For further information about our time in the Guatemalan highlands you were forwarded to the according FAQ section:
Our first stop in Guatemala was beautiful colonial Antigua.
Q: Another colonial town?! Ever since you set foot in Latin America you haven't seen much else - doesn't that get old?
A: South and Central America differ greatly from each other - food, language (you'd think it is all Spanish - but that would just be way too easy, wouldn't it?!), culture and also architecture. A colonial town in Argentina looks very different from a colonial town in Guatemala. South American historic cities boast huge, leafy plazas with imposing buildings, grand avenues and an old European charm. Colonial town ins Central America look different: tiny, old houses are painted in beautiful colors that create a very unique, positive and welcoming feel. Churches and plazas are slightly smaller, less intimidating than their counterparts down south. Everything seems a little bit more humble and much more authentic. It might have been Europeans that built these cities long time ago, but the Central Americans really own them and fill them with their traditional vibe. And that never gets old.
Q: So what makes Antigua special? What is there to see and do?
A: We spent only two days in Antigua - by far not enough to do it all and see it all. But let's start at the beginning. When you enter the city you will know it: your transportation leaves the well maintained main road and the ride gets bumpy on the old, cobblestone streets that run through the whole city. At once the streets are lined with colorful houses that sport the most beautiful flowers on their little balconies and you pass a myriad of old religious buildings, most of which lay in mystic ruins from the frequent earthquakes in the city's history. If this wasn't enough yet to make you feel happy to be here, you look down the road and are awestruck by the majestic volcanoes that rise behind the city and create the most dramatic backdrop you could imagine. Your time in Antigua will be spent exploring the alleys, backyards and ruins, relaxing on plazas in the sun, sipping on the best
ice coffee in the country (Antigua's restaurant and cafe scene is amazingly varied - must be one of the few advantages of mass tourism) while lazily people watching and visiting churches and museums. You might feel inclined to climb one of the volcanoes - but you might also be 'too ill' to do it (a minor cold was enough to keep us back...we just were not motivated enough). You might also like to take one of the many cooking classes - until you find out that you can just download the recipes and cook the food in your hostel kitchen for far less money. Yummy! And of course you can do anything else in Antigua that you could wish for - language courses, horseback riding, mountain biking, volunteering, Salsa dancing...the list goes on and on. But time also goes on and on. So we skipped all of that and continued our trip.
Our next stop was the Lago de Atitlan.
Q: What is the Lago de Atitlan? Why would you want to go there?
A: The Lago de Atitlan is a clear blue highland lake rimmed by beautiful volcanoes, steep mountain cliffs and lush forests. At its shores lay Mayan villages next to Hippie get-aways and the whole area just screams Italian mountain lakes feat. Carribean laid back vibe. Need we say more?!
Q: So how laid-back-hippie-like did it get?
A: Not at all - our bus left Antigua too late and we had little time so we decided to not take a ferry but stay directly in Panajachel, a total gringoburg where one souvenir shop after the other lines the main road that leads down to the lake shore that itself is crowded with expensive restaurants, tour operators and more souvenir shops. Of course the view over the lake and up to the mountains was breathtaking - the two (almost) joint volcanoes behind the lake are picture perfect - and it was also very nice to for once not having to sweat as soon as we left air-conditioned rooms. But when it started to rain so heavily that it was impossible for us to go for hikes or on a biking tour there was nothing that would have kept us there any longer. So after one night we were ready to leave Pana early.
It was a rainy Saturday and we were thinking to ourselves 'Where should we go to next?!' when we heard about the biggest Mayan market in Guatemala that was held every Sunday in a town called Chichicastenango. We had found our next destination.
Q: Maya market? Aren't the Maya an ancient civilization?
