Guatemala
Six month backpacking trip through Bolivia, Peru and central America: update 14/14
.jpg)
Johan Kruseman
Updated on 13 July 2024
Updated on 13 July 2024
Finally I entered ‘Guate,’ the final country of my South and Central America trip. I played tourist with an organized boat trip on the Rio Dulce. On that boat, there was a French guy I started traveling with from then on. His English was as good as my Vietnamese, so Spanish became the language of choice. We went to Tikal together. Tikal is like the champagne among ruins. I took 24 photos in one day. We wanted to sleep in Tikal itself, but since our budget didn’t stretch to the 5-star hotels there, we ended up in a two-by-two-meter log cabin, just enough for two mats side by side. Since my Costa Rican thief is enjoying my sleeping bag, I had to endure the night with two sweaters and pants.
From there, we took a minibus to Sayaxché. At least, that was the plan. But now that it’s known that a car doesn’t need a gas pedal or a starter motor (see update 8), THIS driver thought he could try it without a driveshaft. Unfortunately, the minibus got stuck halfway on our route. The whole crew transferred to a passing pickup truck, and we continued our journey. From there, we visited the Ceibal ruins, but after Tikal, all other ruins are nothing more than Aldi wine.
On our way to the next village, we were overtaken by a minibus with a Guatemalan license plate at the back and a Dutch one at the front. Reason enough to leave the bus. Hoping for a good Dutch conversation, the driver turned out to be a Canadian Frisian. Still, I continued traveling with him and two German girls (lying in the back of the van). To complete the international group, we only needed a Guatemalan. A flat tire five minutes before reaching the village seemed to work. A Guatemalan landowner passed by, helped us, and offered us to stay at his place. He had three large hills at his disposal (his land was so big that we got lost the next day when we tried to leave it with the van). A super nice guy who offered us two days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and accommodation, gave us a tour of his land (explained how coffee beans are processed, witnessed how a cow is artificially inseminated, and how the calves are separated from their parents by a cowboy complete with lasso and horse), and the next day gave us a tour to a cave and to... Um, I don’t think there’s a word for that. It was a staircase of three super blue mountain lakes with a wild river flowing underneath. At the top, you see the river disappear. In the middle are the three mountain lakes where we swam. And at the bottom, the river reappears. Quite amazing!
In the next overnight place, I helped a Guatemalan boy with his English homework. Impressive how eager he was to learn. He couldn’t stop and asked me everything about English, especially the pronunciation was the problem, but after repeating the word ‘job’ ten times, he finally managed to put the pronunciation on paper: dziop.
The next leg became a mountain stage. Reason enough to expand my clothing collection with sweatpants and a sweater because it was going to be COLD!!! In hindsight, cold in Guatemalan terms, that is. After three days on dusty roads, small villages, and overcrowded buses, we arrived in Nebaj. A small mountain village, but what a relief: after two weeks of rice and black beans every day (a miracle that I haven’t gotten scurvy yet): PIZZA!!!
From Nebaj, I did a three-day village tour through the mountains. Only three tourists per month come here, so a big welcome from the local youth in each village. Had to explain to everyone that ‘Holanda’ is not a province of America but is EVEN further away. (They don’t even know where their own capital is, so I drew Guatemala, explained that an ocean is a lake but MUCH bigger, and on the other side of that lake is where I live). In every village, everything you do is shamelessly watched by all 30 kids as if you were a newborn panda bear in the zoo.
In the first village where we (we is now a Spanish girl and I) stayed overnight, the mother explained how the entire population (all indigenous people) was exterminated during the civil war in the 80s/90s. Complete destruction of houses, people, food, everything that was dead and alive. She had managed to escape with others and has now started a new life in the same place. Very sad and impressive.
The next day, we walked across a plateau at an altitude of 3.000 meters. Had lunch in a village where the boys make live music, which is spread across the entire plateau via microphones and speakers. The lunch wasn’t much, namely corn dough and boiling water with potatoes. But the people were incredibly kind and very surprised at how tall people can be. I wasn’t allowed to pay for lunch.
With a full stomach (and wallet), we headed to Parramos Grande. With countless goat paths of which only one was the right one, it was pretty impossible not to get lost. But how happy was I when an old man welcomed me into his village of Parramos after two hours of walking. Talked to him for ten minutes, and then I asked if I could also sleep here in Parramos Grande. Grande? This is Parramos Chiquito. The son of the village representative then led me out of their area on the way to the right Parramos. But everything turned out to be worth it because in Parramos Grande, after two and a half weeks of BLACK beans every day, they served WHITE beans for the first time. That was absolutely the salvation for my scurvy.
By the way, it was funny that everyone thought my Spanish travel companion was my wife. It was impossible to give any other explanation for two adults traveling together and sleeping in the same room. When I left her at the end of the trip because I had to catch another bus, the locals there thought I behaved very improperly to leave my wife in the wilderness like that.
Share this story
Traveled route: Guatemala, Tikal, Huehuetenango, Antigua
next country: Cuba
Cuba: unique, frustrating, inspiring, unexpected, special, cheap, expensive, and everything all at once
Cuba is like no other place - it’s unique, frustrating, inspiring, unexpected, special, cheap, expensive, and everything all at once. Now the challenge is to somehow make sense of it on paper.Extending my visa: yeah, that always gives me plenty t
Guatemala
Did this story inspire you to go to Guatemala? Read more on what Guatemala has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.
