Category: Guatemala

Last Days in Guatemala

Guatemala is now several months in the rearview mirror, which has given me plenty of time to reflect and reminisce.  Our tour ended up being shortened by over seven months of cancer treatment to start and an early departure of ten weeks to accommodate Vietnamese language training and home leave.  By the end, we spent only 14 of the 24 months we were originally assigned to the country physically in Guatemala.  That left us with plenty of missed tourism opportunities, but we feel like we saw enough of the country to say that we got a full Guatemalan experience. 

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Holy Week and Religious Processions

Guatemala has built up some renown for their celebrations leading up to Easter, so much so that UNESCO designated Guatemala’s Holy Week an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.  For five straight weeks leading into Holy Sunday, you can find processions around the country.  The most famous is during Semana Santa, when residents of Antigua build carpets made of dyed sawdust, flowers, scraps of paper, and other materials, called alfombras in Spanish. 

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Petén: Isla de Flores and Tikal

The last trip we made during our time in Guatemala was to Petén, the largest and northernmost department in Guatemala that borders Mexico and Belize.  Our original trip was supposed to be in early July, but that ended up being delayed until just days before our departure due to a tropical storm.  We knew we were taking a chance by booking a trip during rainy season, but we weren’t about to leave Guatemala without seeing the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal.

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The Guatemalan Craft Beer Scene

You would be forgiven for thinking that Guatemala isn’t exactly a craft beer destination.  I certainly didn’t expect much.  After arriving, I did what I always do when I move to a new place: I worked my way through the local beer selection.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of craft options.  Even the national mass-produced lager was solid. 

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What Do We Even Do?

After a years’ worth of blogs about travel in and around Guatemala, I realized that I haven’t written anything about what we’re doing when we’re at work. It’s not all fun and games, you know. 

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Out and About in Guatemala

We’ve gone on a number of trips around Guatemala since our first visit to Lake Atitlan in December.  Most of these were limited to extended weekends or day trips and included trips with family and friends alike.  Some stops along the way were new to us, while we returned to many others.  Here is a recap of our Guatemala 2024 tour to date.

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Lake Atitlan, Take One

In early December, Misha and I finally made our first visit to Lake Atitlan.  It's one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country and routinely ranked among the world's most beautiful lakes.  Lago de Atitlan is less than 50 miles from the capital as the crow flies but can take over 4 hours to reach by car due to a combination of traffic and winding, twisting country roads.  It sits in the shadow of three volcanoes and was formed by a supervolcanic eruption some 84,000 years ago.  Eleven little towns, each with their own distinct characteristics, dot the shores of the lake, three of which Misha and I visited on this trip. 

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Autumn in the Land of Eternal Spring

After roughly six months of silence, I’m finally back with an update.  Between work, two nights dedicated to Spanish lessons, three nights booked for basketball, boxing, and tennis, and being the only one with the will or ability to cook real dinners in the house (sorry Misha), I’ve been finding it difficult to allocate time to write.  Luckily, the December slowdown and a few well-placed days off has allowed me some time to not only get a few posts written, but to actually do a few things worth writing about.

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Normality Returns

Antigua (not to be confused with the island) was the Spanish colonial capital until 1773, when an earthquake damaged many of the since-restored structures.   Before traveling to the country, I asked a friend about the draw of the town, considering it is the most visited destination for American embassy employees in Guatemala.  He said, “nothing really. You just hang out, eat and drink.”

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