A: It's true, the Maya have lived in Guatemala (and parts of Mexico, Honduras etc. - a region called Mesoamerica) for a long time and long ago they had a very powerful and advanced civilization while (as a German saying goes) Germans were still living in trees. Mayans are still here today and make up the vast majority of the indigenous people of this country. They still communicate in their own language, the older ones can still read ancienct glyphs and the women (and the occasional men) dress in their traditional colorful attire (long skirts, a kind of poncho from the same fabric and mothers carry their children on their back, cuddled tightly into a strong drape that is tied around the women's upper body). Their culture is alive and well - and luckily so, because it is fascinating!
Q: And what was the market in Chichi like?
A: We arrived in Chichi on Saturday and walked around the small town in their broad streets. There wasn't much going on, other than on the main square where a small market core was already up and running and religious rituals that were performed on the steps of the catholic church filled up the air with thick, unhealthy smelling smoke. We saw locals flock into town, most of them carrying long poles and bundles of fare. When we woke up on Sunday and left the hotel, the face of Chichi had changed. The poles had been erected into market stalls so the broad streets were all gone. The whole town became one huge market with a labyrinth of tiny passageways. We got completely lost (and enjoyed it greatly) inside the dark alleys that were packed with people.
Men kept bringing more and more goods while children played between the stalls and their mothers loudly praised their merchandise. On the market's outer skirts were mostly touristic stalls with wooden masks, colorful handbags and hammocks on offer. Once you made it through this outer rim, you were in the heart of the local market where the modern Maya shop for their every day needs. From food (fruits, veggies, meats, rice, pasta, beans, tortillas, ...) to clothing (traditional as well as gringo-style), hardware, stationary items or completely mad animals - you could find anything in this maze. The noise, the chaos (which probably only seemed chaotic to us but was quite structured to everyone else), the colors, the smells, the narrowness - it was just brilliant to be part of! Until we were also part of the mass transport that took everyone back home.
We might have been riding chicken buses around the world - but only now did we learn about their secret rules of hierarchy and the true meaning of 'crowded'...
Q: Wait a minute - you've been shoved into the subway in Beijing during rush hour by people that get paid for playing human tetris and you honestly want to tell us that only now you know what 'crowded' really means?
A: Well, okay, maybe you are right. Maybe the Chinese already taught us some valuable lessons about crowds. But hey, at least they are mostly tiny! Here, people might be smallish, but not tiny. Most of you will be familiar with the layout of a chicken bus since it is simply an old US-American school bus with some fresh paint. These buses have two uncomfortable benches per row, one on each side, that fit two school pupils each and leave minimum room in the middle to pass through the bus. When these buses get full in Guatemala, it means that three adults share one bench - plus the multiple children that one or more of these adults might take with them on the trip (all piled on top of each other). The passage in the middle of the bus thereby gets filled up with all the unfortunate that can fit only one half of their body on the bench. Everyone who didn't even make it to that luxury has to stand somewhere - most probably on someone's foot while smacking his backpack in someone else's face because there is nothing to hold on to when the driver crazily goes through the next sharp turn. And all the while big pieces of luggage share their space on the top of the bus with more than only chicken... That is one crowded bus ride right there!
Q: Well, okay, point taken. So what happened to you on your way out of Chichi that you talk about a secret hierarchy?
A: We caught a crowded bus like the one we just conjured up in your mind. It was on its way to Guatemala City where we planned to stay for the night. We were the last ones to board the bus - a kick-start into the third chicken-bus-intern social class as we started off standing more in the open door than in the bus. Luckily the chicken-bus-ruler was quite the benevolent guy and made everyone else in the third class (e.g. everyone who was standing) cuddle some more to squeeze us further in. This at least safed us from the immediate danger of falling out of the bus. Now we just had to fight the average-third-class-Joe problems: the ridiculously fast driving on the curviest highland streets that through us from right to left second-by-second, the loss of feeling in our lower limbs as they were strangulated by the half-on-the-bench-half-in-the-passage second class people that stuck their pointy knees out, and the lack of space to place our feet as all space seemed to be already taken up by other feet. For the first half hour or so, we just smiled and laughed away the situation - and that good positive-attitude karma helped us out soon after when we were at the right place at the right time: next to where we were standing, two people from the seated upper classes got off the bus and we made the jump from third to second class and could take half a seat on the benches. What followed was an hour of people standing on our feet, cramps in our behinds from trying so hard not to fall off the bench at every turn of the bus, a numb feeling in the arms that had to be held up the whole time since there was no other place to put them and nice smalltalk with the only stranger that we will ever let be so close to us. And then, about 20 minutes away from Guatemala City it happened - I got promoted to First class when someone else from my bench got off the bus. I was suddenly sitting on the imaginary middle seat of the bench - I didn't need to worry about falling off the bench anymore, there was room for my feet and even though my shoulders were still to big to fit in and I had to sit with my upper body turned sideways my arms were at least allowed some rest by. The new second-class-guy on the bench fell asleep and his head fell on my shoulder so it turned out that my hope was in vain and there were (and most likely will be) more strangers that will get really close to me - but other than that, I was pretty comfortable.
