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Writer's pictureLou & Tim

It's not all about the beaches.... | Antigua | Flores | Tikal |

Updated: Aug 3, 2019

Time for a month in Guatemala, first two weeks in Antigua and Flores, then our family from the US arrive and we will have two weeks with them in Lake Atitlan and Monterrico. Here's our update on the first two weeks.....

We flew into Guatemala City and quickly transferred to Antigua. To be honest we hadn’t researched much on Antigua before we arrived, we had booked a Spanish school through a recommendation of a friend of a friend and arranged a homestay for the week. We arrived at Gilda’s (Hilda's) house and immediately testing our spanish to the max as we tried to work out her instructions for the rooms and school. The following morning (after being woken up by the bombas - the massive firecrackers the local churches explode in the sky at regular intervals during Holy celebrations aka all the time...) we were at Ixchel school to meet our teachers http://ixchelschool.com/. We were about to start a week of 4 hours a day 1:1 tuition, it was going to be interesting, challenging, fun and frustrating for all of us.

The boys started their lessons on the roof of the school which gave them full view of the volcanos, Aqua, Fuego (most active volcano in central america) and Acatenango. Fuego really does erupt every day, you can see the cloud of ash coming out the top every morning. Last big eruption was last year when it sadly killed 3000 people in the closest village. School was tough for all of us but we learnt loads, the boys almost managed the four hours with their teachers, mainly playing spanish word games and sometimes convincing their teachers to pet them watch youtube in spanish on the ipads..... they really can negotiate anything with anyone - no matter the language barrier!


Antigua itself is a beautiful town, cobbled streets, loads of shops, artisan markets, coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Tourism, particularly through the spanish schools is it's lifeblood, people are very friendly and very forgiving for our broken spanish. The streets are very clean and it is very safe. The climate is great, minimal humidity, sunny days, rain in the evening. Definitely a favourite place for us, the boys loved the tuk tuk rides and the ice cream - hard to do together with the cobbled streets....

Our homestay was great, meant to be a place to continue to practice our spanish with other guests around the table at mealtimes with Gilda, it reminded me of when we used to have foreign students when we were growing up. However Gilda had to remind us multiple times to speak spanish not english.... problem for Dexter the avid storyteller who wanted to provide everyone at the table an update on all his favourite things that have happened. The other guests were a mix of first year medical students and teachers from the US, fortunately they were happy to indulge Dex. There was also a basketball court out the back which everyone played. Dexter even had a day trip with the amazing Sirtaj and Joanna to the markets around Antigua.

At the end of the week we took a trip up the mountains to a place we had heard about called Hobbitenango - https://www.hobbitenango.com/ it is an amazing place high up where they have built 'hobbit holes' with bars, food, games and places just to walk around. The families that created it invest in the local school children, funding them to stay on in school past 12 and then ensuring them a place to work at hobbitenango when they finish. It's not connected to the lord of the rings officially, I think they had some communication from them when they found out and can't use certain names, it's worth a visit, I think it's more impressive that the actual Hobbitville where they filmed in New Zealand.

Volcan de Pacaya was another highlight, we had heard in the week that this active volcano was spurting (technical term) out lava and the lava tail was over 1km long. We were high in anticipation that we might be able to see lava! As we got out of the mini bus there were loads of guys and horses trying to get us to hire a horse to get up to the top, we kindly said no we were going to climb, started to walk to the start. 2 guys and 2 horses followed us quietly. Smart people... within 5 min we knew Archie would not make it, the climb was steep and rocky, going on Tim's shoulders wouldn't be an option. Quick negotiation and Archie was on a horse called Pacaya with 12 year old Orlando guiding him. Dex was coping with the walking by storytelling to everyone in our group. The volcano erupts every 4 years, last one was in 2018, sometimes big explosions from the top, sometimes huge amounts of lava. Reaching the top was spectacular, walking on the rocks that were once lava is like gravel, more recent lava was something like moonwalking. The guide was great and took us off the trail (not sure all healthy and safety boxes were ticked but it was fun) to the front of the lava, it was incredible to see it moving, and you could feel the heat. We all got to roast some marshmallows! Again another favourite day for all of us.

