CHRISTMAS IN GUATEMALA

(click on photo to enlarge)

This year was a little different from our previous years on the boat. We did more inland touring including (r-l) Semuc-Champey, climbing Picaya Volcano, Antigua & Tikal Mayan Ruins.

PACAYA VOLCAN

We hiked up this ACTIVE volcano located 25 km. outside of Antigua.  It's about 2550 meters high & warm enough to roast marshmallows!! It had a major blow in 2010 & is still quite active spewing out lots of smoke.

EAT 'N DRINK, EAT 'N DRINK

MARKET DAY

NEW YEARS DAY/NIGHT

 A religious procession proceeds through the main plaza accompanied by a massive amount of firecrackers. We have yet figured out the significance of the firecrackers, but the Gautemalans sure are obsessed with them!

CASA SANTO DOMINGO

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Once a monastery dating back to the early 1500's, this is now a five-star hotel & museum.

BEAUTIFUL ANTIGUA

This has to be one of our favorite cities in Central America. It's full of fabulous restaurants, markets, plazas & colonial ruins in a beautiful setting surrounded by 3 volcanoes.

STREET SCENES OF ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA

THE FACES OF GUATEMALA

ROAD TRIPS

The roads in Guatemala left a little to be desired!!

TIKAL

Tikal is a UNESCO Heritage Site & one of the largest Mayan ruin sites. It's a fascinating archeological site with 100's of temples & pyramids, surrounded by jungle. 

 

ABUNDANT WILDLIFE IN TIKAL

Wildlife is abundant in Tikal National Park including occellated turkeys, howler & spider monkeys, agoutis, coatimundis  & of course, a plethora of bird species.

EL REMATE

After Christmas, we took another road trip to Tikal. We stayed in the little town of El Remate which was just outside of the Tikal National Park. La Casa de Don David where we stayed, had its own little conveyor, "The Toucan Express" to get your drinks from the bar out to the lakefront deck....perfect!

BACK TO THE BOAT FOR CHRISTMAS

 

Cruising The Gorge in the Rio Dulce

SEMUC-CHAMPEY, GUATEMALA

Matt & Meg arrived at Guat. City airport & from there we had a driver take us to "El Retiro", a lodge in Lanquin, 10 miles from Semuc Champey. It ended up being an 8 hour trip as the roads were 4x4 country & we were in a Mazda Protege!!  From the lodge, we had this truck take us the last 10 miles, which took us an hour!

 

A 2 hour cave exploration through waterfalls, holes & pools. Never done anything like that before!!

Jumping off swings & tubing through rapids.

Hiking up to El Mirador Lookout & then down to the famous cenote pools.