By: Richard & Jane Wenstrom, Rediscovery II (Selene 5366)

Editor's Note: There are more photos of the Wenstrom's travels in Guatemala in the Gallery section of the site (accessible only to registered users). Click here to see their Guatemala photo album.

And to think, we almost didn’t stop in Guatemala. We were planning our next month’s travels in Huatulco, Mexico with John and Kathy Youngblood, Mystic Moon, and Ted and Joan Palango, aboard Panchita. They were going to stop in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala and tie up for a week or so and travel to Antigua to take a week of Spanish Language School. Jane and I were contemplating going on to El Salvador and wait there for them to catch up. At the last minute, we too decided to stop in Puerto Quetzal and travel inland from there to do some sightseeing while the rest were in class. Little did we know that we were about to experience one of our best travel experiences ever…..in Guatemala!

Richard & Jane Wenstrom on Rediscovery II (Selene 5366)

We were most fortunate to have a whole week good weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec…..we left Huatulco about noon on March 9th and arrived safe and sound at Marina Pez Vela, Puerto Quetzal on the morning of March 11th. The marina here is mostly geared to fishing boats……every morning about 0700, 15-20 boats leave the harbor for a day of deep sea fishing. Consequently, there is a large contingent of people that are used to washing boats and mechanics in general. There is a bar and restaurant adjacent to the marina that has pretty good food and ice cold Gallo beer. The little town of San Jose is nearby, but not much there to see. The personnel in the marina and restaurant are very helpful and friendly to boaters, as stated in the Rains Cruising Ports, the Central American Route.

Cruise ships dock here as well once or twice a week. When that happens, arts and crafts vendors come from everywhere to set up and sell their wares. The cruise ships only stay overnight and the next day, and some people make a quick trip to Antigua; most stay close to the ship. Adjacent Puerto Quetzal has quite a bit of large ship traffic coming and going, with tugboats assisting.

On Sunday, March 15th, we left the marina for Antigua, 50 miles away, about a 1.5 hour drive. Antigua is a really unique city……very small, with cobblestone streets, colonial architecture, ruins interspersed within the city, yet all of the nice hotels and restaurants that one could wish for. In addition, Antigua is well known for Spanish language classes, either group study or immersion style where one can stay with a local family. And the setting for the city is incredible……with mountains all around; three inactive volcanoes are in sight from just about everywhere. Antigua was the capital of Guatemala for over 200 years, and part of that period it was the capital of all of Mexico and Guatemala. In 1773 a massive earthquake destroyed most of the city, and it was, for all intents and purposes, abandoned in favor of the present capital, Guatemala City, until the 20th century. When Antigua was rebuilt, it was essentially restored to its former architecture; the city has now been declared a National Monument by the government of Guatemala, and UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1979.

The church named Iglesia La Merced, originally built in 1767

After arriving, our van driver gave us a brief tour of the city. Our first stop was a church named Iglesia La Merced (right). Originally built in 1767, it was damaged severely by the earthquake, and has been recently restored…..the bright yellow color gives this church a special appeal, one of the prettiest churches we have seen. Near the church there is a plaza where vendors were selling all kinds of ethnic foods. I looked around and Jane was no where to be seen….found her over at one of the stands sampling some kind of green pepper filled with something cooked on a open fire grill. Tasted OK! It was Sunday, and one of the weeks leading up to Easter week, so the plaza was filled with local people and a few tourists.

One of the beautiful designs for the Easter Week procession.

Easter week, known as Semana Santa, is the major cultural and religious event of the year……especially here in Antigua….even though Easter was about a month away, the processions down the streets have already started…..some of the “floats” consisting of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and other saints are carried by as many as 100 men since they are so heavy. Sometimes the streets are overlaid with pretty designs done in bright colors, made of sawdust…..here is one depicting a butterfly….one of the symbols of Easter. If one is planning to be here on Easter week, reservations are needed as much as a year in advance, especially along the procession routes.

Ruins of the Cathedral San Jose.