We did another trip out to the mountains but little did we know this Sunday was a huge catholic fiesta day, which meant everyone was out on the streets and in the numerous churches, bombas and firecrackers going off, roads closed and amazing flower and coloured sand creations were laid out on the streets. This cause huge challenges for us to get home, multiple cancelled ubers, no data on our phones, treks to restaurants borrowing other peoples phones to use their data, massive thunderstorm...... but we made it back.

Monday travel day, unfortunately Tim was sick with food poisoning from our takeaway dinner, we packed up the room and I took the kids out for the morning take kids out to the food market where we spied a circus tent in the distance. We arrived in time for the morning show (with 10 other people...) acrobats and clowns, motorbikes, dancers it was great fun. Dexter got called up to the stage for one part - which he obviously hated (not...) Our stay in Guatemala city was probably the worst place of the trip so far, super close to the airport for out 5am flight but a tiny room, 2 beds, mosquitos, crappy sheets, sick Tim, shared bathroom - super cheap :-) but we won't be staying there for our second GC night at the end of the month....

We flew to Flores, normal backpacker route is to bus there but we knew that 10 hours on a bus with the boys was not going to work and so we flew. We were staying in a recommended Airbnb but soon realised it was not on isle de Flores but in Santa Elena, the taxi drive on the way reminded us how dangerous it is at night.... Once we were settled and the airbnb owner had put our mind at ease a little we headed to Isle de Flores via a hotel with a pool by the lake for some food. It takes about 30 min to walk around the island and in 36 degree heat and 85% humidity it is very draining. We jumped in a tuk tuk to seek out markets for food. Didn't get much cooler in the apartment as the rooms were in the 'loft' and the fans like massive hairdryers.


We visited Playa Chechen, a safe (not polluted) place to swim on the lake with the boys trying back dives, back flips and front flips off the pontoon. Usual encouragement from all watching and older boys (as in 20 year olds) giving them tips and suggestions. The came Tikal. We had booked a sunrise tour which meant we were picked up at 2.40am, no one has every arrived on time in our latin america trip apart from this one.... by 4.30am we were at the gates ready to hike through the dark jungle to get to temple 4, which faces east for the sunrise.

The boys did well, listening for jaguars and monkeys, trying not to trip over in the dark and to keep up with the fast moving adults, minimal complaining from Archie which was pleasant. At the top of the temple there was about 40 people, all sat in silence to listen to the jungle waking up. I knew we would be up there an hour and was trying to work out how on earth we were going to keep the boys silent, or even quiet... impossible. They managed a good 30 min before becoming too restless. They thought they saw a monkey which turned out to be a raccoon of sorts. Everyone up there taking a breath in when they both ran to the edge of the temple steps to see where the raccoon had gone, average stranger doesn’t know about Archie’s ability to balance on the smallest of edges.... Tim has to rush to pull them back with audible sighs from the 'audience'. Time to exit down the steps. Next 3 hours we had an amazing guided tour through Tikal, wow it is huge and we only saw a fraction of it, most is still covered by the jungle and they are still uncovering. Dexter dominated our guide with endless questions mostly about animals and he was the key bird and animal spotter - yellow billed toucan, green toucan, multicoloured turkey, hawk, howler monkey, spider monkey. The guide taught him how to make the sounds of the howler monkey and also the spider monkey, and demonstrated how they respond. The was amazing for Dex - he could now talk to the animals!!! He hasn't stopped his impressions for the last 3 days....

Back to Flores and this time to Jorge’s rope swing and crazy diving board. Archie full of confidence from previous days backflips and front flips, does a front flip, it’s much higher and from a wooden diving board with spring, does amazing somersault but over-rotates and lands on his face and stomach.... later with a dive does the same to his back. Does that stop him? not a chance he continued jumping and rope swinging with all the backpackers. Both chatting up the girls, asking all boys to make them walk the plank (diving board) and giving everyone tips on how to rope swing... we haven’t raise shy kids that’s for sure. Tim and I reminiscing about backpacking whilst listening to all their chat, but happy not to be back sharing dorms. Airbnb family backpacking is working out well for us.

Early to fly back to Guatemala City which we almost missed the flight due to me trusting the Airbnb host on time to arrive and not instincts, or rather learned knowledge, on how much time you need to get on a plane, even at the smallest of airports. Anyhow we made it and back Antigua late morning ready for family Sharples arrival on the Saturday!!


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