Lago de Atitlán
We started off from Coban hoping to take the 7W as the most direct route through the mountains to Lake Atitlan. It only took a couple of kilometres of bad road to convince us that this was going to be too painful. We decided that the long way round on the main highway would be much quicker. This meant that we had a really good road until the last 20km.
We had taken the road via Patzun into the mountains round Lake Atitlan. This was a really beautiful road but it was up and down through the mountains through areas with washouts and even a collapsed bridge which meant we had to go through the river.
We finally arrived at Panajachel on the shores of the lake and were negotiating our way through the town when we ran into a policeman directing traffic and preventing us turning the way we needed to. So we ended up heading back out of town. This time when we tried to come back in we stopped just outside town to see if we could find a better route. No sooner had we stopped though than a motorbike traffic cop pulled up next to us and offered to lead us through town to our destination.
We tore through town behind the cop with his lights flashing as he guided us down the narrow streets of the town to the hotel we were planning to stay in. When we arrived he declined any payment when we thanked him.
We had decided to stay at the Hotel Tzanjuyu which has camping right in front of the lake. The view from the camper was pretty stunning across the lake and with three volcanoes visible. The climate here is lovely with highs of late 20’s in the days and dropping to 18c or so at night. This is a result of the altitude of around 1500m. In the surrounding mountains we had topped 2300m on the way to the lake. We were the only people staying at the hotel and had the gorgeous pool and grounds all to ourselves.
We stayed in Lake Atitlan for three days but we were pretty busy. Panajachel itself has a real laid back vibe and has a lot of tourists. This means that there a lot of small cafes, restaurants and little travel agents catering to the backpacker market.
Firstly we took a trip to a town called Chichicastenango which is renowned for its market. On Market day the town is clogged with traffic and there is nowhere to park so we decided it was best to take a minibus rather than drive ourselves.
The market was a bit disappointing as it is very touristy. However the colour of the locals dressed in their traditional clothing was wild and the church which is the centrepiece of the plaza was interesting with its mix of mayan and Christian beliefs. The local cloth and handicrafts being sold were beautiful though and if we had the space we would probably have bought some things.
A 20 minute walk from the centre at the top of a small hill is a Mayan altar where people still worship today. This is called Pascual Abaj. We were lucky enough to see a ceremony when we arrived with incense being burnt and alcohol being poured on the altar. To one side there were piles of feathers from sacrificed chickens !
Our second trip from Lake Atitlan was to take a boat trip to three of the lakeside villages. We visited San Juan La Laguna, San Pedro La Laguna and Santiago Atitlan. Each of the villages had a different character with different goods for sale. Its clear that the lake has risen quite considerably in recent times because on the shore in each of the towns we saw a number of flooded buildings.
San Juan was the smallest of the villages and specialist in weaving using material which had been dyed with natural dyes. We saw a woman boiling up a bunch of plants to make the dye. Throughout the town were a number of murals some of which were quite bloody !
San Pedro was a bigger town which had one of the prettiest churches we have seen in Guatemala.The churches in Guatamala are much less grand than those in Mexico. In the square outside the church there was a fountain which had turtles in it !
Santiago Atitlan is a much bigger town than the other two. Its distinguishing feature was a shrine to Maximon – an evil saint. The shrine moves to a different house each year and is associated with sins such as drinking or smoking. We had to pay a guide to take us to the shrine as it was down a tiny back alley – a bit nervy being led there because we didn’t know if we were being led to a back alley to be robbed !
We thoroughly enjoyed Lake Atitlan but moved on slightly sooner than we might have because of a big party scheduled at the hotel with music until 3am.
While in Lake Atitlan we did our laundry again and this time it came back all tied up with ribbons. You could really get used to this !
Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey has a reputation as the most beautiful place in Guatemala. It also must be one of the most difficult to get to. From Coban which is the biggest town in the Northern highlands you must drive 40km along a winding mountain road to the turnoff for a small town called Lanquin. Lanquin is 12km down a steep and narrow road from the main highway (unpaved). This road is quite tricky but driveable in all but the worst conditions although it is susceptible to washouts.