The Cathedral San Jose is another impressive church, but this one is mostly a ruin. This church was completed in 1680, and was the largest church between Lima, Peru and Mexico City, with 7 entrances, 78 arches, 18 chapels, and a main sanctuary. In the great earthquake of 1773 it was almost completely destroyed. What we see now has been rebuilt, but the arches will never be restored because of the continuing threat of earthquakes. This church was intended to be the main church of Antigua, because it is situated on the east side of the Plaza Mejor, or Main Plaza. One portion of the church is being used at present for worship; the remainder can be toured after paying an admission fee.

Antiqua is one of the most beautiful cities we've visited in Mexico and Latin America

This city was laid out in the traditional Spanish design, that is, a main plaza with the church on the east side, the city administration on the north, the national government on the south, and the commercial shops on the west side. Much of this has been restored, and is a beautiful sight…..one of the prettiest cities we have seen in Mexico and Latin America. The trees in the photo, above, are Jacaranda trees.

One of the nice hotels in the city is built on top of these colonial ruins

One of the nice hotels in the city is the Casa Santo Domingo, built on a colonial era ruins of a convent and a chapel (right). Their restaurant is top quality, and lit up with candles in the evening. Jane and I took a tour of these ruins. John and Kathy Youngblood had dinner here one evening and report it was a highlight of their time in Antigua.

Jane and I made reservations, sight unseen, at a hotel named Meson Panza Verde, which in Spanish means Place of the Green Belly. The story goes that people in Antigua, after the big earthquake, were so poor that they had to live on avacados, and became known as “green bellies”. The Frommers tour guide calls this place “spacious rooms with an eclectic mix of furnishings, art work and design touches from Guatemala and around the world”. The guide recommends Room # 9, which has a garden patio and huge bathroom. Probably because of the economic downturn, # 9 was available for us. The picture on the left shows the garden patio, and the picture on the right shows the largest bathroom sink that we had ever seen. We found the room to be exactly as described. The restaurant here was also the best food we tasted in Antigua, with tables in a cave-like area, and live music three nights a week. We asked the concierge about taking tours to other areas of Guatemala, and she was so efficient, that soon we had the entire week planned…..we decided that we would tour the Mayan ruins at Tikal, and then spend a couple of days at beautiful Lake Atitlan. And everything that Meson Panza Verde planned for us was executed flawlessly…..we were impressed!

The garden patio in the Meson Panza Verde Hotel

The largest bathroom sink we had ever seen!

Before we left Antigua, we spent some time shopping. Antigua is very close to one of the areas in the world where jade occurs…..in this case, northeast of Antigua where two tectonic plates intersect and the pressures create the jade stone. There is a company in Antigua named Jades S.A. that has a museum of the history of jade in the Mayan times as well as how jade jewelry and masks are produced. They give tours as well run a showroom with pieces for sale…..very nice quality.

Jane found a place called Casa de Artes that has all kinds of woodcarving, textiles, ceramics and paintings from Guatemala……she felt the quality of the textiles was the best she had seen anywhere, and before long she had a piece picked out.

Jane picked out a souvenir from the Casa de Artes

Tuesday morning came very early, as we got up at 4 a.m. and were taken by shuttle to the Guatemala City Airport to catch our flight. We had reservations on TACA Airlines, and took the 7 a.m. flight to the city of Flores in northern Guatemala. After about an hour flight, we landed in Flores, and a shuttle met us to take us to the Mayan ruins at Tikal, about 1.5 hours away into the tropical rain forest…..a drastic change from the mountain climate of Antigua.

