It’s been a while since I travelled somewhere new and exotic, which makes this month even more special in some ways. Over the next month I am travelling through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The major reason for me choosing this G Adventures trip is twofold, I really wanted to travel through Nicaragua (and the advice really steered me away from doing that as a solo female) and G Adventures offer a trip which spends a reasonable amount of time on the Pacific side of Nicaragua. And I’m picking up where I left off in the South America portion of the Nomad Chapter as I still want to meet that tree frog!!
Arriving in Guatemala
My plane was delayed by a further 2 hours (on top of the 24hour volcano-related delay) due to a lightening storm at Houston so I was late touching down in Guatemala City. Before you even collect your bags there is a bureau de change and a place to buy a SIM card. I think you can get yourself set up much more cheaply outside of the airport but I paid $20 for a Tigo SIM a plan which lasts for a week (4GB data and unlimited WhatsApp). I couldn’t get the ATM in the airport to work.
In terms of broader financials, in Guatemala you can pay on card some of the time but there is often a 5% fee applied. Need to balance that charge against the ATM fees as it’s not a no-brainer when you pay $4 ATM charges.
Only the 5B brand of ATM (cajero) worked with my Starling Bank debit card (which is pretty unusual). There was a Q31 (£3.25) fee added to the transaction and I believe that Q2000 (£210) is the daily withdrawal limit.
I rarely make use of private transport but I had arranged a transfer through the hostel (as Guatemala City isn’t necessarily a great place to be at night as a solo woman). I paid Q350 ($44) and I had thought it was only 30 minutes to reach Antigua Guatemala but it was almost a full hour even without any real traffic.
A few things stood out on the journey. Firstly, I was fairly impressed with the driving (although other travellers said their experiences were pretty bad). Secondly, I saw some of the most beautiful fairy lights I’ve ever seen, there were whole parks with every tree trunk beautifully adorned with pretty lights. Thirdly, the cars coming in the other direction frequently seemed to be as bright as the sun!! It was so difficult to see at times. And finally, there was a bowser watering trees in the central reservation in the dead of night which was quite exciting for all the cars to swerve around on a windy road.
My hostel Maya Papaya was an absolute gem!!! I would highly recommend it as a first ever hostel – the facilities are nice, the vibe is sociable and the beds are amazing!! It’s not cheap (around £35 per night including the hefty city taxes and a decent breakfast) but it’s wonderful.
In terms of budgeting for food, street food costs around Q15, a cheap restaurant for lunch could be around Q55 and you can spend the same for dinner or step up to the Q130 and above mark.
On my first morning I explored the town. It’s lovely and very easy to walk around (although the cobbles are super uneven!).
I did a bit of shopping and then stopped for coffee with two people from my hostel at a place called 12 Onzas. The coffee was delicious and this was a pleasant surprise as I figured the best stuff would all be exported. It turned out to be a sign of things to come! Coffee was about Q30 (£3) so not super cheap but no problems.
I had delicious tacos for lunch from Taco Taco and they cost Q32 for three cerdo al pastor (key ingredients pork and pineapple), one of my favourite fillings. I also had my first Jamaica flower drink of the trip, a flavour which I absolutely adore.
I joined a trip to visit Pacaya Volcano in the afternoon. Sadly the long flight delays had meant that I couldn’t book onto the most popular/famous tour in the area – the hike up Acatonanga and Fuego – the latter is a very active volcano which can be seen erupting every day from Antigua Guatemala. The Pacaya hike involves a very slow transfer by bus to the start of the hike. The tour costs Q125 (£13) payable to the tour operator and then a further Q100 (£10.5) is payable directly at the park entry. The hike is up steep loose volcanic soil and lasts about 1:30 to reach the viewing area at the top. From this viewpoint you can see Pacaya, another active volcano, and it’s easy to see the newly created rock down the slopes. The terrain steams as well from vents all over, and it’s like a scene from the Lion King in the hyenas’ lair. A cool part of the trip was toasting marshmallows in the vent of an active volcano!
The journey to and from Pacaya was quite an experience; slow as I mentioned but also with the steepest motorway on- and off-ramps you could ever imagine. I can’t believe that all that many cars can make it up there!
There were some excellent events going on in the evening in the run up to new year. I had dinner at a night market next to a church and spent about £1.50 on a delicious tostada with beef, onions, guacamole and cheese. I hung around for a while to experience the atmosphere then headed back to the hostel to change. I wanted to visit one of the lively bars in the town and so I went to Las Palmas for a beer and listened to some great live salsa music.
The temperature in Antigua Guatemala is really pleasant during the day and quite chilly at night. It’s almost one mile high, which somewhat explains the variation! Warm in the sun and cool in the shade.
I spent New Year’s Eve exploring the town and visiting the enormous market, practicing my Spanish trying on t-shirts and buying food. I treated myself to a massage at a place called Healing Hands which Adam at the hostel recommended. It’s super convenient as lots of businesses in Central America have WhatsApp business accounts so you can easily get in touch. I paid Q320 (£33) for an hour’s deep tissue massage and it was genuinely excellent!!
I had some more tacos for lunch for Q38 and then grabbed my book and headed to Artista de Cafe which is a phenomenal cafe in Antigua with a lovely vibe. I spent a lovely afternoon in the cafe reading and trying not to drink too much caffeine.
I also swung by the Lemon Tree Hostel to see if I could meet some of the G Adventures group I’m joining tomorrow. I met a few of them and they seemed nice. Was definitely worth doing the recce as it put me at ease.
