we felt safe the entire trip. I haven’t had a chance to travel through much of Central America but this little taste of it has made me want to do more ASAP.
To give you an idea on our adventure, we landed in Guatemala City and jetted straight out to Antigua from there. We spent a couple days in Antigua before moving on to Lake Atitlan, where we stayed in San Marcos, and then finally, we wanted a little bit of beach time so we ended our trip in El Paredon.
Our trip flew by and we had a lot of amazing moments and memories. If you follow me, you’ll know that there’s tons of Guatemala content coming your way, but until then, I wanted to do a quick post on some of the highlights from my trip.
Hiking Pacaya Volcano
Pacaya is located just outside of Antigua and makes for a great half-day trip from the city centre. There are tons of tours that take you to Pacaya very inexpensively. The hike is a few hours long and is by no means easy, you hike up hill for the bulk of the time, and then you walk through volcanic rock which is not easy to navigate, however, it is totally worth it. You even get to roast marshmallows on volcanic rock!
All our beautiful hotels
Ahhh I can’t say enough about the hotels we stayed in while in Guatemala. In all three of the stops, our hotels were absolutely amazing, Instagram-worthy, clean, comfortable, with fantastic people. I’ll chat more about these in future blog posts but to give you a preview, we stayed at Maya Papaya in Antigua, Lush in Lake Atitlan, and lastly, Swell in El Paredon.
Watching baby turtles hatch
We were so lucky to catch the hatchings of over 300 baby turtles when we were in El Paredon. We totally expected not to see this because the season was just ending, but somehow we lucked out and it was meant to be. Watching over 300 baby turtles navigating the beach and head out to sea was absolutely amazing.
Sunrise hike over Lake Atitlan
Hiking Indian Nose, located in Santa Clara on Lake Atitlan, was another jaw dropping experience. The hike was short, but tough, and what really made it hard was the fact that we did it entirely in the dark. We headed out around 4am to get to Santa Clara where we began our hike, uphill in the pitch black. It was definitely an adventure but when we got to the top, watching the sunrise over the lake was stunning.
Cooking with the locals
While in El Paredon, we came across a tour company there that operates like a non-profit organization called La Choza Chula. Chula offers great local tours that really immerse you into the culture. One of the tours we did was a cooking class with a local lady right in her very simple home. With basic kitchen supplies she helped us whip up tortillas and empanadas, and it was a delicious meal!
I loved my time in Guatemala and I can’t wait to share with you more images and stories from my adventures there. Stay tuned!
Other Content on Guatemala to Read:
- How Much Does 8 Days in Guatemala Cost?
- What to Do in El Paredon, Guatemala
- What to Do in Lake Atitlan
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