Does that answer all the questions you ever had about the Guatemalan Highlands?! If not, feel free to contact us via our contact form on the guestbook tab and we will get back to you asap.
Our first stop in Guatemala was beautiful colonial Antigua.
A: South and Central America differ greatly from each other - food, language (you'd think it is all Spanish - but that would just be way too easy, wouldn't it?!), culture and also architecture. A colonial town in Argentina looks very different from a colonial town in Guatemala. South American historic cities boast huge, leafy plazas with imposing buildings, grand avenues and an old European charm. Colonial town ins Central America look different: tiny, old houses are painted in beautiful colors that create a very unique, positive and welcoming feel. Churches and plazas are slightly smaller, less intimidating than their counterparts down south. Everything seems a little bit more humble and much more authentic. It might have been Europeans that built these cities long time ago, but the Central Americans really own them and fill them with their traditional vibe. And that never gets old.
Q: So what makes Antigua special? What is there to see and do?
 |
| Antigua's streets... |
ice coffee in the country (Antigua's restaurant and cafe scene is amazingly varied - must be one of the few advantages of mass tourism) while lazily people watching and visiting churches and museums. You might feel inclined to climb one of the volcanoes - but you might also be 'too ill' to do it (a minor cold was enough to keep us back...we just were not motivated enough). You might also like to take one of the many cooking classes - until you find out that you can just download the recipes and cook the food in your hostel kitchen for far less money. Yummy! And of course you can do anything else in Antigua that you could wish for - language courses, horseback riding, mountain biking, volunteering, Salsa dancing...the list goes on and on. But time also goes on and on. So we skipped all of that and continued our trip.Our next stop was the Lago de Atitlan.
 |
| Didn't get out the camera quick enough - all cloudy now... |
A: The Lago de Atitlan is a clear blue highland lake rimmed by beautiful volcanoes, steep mountain cliffs and lush forests. At its shores lay Mayan villages next to Hippie get-aways and the whole area just screams Italian mountain lakes feat. Carribean laid back vibe. Need we say more?!
Q: So how laid-back-hippie-like did it get?
A: Not at all - our bus left Antigua too late and we had little time so we decided to not take a ferry but stay directly in Panajachel, a total gringoburg where one souvenir shop after the other lines the main road that leads down to the lake shore that itself is crowded with expensive restaurants, tour operators and more souvenir shops. Of course the view over the lake and up to the mountains was breathtaking - the two (almost) joint volcanoes behind the lake are picture perfect - and it was also very nice to for once not having to sweat as soon as we left air-conditioned rooms. But when it started to rain so heavily that it was impossible for us to go for hikes or on a biking tour there was nothing that would have kept us there any longer. So after one night we were ready to leave Pana early.
It was a rainy Saturday and we were thinking to ourselves 'Where should we go to next?!' when we heard about the biggest Mayan market in Guatemala that was held every Sunday in a town called Chichicastenango. We had found our next destination.
 |
| Modern Maya |
Q: Maya market? Aren't the Maya an ancient civilization?