On reaching Lanquin after taking 1.5 hours for the previous 12km we were in two minds about continuing on the further 10km to Semuc Champey. We knew of a hostel here who allowed camping and could arrange a tour so we went to check it out. Unfortunately they didn’t have space for us so we decided to press on.
Unless you are driving a 4×4 there is no way you should attempt the road from Lanquin to Semuc Champey. If we had known what it was like we would not have driven it. The road is very narrow, muddy – with a slippery clay base, and exceptionally steep. The journey down was not too bad but we did make a wrong turn and have to reverse about 200m up a narrow mud road. However just before we reached Semuc Champey we reached a bridge which is at 90 degrees to the main road. This is held up by cables reaching across the road and we were too high to make the turn because of the cables so we were stuck.
We had meant to stay the night at Semuc Champey (in the parking lot which actually was ideal) however as we couldn’t get there we knew we would have to drive back to Lanquin that night. Fortunately there was just room to turn around in the area before the bridge
The entrance to Semuc Champey itself was only a five minute walk from where we were parked and we paid the Q50 per person entrance fee and went in. The site itself is unique in that a big river disappears into an underground tunnel and then on top of the tunnel there are spring fed pools which flow into the main river when it reappears from the tunnel. The pools are beautiful.
There is a pretty strenuous hike up to a mirador (viewpoint) above the pools which takes about ¾ hour round trip. The trail is really slippery and the descent was quite difficult. The view is amazing though.
We didn’t spend as long as we wanted to at Semuc Champey as we knew we needed to drive out and the condition of the road was hanging over us. On top of this there was a heavy rain shower while we were there which had us a bit worried.
The drive back up initially went well – the beast was coping well with the steep inclines (albeit in 2 Low which has a top speed of around 9kph). There were some really slippery bits where we had to engage the diff lock to stop the wheels spinning but we kept forward momentum. One bit was particularly scary with a small washout and a steep drop to one side and the truck started slipping towards it – I managed to keep us going and breathed a big sigh of relief once we had traction and were past the washout.
All this was too good to last though and on a very steep incline we hit a deep patch of mud and dug in. We were stuck. After reversing and having a couple of attempts at different routes we kept slipping off the centre of the road into the deep mud on the left.
I leapt out of the cab and started to try to get rid of the rut and place stones in the worst bits to give us some traction. After only a few minutes though an ambulance arrived trying to get past us (a 4×4) and then a pickup truck full of locals also arrived. We were surrounded by people all giving advice in Spanish!
We managed to back up down the slope to a slightly wider section of the road where the ambulance could get past. It was quickly followed by the pickup truck which managed to scratch the side of the Beast. We didn’t notice at the time though.
When the road was clear I got our shovel and spent half an hour rebuilding the road. I dug out the big ruts and put tracks of stones in the main pathway. Then with the aid of our sand ladders to help maintain traction we tried another run at this section of the climb. We stormed on through. We were helped by a couple of locals in rebuilding the road – pretty ineffectually. One of them was really drunk and kept falling over and sliding down the road. When I was driving towards the sand ladders he kept moving one and Sarah kept moving it back – before they both had to jump out the way as I came storming through.
We now had a race against time to make it back to Lanquin before dark – I really didn’t want to drive this road in the dark. We just made it back to Lanquin as darkness was falling and pulled into the car park at the Grutas de Lanquin (a cave system with millions of bats). We were very relieved to get here but knew we still had the road up out of the valley from Lanquin in the morning.
It rained solidly all night – so this added to our anxiety about the drive out. In the end we made it and it only took an hour to drive the 10km out. I’ve never been so happy to see tarmac !
Finca Ixobel
From Tikal we drove South along the main road from the North to the famous traveller’s stop of Finca Ixobel. This is a big ranch which has camping, rooms and a big communal restaurant. When we arrived the camping area was completely waterlogged and we didn’t want to risk getting bogged in the mud so we parked up outside the main building.
