Lake Atitlan, Lanquin, El Remate

A couple of hours west of Antigua is Lake Atitlan, which has a handful of small towns along its shores, each town with its own vibe. Naturally we stayed in the party town; San Pedro la Laguna. There wasn’t a ton to do around Lake Atitlan besides hiking, swimming and kayaking. We were ready for a bit of a break from hiking but we did rent kayaks for a couple of hours and went around the lake to some of the other villages.

We stayed at this really nice hostel called Hostel Fe which had a large deck attached to the bar.  From the deck you were able to jump right into the lake.

Since I cannot swim we decided to buy a pair of water wings back in Antigua so that I’d be able to go in the lake. They said they were made for ages 2-6, but for only two dollars I thought I’d give them a go and thankfully they kept me afloat! We spent our days relaxing and sun tanning on the deck, playing yahtzee (also now known as Shotzee) and darts (with its own set of drinking rules) and swimming in the lake.

A little help from my friend!

Darts!

After 5 nights in San Pedro we headed to the village of Lanquin. We stayed at a hostel called Zephyr Lodge which had some amazing views of town and the jungle that surrounds it.

 

Room with a view

While in Lanquin we took a day trip to the natural rock pools known as SemucChampey. Before the natural pools you go into the Grutas K’anba cave which was so unbelievably cool. The cave apparently goes back 15km. Our tour guide only took us in for about an hour. For the first part of the cave you are given a candle and we were led into the pitch black drippy cave. You could only see what your candle lit up around you. You could hear the bats squealing above you and one even swooped at Eric’s head (better him than me) J. Half way through you had to blow out the candles and swim single file as the cave got super narrow in parts. There was also a waterfall in the cave where you could jump off into the pool below it. It was super creepy not knowing what was swimming in the waters or even what was in the cave around you but we made it out alive!

 

After the caves we hiked to Semuc Champey, these natural pools were a blast.  The pools were tiered and you could either jump from the edge of one pool into the next or slide down on some rocks that acted like natural water slides!  The only thing we would have changed about our day trip was the weather, it was pouring rain for the entire day. Normally you can lay around the natural pools and spend a couple of hours swimming, but it was freezing!! Since we paid the money to go we swam in the pools anyway!

We also did a tubing tour where you float down the Lanquin River in an inner tube for about 2.5 hours. Your guides carry two massive bags in the water full of beer and just toss them to you as needed. Luckily the weather was much MUCH better for our tubing tour. Some parts of the river actually had mini rapids and with trees sticking out over the river it wasn’t always relaxing but super fun. Of course the only person on the tour who can’t swim, I was the one who hit a tree and flipped my tube! Good thing I had my water wings on!

Sunday Funday!

The Zypher lodge was a pretty cool hostel that would put on buffet style dinners and a pretty good happy hour. Unfortunatly one of the buffet dinners came with a cooked cockroach which I had on my fork and ALMOST put in my mouth! Sick!!! When I brought my plate with the cockroach to a guy who was working at the hostel I was told that is what to expect when they have an open air kitchen in the jungle. He was definitely right I guess. We haven’t seen as many bugs on our trip as we did here. We must have killed a good dozen spiders just in our room. Some which were fairly large. The biggest spider I have ever seen was also here (thankfully not in our room). We were having dinner and some guy spotted it on the couch. It was tarantella like and no word of a lie as big as my hand! Eeek! The worst part was no one would even kill it. They carried it over to the hill and let it go. I would have killed if I was brave enough.  

From Lanquin we headed to El Remate which is only about 20 minutes away from Tikal; Guatemala’s number one attraction; Mayan Ruins. The ruins were beautiful. Unlike most other Maya ruins, Tikal was built deep in the jungle.

 

our tour guide for the day

 

 

 From Tikal we crossed the border into the beautiful Belize. The turquoise waters and white sand beaches are incredible...stay tuned for details and pictures!