I went back to the hostel to get ready for the NYE celebrations. They served a cocktail and tamales for dinner and I was so disappointed!! I really didn’t enjoy the food. Ah well, they aren’t normally a restaurant. The beer on tap was pricey – Antigua Cervaza was Q40 for a pint.
The hostel crowd all went to El Barrio for drinking and dancing and it was a really fun night. Surrounded by fireworks on the rooftop. I walked around the city a couple of times during the night as the atmosphere was amazing.
Next morning I headed out reasonably early to move my backpack over to Lemon Tree then I got changed and went for a jog up to Cerro de la Cruz which is a viewpoint over the city followed by a square route around the city. There are a lot of steps and running on the cobbles is also a challenge but it was nice to cover a bit more distance and a different route around the city. There were still an enormous number of fireworks and firecrackers being set off and I stumbled upon a man unreeling a firecracker firehose!! It was LOUD!! There were remnants of fireworks all over the city too.
I went back to the hostel to shower and then went out to a different street for food. It was called TaCorazon and I couldn’t see it on Google maps but it’s on 1a Avenida Sur near Cafe No Se (which is on Google). I highly recommend the place. They serve excellent food to either take away or eat in the beautiful courtyard. I spent Q106 for tacos and “a small plate of nachos while I wait” which arrived about 6 seconds before my tacos and a Jamaica flower drink plus tip.
Next I went up for a drink at the Sky Cafe rooftop bar. Oh wow it was beautiful. I highly recommend it. The view is phenomenal. None of the buildings in Antigua are tall so this place can see over everything to the ring of volcanoes all around the city. It’s only from here that I could really clearly see we were in a bowl. I saw Fuego erupt and send a lava plume through the clouds, that was awesome. I paid Q20 for a coke zero so it’s not too pricey given that view…
The rest of my afternoon was spent in Artista de Cafe where I had another excellent coffee. This time a chemex for Q35. I also tried a fabulous herbal tea with rose petals and apple which I would recommend.
I went back to Lemon Tree and joined the welcome brief with the G Adventures group. We are 19 including the guide and the group comes from all over the world (including non-English speaking countries in Europe which makes a really nice change).
Some of us went out for dinner to a restaurant that the guide, Annalisa picked. I’m not going to hold it against her but the place was expensive and I found it tacky!!
That was our only time in Guatemala. First thing the next morning (at 8am) we jumped on our bus to head to Honduras. I got up earlier to have a delicious breakfast at Fat Cat Cafe. I can also recommend that as a good breakfast spot and a good cup of coffee (Q45 for eggs, frijoles, avocado plus Q25 for coffee). Sometimes they have Geisha in stock but sadly not when I visited.
We reached the border with Honduras and it was a fairly simple one. Reasonable queue no dramas. Honduras took fingerprints which was disconcerting and the fee to cross the border was Q25.
Next we took a very quick trip to the money changers in the street at the border. They gave a rate of 100 Guatemalan Quetzales –> 300 Honduran Lempiras which was a bit short (300 compared to the bank rate of 316) but it’s not a terrible fee compared to the ATMs!!
The roads in Honduras were fine too and the thing in common so far with Guatemala is an incredible ability to design speedbumps which are uncomfortable no matter what speed you go over them at.
We stopped for lunch at an out of town shopping area which had various fast food joints and I wanted to try Pollo Campero. I had a chicken salad that was fresh and delicious and with a free refill soda it came to Q42!!
We arrived at Copán Ruinas and checked into Hotel Brisas de Copán for two nights. I headed to the Casa de Todo to drop off some laundry and went for a wander around town. There was a beautiful central square with a lovely church. And another spectacular set of Christmas lights.
For dinner, pretty much the whole group ended up at the same restaurant that Annalisa had recommended. Carnitas Nia Lola. We basically took over half of the restaurant and totally overwhelmed the kitchen so we waited ages for the food to come out. I ordered carnitas which came out last but was delicious – beef sautéed with onions and peppers. I had a strawberry margarita and tried Salva Vida, a local beer which was really good; light and refreshing but with plenty of taste. And costing less than $2 you can’t really go wrong. Dinner came to L444 (£15).
First on the agenda for the next day was breakfast. I really wanted to check out Cafe Welchez on the main square and Vanessa and Janine joined me. It was fabulous!! The coffee was outrageously well presented. The food was delicious too, we all ordered a plato typico so we got a variety of eggs, beans, ham, frijoles, cheese, avocado. A feast.
Most of the group walked to the Copàn Ruins and we met a tour guide for a fascinating couple of hours. His speech was punctuated frequently by a crazy bird call, being made by the Montezuma Oropendula – what a creature!
These ruins are utterly enormous and only approximately 25% have been excavated. There are some unique features including a spectacular hieroglyphic staircase of 63 steps and some of the most ornate engravings in the whole Mayan empire.
We saw a fair few macaws and my favourite bird so far – the Montezuma Oropendula. That bird has the most incredible call, and you could absolutely believe that it was a digital noise rather than a creature.
I was taking my time looking around the site and I found a German woman sitting and contemplating a particularly ornate large block of stone. She called me over and we got chatting. She had studied hieroglyphics for her PhD, and was last here in 1982 for a week to help with the excavation and interpretation of the site. She translated the stone carvings on the rock in front of us. That was a really cool moment.
After lunch most of us went to Luna Jaguar Hot Springs, an hour’s drive into the jungle. There were lots of different pools fed by a volcanic hot spring and some of the water is practically boiling as it surfaces. It is an amazing place and my favourite thing by far was laying in a river being fed by a 65° waterfall. A few of us crossed the river to reach this amazing spot while the sun was setting and we ended up surrounded by fireflies. It was magical!!
Fabulous! 👍🏻
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