We spent a couple of nights relaxing on the ranch including sitting by their big swimming lake. It was nice to recharge the batteries somewhat.
Tikal
Tikal has the reputation of being the greatest of all the Mayan sites. Tikal was founded around 900BC but it wasn’t until around 250BC that the first major ceremonial structures were erected. It wasn’t until 400AD that Tikal came to be a dominant superpower in the Mayan world and this was through an alliance with Teotihuacan in central Mexico.
We arrived at the entrance gate to Tikal, which is about 17km from the ruins, at around 1pm. This was too early to buy a ticket for the next day, which you can only buy after 4pm. We parked up at a small restaurant just before the entrance to have some lunch. They had a series of Ziplines here and we thought we should give it a go.
The ziplining was good fun. On the later ziplines I practiced turning upside down and Sarah did a tandem run where you go in a superman position.
Just before 4pm we purchased our tickets for Tikal and made the run in to the actual site. You are timed by the rangers for your journey and must stick to the limit of 40kph.
Once at Tikal there are two camping options and we went to the Jaguar Inn which we had heard was slightly cheaper. It wasn’t the greatest spot in but they had showers, toilets and power for us and it was only a 100 yards from the main park entrance.
As soon as we arrived we headed off to walk round some of the site before dark. Tikal itself is absolutely massive covering over a square km. This means that to give it a fair go you have to walk at least 6km and a lot of this Is either up or down some fairly steep tracks through the jungle. On top of this a few of the pyramids can be climbed up steep ladders attached to the sides and these top out at 70m.
On our first evening here we visited the central acropolis which has two large pyramids and then walked over to Temple IV which is the largest pyramid. From the top of this pyramid you can see a huge vista as you are above the treetops and the other large pyramids poking up above the trees.
We watched sunset from this pyramid and then had to make our way back quickly through the gloomy jungle to make it back to the truck before it was pitch black.
Just near the base of Temple IV we had seen a big group of coatimundi that were fairly unafraid of people – there must have been around 20 of them.
In the morning we set out for our exploration of the rest of Tikal and we walked round the whole perimeter of the site checking off all the major buildings. There are long stretches of path through the jungle where you don’t see another person or even any buildings.
When we reached the lost world which is a collection of buildings and smaller pyramids we came across an ocellated Turkey which was wandering around between the ruins. A lot more dramatic than the turkeys we are used to.
It took us around 4 hours to complete our tour of Tikal and just as we returned to the truck it started to rain quite heavily.
Yaxhá
Not too far from the Belize border there is a turnoff down a 15km dirt road which leads to the ruined city of Yaxhá. The track is in pretty good condition and the entry fee includes camping so this is an ideal destination for overlanders. Very few people come here so its pretty likely that you will have the site to yourself.
The city of Yaxha is situated on a plateau over a big lake (Laguna Yaxhá) and is a very big site. Apparently Survivor Guatemala was filmed here – if anyone has seen this ! Not much is actually known about this city because of the lack of intact inscriptions found.
Yaxha is deep in the jungle and from the top of the pyramids all you can see is jungle. It is actually only about 15km from Tikal as the crow flies but much further by road.
The jungle in Guatemala is different to that in Mexico in that it seems much more alive. We saw a pack of coatimundi ferreting around in the trees, monkeys in the trees and there were exotic birds everywhere.
The campsite at Yaxhá is right on the lake shore and was a very peaceful and quiet place to spend the night.
Belize – Guatemala Border
From San Ignacio it’s a 20 minute drive to the border. On the Belize side there is a big building across the road with a very large car park in front of it. There is plenty of room to pull in and park. You have to go into the Departures hall on the right hand side of the building. This is very straightforward, although before you can exit the country you have to pay a BZ$37.50 exit charge. This seems a bit steep to me but there you are. After paying the charge you have to visit customs which is a bit more interesting.