The "Jungle Lodge" near the Tikal National Park

I have long been fascinated by the Mayan culture, and a few years ago Jane and I visited the Chichen Itza ruins in the north of Yucatan. In reading further about the culture, primarily in a book entitled “The Maya”, 7th Edition, by Michael D. Coe, I learned what a major site Tikal was and is, and so was eagerly anticipating this visit. Tikal is now a National Park, and as such, has marked trails, rest rooms, a museum, and even a hotel and restaurant near the park called the Jungle Lodge. Jane and I checked in here as the hotel, meals, and one guided tour were a part of our tour package. The room was very tropical, with louvered windows, huge fans, and mosquito netting. Hot water is only available for 3 hours in the morning and again in the evening, and power is provided by a generator. But the rooms are new and comfortable, the food in the restaurant was good, and we had a nice rain while at the hotel, which cooled the temperatures and gave a real taste of the tropical rain forest. The only alternative for lodging is to drive back and forth to Flores, 1.5 hours away. Another good book to read in preparation for Tikal is “TIKAL”, by William R. Coe.

Rooms at the hotel were tropical, but new and comfortable

Mayans occupied the site at Tikal from about 150 BC to 950 AD. It is thought that as many as 100,000 people lived here at the height of its existence. The site is huge……around 25 square miles, although the portion of the ruins that we can tour now is only 6 square miles. Archaeologists have found, however, in this small area, some 3,000 separate construction sites……according to William R. Coe, “temples, palaces, shrines, ceremonial platforms, small and medium residences, ball courts, terraces, causeways, plazas both small and huge, and even a structure built for ritual sweat bathing”. At least 100,000 tools, ceremonial objects, and related relics have been recovered; many of these are in the National Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology in Guatemala City as well as many US universities and museums who have sponsored and conducted excavations. It is significant that the Mayan hieroglyphs have been decoded now, and allow precise dating of sites as well interpretation of the carvings on stone monuments.

A smaller temple in the northeast side of the ruins

Jane and I took a guided tour to the ruins that took us to several of the temples, as well as the Central Plaza. The trails are well marked, and the climbs on the trails are pretty moderate. However, some of the temples can be climbed, and this is much more strenuous. I will attempt to show in a few pictures what it was like in the ruins; what the pictures don’t show too well is the enormity of the temples. They are simply overpowering when you see them hacked out of the jungle rain forest. There is a model of the ruins at the visitor center, plus maps are available for self guided tours.

This picture is a smaller temple at Complex Q at the NE side of the ruins. Note the levels of construction, done at different times in its history.

This is one of the original stalae, now fenced off so visitors can't touch it

The stone pillars in front are called stelae; originally they depicted Mayan rulers and hieroglyphs that explained their reign. The round discs in front are called altars. These stelae are not the originals, but are reconstructions.

This stelae is one of the originals. It is shown, but fenced off so that visitors can not touch it. After 900 AD, this stelae and many more were defaced by succeeding cultures, or by people living in the area. However, many of these were photographed in the 1800’s by early explorers, and the hieroglyphs have been translated, providing much that we now know about the Mayan rulers and their historical period.

The view from atop Temple IV, called the Temple of the two-Headed Serpent is awesome. In the photo below, looking toward the Central Plaza, Temple III is on the right, and temples I and II in the Central Plaza are shown upper left. Again note the vegetation. Temple IV is the highest temple in Tikal, at 212 feet.

The photo below is a view from atop Temple IV. In the right photo, note the steepness of the walls. There was a four foot ledge at the top, and no guard rails. To get up to the top, one has to climb up winding stairways…..the steps are there on the temples, but people are not allowed to climb them in most cases. The middle and inner doorways here at the top (upper left) contained beautifully carved lintels; both are now in a museum in Basel, Switzerland. It is thought the lintels were carved down on the ground and hauled up to the top by manpower.

The view from atop temple IV, called the Two-Headed Serpent

The walls of Temple IV are very steep with no guard rails

Temple I, the Temple of the Giant Jaguar, is the temple that Tikal is famous for, the one you see on the travel posters, and in National Geographic. Temple I is located in the east end of the Central Plaza. This is the very center of Tikal. The flat floor of the plaza was thought to be resurfaced four different times in its 1,000 year history. Temple I faces Temple II across the plaza.