A: It's true, the Maya have lived in Guatemala (and parts of Mexico, Honduras etc. - a region called Mesoamerica) for a long time and long ago they had a very powerful and advanced civilization while (as a German saying goes) Germans were still living in trees. Mayans are still here today and make up the vast majority of the indigenous people of this country. They still communicate in their own language, the older ones can still read ancienct glyphs and the women (and the occasional men) dress in their traditional colorful attire (long skirts, a kind of poncho from the same fabric and mothers carry their children on their back, cuddled tightly into a strong drape that is tied around the women's upper body). Their culture is alive and well - and luckily so, because it is fascinating!
Q: And what was the market in Chichi like?
 |
| Talk about touristy stuff... |
 |
| In front of the curch |
We might have been riding chicken buses around the world - but only now did we learn about their secret rules of hierarchy and the true meaning of 'crowded'...
Q: Wait a minute - you've been shoved into the subway in Beijing during rush hour by people that get paid for playing human tetris and you honestly want to tell us that only now you know what 'crowded' really means?
A: Well, okay, maybe you are right. Maybe the Chinese already taught us some valuable lessons about crowds. But hey, at least they are mostly tiny! Here, people might be smallish, but not tiny. Most of you will be familiar with the layout of a chicken bus since it is simply an old US-American school bus with some fresh paint. These buses have two uncomfortable benches per row, one on each side, that fit two school pupils each and leave minimum room in the middle to pass through the bus. When these buses get full in Guatemala, it means that three adults share one bench - plus the multiple children that one or more of these adults might take with them on the trip (all piled on top of each other). The passage in the middle of the bus thereby gets filled up with all the unfortunate that can fit only one half of their body on the bench. Everyone who didn't even make it to that luxury has to stand somewhere - most probably on someone's foot while smacking his backpack in someone else's face because there is nothing to hold on to when the driver crazily goes through the next sharp turn. And all the while big pieces of luggage share their space on the top of the bus with more than only chicken... That is one crowded bus ride right there!
 |
| Chicken buses roam the streets around the world - love it! |
A: We caught a crowded bus like the one we just conjured up in your mind. It was on its way to Guatemala City where we planned to stay for the night. We were the last ones to board the bus - a kick-start into the third chicken-bus-intern social class as we started off standing more in the open door than in the bus. Luckily the chicken-bus-ruler was quite the benevolent guy and made everyone else in the third class (e.g. everyone who was standing) cuddle some more to squeeze us further in. This at least safed us from the immediate danger of falling out of the bus. Now we just had to fight the average-third-class-Joe problems: the ridiculously fast driving on the curviest highland streets that through us from right to left second-by-second, the loss of feeling in our lower limbs as they were strangulated by the half-on-the-bench-half-in-the-passage second class people that stuck their pointy knees out, and the lack of space to place our feet as all space seemed to be already taken up by other feet. For the first half hour or so, we just smiled and laughed away the situation - and that good positive-attitude karma helped us out soon after when we were at the right place at the right time: next to where we were standing, two people from the seated upper classes got off the bus and we made the jump from third to second class and could take half a seat on the benches. What followed was an hour of people standing on our feet, cramps in our behinds from trying so hard not to fall off the bench at every turn of the bus, a numb feeling in the arms that had to be held up the whole time since there was no other place to put them and nice smalltalk with the only stranger that we will ever let be so close to us. And then, about 20 minutes away from Guatemala City it happened - I got promoted to First class when someone else from my bench got off the bus. I was suddenly sitting on the imaginary middle seat of the bench - I didn't need to worry about falling off the bench anymore, there was room for my feet and even though my shoulders were still to big to fit in and I had to sit with my upper body turned sideways my arms were at least allowed some rest by. The new second-class-guy on the bench fell asleep and his head fell on my shoulder so it turned out that my hope was in vain and there were (and most likely will be) more strangers that will get really close to me - but other than that, I was pretty comfortable.
 |
| On a different and completely unrelated topic... |
Does that answer all the questions you ever had about the Guatemalan Highlands?! If not, feel free to contact us via our contact form on the guestbook tab and we will get back to you asap.
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