Customs is in the arrivals side of the building so you cross over via a door midway down the departures hall. You go to the customs desk which is for arrivals. Present these guys with your import permit and your passport and they will cancel the import.
Then its back into the Departures hall to go to immigration to get your passport stamped. Only the driver is allowed to be in the vehicle crossing the border so any passengers might as well carry on through. The driver has to reverse and walk back out of the building to get the vehicle.
Outside the building are a whole load of moneychangers. We were offered 7.5 Quetzales to the US Dollar – the actual rate was 7.8 – so not to bad and we changed up all our Belize Dollars at this point. You will need Quetzales as part of the process on the Guatemalan side.
After this you can drive through the border itself and they will look at your passport and let you through. Pick up your passenger and that’s the Belize side done.
Once through you should see what looks like a big car wash in front of you. This is an automatic sprayer which will spray your vehicle with insecticide. Quite why they do this at land borders where the insects can fly, crawl or walk across is anyone’s guess. Once through this there is a window on the right hand side where you should pay for the spraying – we paid 46 Quetzales. We tried to get out of this by ignoring the window but a man came and got us when we returned to the truck after the rest of the import process.
There is really limited parking on the Guatemalan side – its opposite the place you pay for the spraying but really only room for 5 or 6 cars. There was no room for us so we parked on the side of the road.
The immigration building is on your right and is a relatively new partly open building. There’s even a big flatscreen TV which was showing the Animal Planet Channel when we were there.
There is a big counter at the end of the building and immigration is on the right hand end. It should be a simple matter to get a stamp in your passport. We got 90 days without asking.
The other end of the counter is SAT or customs. You need to give them your passport, Registration Document and driving licence (and 1 copy of all three docs). The chap doing our import took about 30 minutes – and kept making mistakes – but we got there in the end and after signing a few documents had to go to the bank which is in the front right corner of the building to pay 160 Quetzals for the Temporary import permit. Then back to the SAT counter for the final permit to be finally issued. Fortunately the border was very quiet and there weren’t any queues anywhere.
After this you are done and get back in your truck and head to the place with the cones across the road. Someone will check the import permit and then you are free to enter Guatemala.
We have heard that there is a toll charge to drive through the town but we didn’t see anyone charging it so we just drove straight through. All in all it had taken us just over an hour.
Overall this was a pretty non-stressful border. I’m sure things will get more difficult !
Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM)
We stopped in San Ignacio on the Western side of Belize. There is a camping place called Inglewood Camping at which we were the only guests where we stayed. There was a fair bit of unseasonable rain while we were there.
We drove into the town when the rain stopped to arrange a tour for the next day to the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave system (ATM cave) . The town itself was pretty small and uninspiring but the people there were very friendly as they seem to be throughout Belize – and of course English speaking which is great.
The ATM cave is a 1hr drive from San Ignacio – the bulk of it down a narrow bumpy track. You arrive at a small parking area with some pretty horrible toilets which is about a 45 minute walk through the jungle to the cave entrance.
The walk has its challenges including crossing the same river 3 times – it never gets more than waist deep though. More challenging is the mud that the path is made out of which makes it all very slippery.
We were pretty lucky in that there was only the two of us plus 1 other on the trip. Other groups had up to 8 people per guide.
On arrival at the cave entrance we were given head torches by the guide and put our cameras in dry bags. The entrance to the cave is deep water as a river flows out of the cave. You have to swim about 10 metres until you get into shallower water and can walk.
The cave itself is very big with the ceiling often 20m or more high. The river running through it varies in depth and in some places you have to swim short distances and in others the water is only ankle deep.
After walking about ½ a mile inside the cave we climbed out of the river into a dry tunnel which was 5m or so above the water. The rules say that you have to take off any shoes at this stage – put on a shirt if you haven’t been wearing one – and put socks on your feet. All rules to protect what is to come.