Temple 1, "The Giant Jaguar" is the most famous temple in Takai

Below is a photo of an interesting ball court at the back of temple II (in the foreground of the picture). One of three ball courts in this general area, the court consists of two slanted walls facing each other with a turf area in the center. Mayans played ball with teams opposing each other; the ball was a rubber ball weighing about 8 lbs. and players could not use their hands to move the ball. Only hips, shoulders, and upper arms could be used. It is not clear how the game was played, and there are lots of tales about what happened to the losers in each contest. In other ruins I have seen in southern Mexico, and in Chichen Itza in northern Yucatan, the ball court was much, much larger compared to this ball court, with room for spectators above the court. The ball court in Chichen Itza also had stone rings on the sides of the huge walls of the court that suggested possibly the rubber ball had to be put through the rings, like shooting a basket.

The ball court at the back of Temple II

But all good things must come to an end, and Jane and I left Tikal, went back to Flores, and took a late afternoon flight back to Guatemala City. At the Flores airport, we met a professor and a group of engineers from Michigan State University who were in Guatemala on a 3 week project to test a solar powered refrigerator that could be used some day in third world countries where power is either expensive or not available. We wished them well, but at the same time told them that Kansas University was certainly our choice in the upcoming NCAA tourney. Great bunch of guys! Even more remarkable, when chatting with their professor, I discovered he knows a close friend of mine in the engineering faculty at MSU….small world!

We asked our concierge friend at the Meson Panza Verde Hotel where we should stay when we travelled to Lake Atitlan. She remarked that the hotel owned a property there that might be of interest. The property is a one bedroom house built on the shore of the lake just south of Panajachel (main city on the lake). When she showed us the pictures, we were hooked! So we travelled from the airport in Guatemala City to the little house, called B’alam Ya, in Mayan language “Jaguar by the Lake”. Our driver told us that we must take the long route because the shorter route has banditos problems at night. We were met at the house by our hostess Yani who explained that our stay included a lady coming in each morning to cook breakfast for us! What a deal!

Lake Atitlan, formed thousands of years ago in the crater of a volcano, is 10 miles across and a mile high in altitude, surrounded on all sides by mountains, and has 16 little Mayan towns around its shoreline plus Panajachel. Major means of communication and commerce with the villages is by boat, and the Mayans still speak their native dialects. The water is cold and crystal clear.

Our favorite view of Lake Atitlan

We took many photos of this special lake (see more in our photo gallery). The picture at the left was taken at sunset from our porch, looking at San Pedro Volcano (inactive). All the views were stunning, but this was our favorite.

Not shown is the Mayan fishermen who fished in dugout canoes they had made themselves in the quiet early morning hours…..a paddle and a hand line, one man per canoe sitting in the very middle.

Our boat tour took us across the lake to the little Mayan town of San Juan la Laguna. One of the industries there was growing coffee. The photo below shows coffee beans on the tree…..the beans are ripe when they turn red, and the beans are picked by hand to make sure only the ripe beans are picked. We toured the little cooperative where the growers brought their beans in to be processed.

Coffee beans turn red when they are ripe and are hand picked.

We also saw beans drying in the sun at the cooperative after their outer coverings have been removed by a machine. Workers walk through the beans with a rake to turn them over so they dry evenly. In case of rain, the coop had batch dryers that could dry the beans indoors. I drank some of the coffee from the coop at their retail center (upstairs in a small room over the plant), and bought a bag to try.

Negotiating for a ride in a Tuk Tuk

In the little town of San Juan la Laguna, we decided to take a cab over to the next little town, San Pedro la Laguna. The “in” cab in the whole area are called “Tuk Tuks”, and they are a 3 wheeled motorcycle with a passenger seat.

Next, we took the boat to a third town named Santiago de Atitlan. On the way into the harbor there, we saw Mayan ladies doing the family wash in the lake (below). The dryer? Kids laying out the clothes to dry on the shore.

Mayan women doing laundry in the lake

Now we had heard that Santiago was the home of Maximon. Maximon is the saint created by the Mayans within their own brand of Catholicism. He is named after a Maya god of the underworld, Maam, and San Simon. He is thought by the Mayans to symbolize good luck and to bring timely rains to the earth. He is also known as the patron saint of gamblers and drunkards, and Mayans believe that he will bring them wealth and success. For a small tip, locals will bring you to meet Maximon; he is generally found in a house out of sight due to his scandalous nature.