This dry cave was used by the Mayans as a burial chamber and as a site for some of their religious ceremonies. Inside the cave 13 skeletons have been found often in pairs where an older person is paired with a younger one who would be their helper in the afterlife. Also there are large quantities of Mayan pottery which would have been used to hold offerings to the gods.
Everything is remarkably well preserved and you can’t help but feel if this was in any other country there is absolutely no way tourists would be allowed in.
This part of the cave has some brilliant decorations as well.
On the way back out of the cave I saw another gallery above the river and asked our guide if there were any Mayan remains up there. He said he didn’t know and suggested we check it out. It turns out that this was a shortcut across the cave and we dropped down into the river after about 50m.
This was an excellent trip. Even without the Mayan remains the caving bit of the trip would have been cool but the Mayan artifacts make the trip amazing.
Through Belize
After leaving Bermudian Landing we headed to the Belize Zoo which is on the main highway about 50km from Belize City. The Belize Zoo has a reputation as being the best zoo South of the USA.
The entry fee is quite steep at BZ$30 each and they have a rule that you are not allowed a camera lens longer than 100mm. They actually check cameras for this. However if your camera is small enough they don’t care.
They Zoo has only animals that are native to Belize and the highlights are the Jaguars and the Harpy Eagles (which are extinct in Belize now but are being reintroduced by the zoo). The zoo isn’t that big but has very entertaining signs and lets you see a lot of animals that you probably won’t see in the wild.
After a couple of hours here we were thoroughly hot and determined to find a way to cool down. We headed for the coast and a campsite that we knew called the Cucumber Bay Marina. We could camp here for only BZ$15 with electricity, water but more important access to their beach resort which normally costs USD10 per head. What a bargain.
We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out by the big saltwater pool and playing on the waterslide. We were the only people there.
The next morning we headed off to see some of the southern end of Belize. This involved driving down an unpaved road (the Manatee Highway) towards the coast. About half way along the road we were flagged down by a guy who had managed to drive off the road and was now thoroughly stuck. We offered to pull him out which was fairly short work for the Beast. We then had to jump start him from a spare battery before he could get going. He seemed pretty unphased by the whole experience.
We hit the coast at a place called Gale’s Point and went for a walk along a spit into the lagoon here. But we weren’t so enamoured so decided to drive back inland along the Hummingbird Highway.
We had hoped to stop off at a lodge called Caves Branch which allowed camping in their parking lot. We wanted to do a cave tubing trip with them however when we arrived we were told we couldn’t camp. Seems pretty short sighted because we were offering them business for the next day and all we wanted was to park overnight in their empty car park which you can’t even see from the lodge ! So from here we drove onto the main highway and to San Ignacio where we stopped off at a camping site called Inglewood.
Community Baboon Sanctuary
After entering Belize we drove down to Orange Walk where we stopped for a quick lunch and a walk around. We weren’t very impressed so we carried on Southwards. The great thing about Belize is that it is tiny and you can get anywhere in a fairly short drive.
A paved road leads off the main highway to a place called Bermudian Landing. This is the home of the Community Baboon Sanctuary. Over 200 land owners in the surrounding area have joined the association and agreed to keep a 50ft strip of land at the edges of their property as original jungle. This creates corridors of 100ft for wildlife to move around. The main reason for this is the preservation of the Black Howler Monkey which has become endangered.
We arrived at the HQ of the sanctuary – a fairly unimpressive wooden hut with bats on the ceiling – quite late so we checked in with the guy there and paid BZ$10 to camp for the night. This only involved parking outside the building. It was really hot and humid in this part of Belize and just didn’t cool down at all over night.
We decided to do a night hike through the reserve with a guide to see if we could see any nocturnal animals. This was a complete bust but we did see a nocturnal bird. The guide that we had was completely drunk which was quite amusing. On the way to the jungle he stopped off at a bar to say hello to some of his friends and they persuaded him to sing for him. So we hung out here for a few minutes while one of the guys in the bar played guitar and he sang a real bluesy number.