Out Tuk Tuk driver took us to see Maximon

Jane and I asked to see Maximon, and our tuk tuk driver took us winding through the alley ways to a narrow walkway between buildings. There we stopped and walked in this house…..several men were sitting there drinking beer, and prominently displayed, was Maximon. It is said that he expects an offering of a cigar, rum, or money, and you can take his photo for an extra Quetzal or two. Here is our photo of Maximon, taken, of course, after an offering of Quetzals was made.

Later, we had a chance to check out the local crafts markets. This nice lady gave us a weaving demonstration using her age old techniques. Her hat consists of red belt size material wound around her head, round and round. Right after we left this area, we were about to board our tuk tuk, when we looked up and there was John and Kathy Youngblood (who we thought were hard at work in their Spanish school in Antigua). They played hookey this day, and took their teachers with them to Lake Atitlan! What fun!!

This lady was giving a weaving demonstration using age old techniques.

Our guide for the day who took us on the boat trip to the little towns and Santiago was named Tomas. He took us to the Catholic church in Santiago, and told us beforehand that this church held special meaning for him. We entered the church and sat down in the back….parishioners were there as the time for Easter was near. There in the back was a plaque honoring a priest (American) who had died in front of that church defending the victims who sought sanctuary during the guerilla war in Guatemala during the 80’s.

Our tour guide told us his story of losing his parents to Guerilla warfare in the 1980s.

Our guide then proceeded to tell us of his family, brutally slain by these same guerillas when Tomas was only 5 years old. He then went to live with his only surviving relative who lived in Cancun, Mexico. There he finished school, and worked in the tourist resorts, learning the English language. Finally, he came back to Guatemala and married a young lady from his home village that he had left so many years before. He only now has been able to put the past behind him; he has two small children, a boy and a girl. He was a wonderful guide; filled with passion for the opportunities he has found as a tour guide who speaks and understands English.

Our little house B’alam Ya by the lake was a highlight. We left on our boat tour from the small dock in front of this house. On Thursday we passed up all the things to do in the city of Panajachel. We just stayed at our house and enjoyed the view. We won’t soon forget this place!

Our little house in B'alam Ya by the lake was a highlight of our trip!

The view from the house was amazing.

So we returned to Antigua, joining our friends John and Kathy, and Ted and Joan, who by now were super saturated from their week-long excursion into the Spanish language. But there was one more thing. Joan had a friend of a friend from Long Beach, CA who was from Guatemala; the friend and her husband were now living in Guatemala City. Not only that, but the friends (Gary and Margo) had just returned from the US with boat parts for all three of our boats!! Now Margo has this brother Juan who runs the family coffee plantation south of Guatemala City…..thanks to Joan, we were all invited to go with Gary and Margo to the plantation for the weekend. Pretty incredible…..but on Saturday morning Gary, Margo and their nephew met us in Antigua and took us to the plantation.

On Sunday morning Gary and Margo, and nephew Tony took all of us back to Marina Pez Vela at Puerto Quetzal. On the way back to the coast, we stopped at a roadside fruit market, where we tasted and loaded up on fruit to restock our boats. The market was a study in beautiful colors. The market owner took his knife and sliced open the fruits we were not familiar with so that we could taste them. And to think this is all grown locally!

Juan took us all on a tour of the coffee fields

Back at the marina, we thanked Gary, Margo, and Tony for the wonderful time at the plantation as we moved back aboard Mystic Moon, Panchita and Rediscovery II.

This is a week that Jane and I will not soon forget….so many sights, so much good food, so many wonderful people, so many different kinds of experiences. And travelling with good cruiser friends. Rediscovery II gets us where we want to go along the coast, and we are having a grand time travelling inland to see the countries along the way. We feel so fortunate to have this unique opportunity.

For more photos from the Wenstrom's travels in Guatemala, visit their album in the Gallery section (accessible only to registered users).