In the morning we had arranged another hike to go and see the Howler monkeys and we were slightly dismayed to see the same guide. However he was completely different and really professional now !
We walked through the jungle for about 15 minutes before we came to a tree with a family of five howler monkeys and our guide, Brian, held out a piece of banana (a cliché I know) and called them down. They came scampering down the tree – all except the adult male who stayed aloof and occasionally made the challenging roar that Howlers are known for.
We spent about half an hour with the monkeys which was really cool and then went back to the truck before heading off.
Mexico – Belize Border Crossing
There is only one border crossing between Mexico and Belize and this is just South of Chetumal.
Before crossing the border make sure you fill up with Fuel as it is way cheaper in Mexico than Belize. Belize is over US$5 per US Gallon for Diesel compared with under US$3 per US Gallon in Mexico. We actually met a Belizean truck driver filling up just before the border so we knew it was the right thing to do.
As you approach the border you can see a bridge in the distance. The river is the actual border between the countries. But first you have to check out with immigration on the Mexican side. This is a small shack at the side of the road just before you come to the border station. You need to pull in alongside the road next to this shack (there isn’t much space to park but someone should show you where to go). You need to show your passport here and hand over your tourist card. We weren’t asked for any money but some people have been asked to pay US$20 to exit the country – this isn’t a real charge so always ask for a receipt.
After this you should have a stamp in your passport. The next step is to drive through the border post and pull in immediately on your left. This is the Banjercito where you need to get them to cancel your vehicle import documentation. Only do this if you don’t intend to drive through Mexico again in the next ten years. They should refund your deposit if you gave one – we didn’t. Someone will come out to your vehicle and take digital picture of it and should remove the sticker on your windscreen too.
That’s the Mexican formalities done with so you then get back in your vehicle and drive over the bridge.
Almost immediately the other side of the bridge you should see a small white building with “Atlantic Insurance” written on it. You should stop here and go inside and buy liability insurance for your time in Belize. We paid US$25 for 1 month of insurance (way too much but 1 month was basically the same price as 2 weeks). Liability Insurance is mandatory in Belize.
After this get back in your vehicle and drive down the right hand fork in the road (to the left is the free trade zone with lots of duty free shops). You will drive past a casino on the left and then soon after this you will see a sign saying something about Quarantine just by a road going to the right. Don’t got the right but immediately after this fork in the road is a small hut. You must stop there to get your wheels sprayed with disinfectant. We paid US$6.50 for this privilege. You will receive a receipt for this which you will need to enter Belize. We didn’t stop here and were sent back before we could go any further.
A bit further on the road bends to the left – you should go straight on and park in small car park on the left next to a building.
Next to the car park is a fence and behind this fence are the moneychangers. You have to do business with them through the fence but they seem fairly honest and the guy we dealt with was fair.
The immigration building is just next the car park and you need to go in here and first go to the immigration desk. This was really quick for us – the immigration officer asked us how long we were planning to stay and we got our entry stamp straight away.
When we arrived they were celebrating International Customs Day or some such which involved a Customs officer DJ’ing load reggae music. So loud that you could hardly hear inside the immigration building. No stern faces here – they do things differently in Belize !
Just past immigration is the customs desk and you need to visit this (on the something to declare side) and get a temporary import form for your vehicle. You also get a stamp in your passport which links to your vehicle. This only took a few minutes and the documents we needed to show were our registration form, our insurance and passport – that’s it – no copies of any document were required.
At this point you turn round and walk back out of the immigration building the way you came – although any passengers need to keep walking and meet the driver the other side of the border.
You pick up your car and drive through the border. At this point you will have to show your import documentation and your proof of being sprayed. Importation of fruit, vegetables, meat and alcohol is not allowed so you will be asked about this. I said we had nothing but a couple of beers and this was accepted as fine and I was allowed to drive through and pick Sarah up. At this point we were in Belize.
The whole process had taken about an hour. The great thing about everything that happens on the Belize side is that it is in English !
FromAtoB 