On the road again . . . From State of Emergency to Semuc Champeck

 

Well, we finally got out of Antigua, made it past Guatemala City (where there remains a state of emergency after recent police killings) and are on our way north, towards the famous El Mirador hike in the jungle,

But first, we had to experience a bit of the not-so-well-known sights around town. Having covered the top things to do as a tourist in Antigua, here's a quick look at the other great locations we discovered in town that just don't seem to have the same advertising budget.

Cerro del Tenedor

So there are a LOT of hills to clime in Antigua. You could climb a different one every day of the week and still have more hills to climb. But the one that blew our minds away was the Cerro de Tenedor (peak of the fork, as my best translation), which features art from some 1960s/70s to modern day Guatemalan artists. 

The site is now managed by a famous hotel chain, and the area has been transformed into one of the most beautiful natural and artistic vistas in the city, complete with a museum dedicated to the famous Guatemalan artist, Efrain Recinos, a top restaurant, hotel and event space. 

Art outside the museum

One of Recino's murals in a series called "communication"

A sculpture in the garden (there's another sculpture inside)

Monkey dogs

Recino's famous Volkswagon

The thing is, it's essentially free to pack a picnic and head to Cerro del Tenedor to enjoy all the art, gardens and museums. We paid for transport, but the hotel (which has another hotel in town) runs a free shuttle to and from town. We loved it so much we visited and picnicked there twice. Once with Olly, Amanda, Marla, Goldie and Orry, and once again with our friend Jay and Annie, whom we met a year ago at Blue Skies. 

Installation near the bathrooms

Wooden stylized Quetzal (I think)

Cerveceria Quatorze

I do love a great brewery, especially one in a jungle. We met a couple in Mexico who basically travel around and help set up breweries, and this is one they had recommended to us while we were back in Mexico. 

You take a shuttle from Antigua and ride on a very bouncy Chicken bus to get there. On the weekends, there is live music, drinks, views of the sunset and lava-spouting volcano. Even food trucks. 

We ran into a Guatemalan couple there who were celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary and had come out to see the singer, Di WAV, a famous Guatemalan-Swiss chanteuse who was playing that night. They were so happy to see her!

Stage at Cerveceria 14 with DiWAV

Fuego at sunset

Happy place

Visit with Jay and Annie

We also had a blast visiting with Jay and Annie, who had a lovely, secluded AirBnB near us in Santa Clara. 

We went to various restaurants, played Euchre, shared dinners, had a picnic at Cerro del Tenedor. The fun culminated with Ivan and Jay watching football at a local bar while Annie and I did a very Antiguan photo shoot, followed by my nephew James arriving Sunday night from Iqualuit - despite the national state of emergency in Guatemala and "generational" storm hitting North America shutting down a majority of flights . The boy was born lucky.

Ivan, Jay, Annie and I in their AirBnB

Vagamundo Camping

We were self-exiled in Antigua in part because of the state of emergency, but mainly because we aimed, for the first time ever, to meet our accountant's January 24 deadline for submitting our business taxes before leaving. We also wanted to watch the football playoffs with Jay. And - full confession - we loved, loved, loved our campsite, Vagamundo. 

We met the "locals", many long-term residents, who sleep in converted trailers, VWs, trucks, boats and even a helicopter. Plus a ton of travelers like ourselves who came in and out of the campground sharing information on the Pan-American Highway. All would gather around the fire pit at night, which was "guarded" by a giant  black wooden jaguar. Mark, a long-time resident, would keep painting the jaguar's eyes and claws . The staff would routinely remove the paint shortly afterwards. And so passed time in Vagamundo...

Vagamundo campfire, with converted buses behind that visitors can rent.

Lika, the queen dog of the campground.

Ivan's homemade vegan sausages - just had to put them out there.

Abuelo serving tamales and sausages at the nearby square

Antigua to Posada Montana del Quetzal

We finally managed to drag ourselves out of Antigua thought to head into the jungle. Full disclosure: leaving was a bit of a shit show. We left an hour later than planned, then got lost on our way towards our destination, and ended up staying at an isolated restaurant/cabin location off the highway called Posada Montana del Quetzal. 

It's crazy how here in Guatemala even a road stop hotel is stunningly beautiful. 

One of the paths at the hotel

A view of the pools and our bathrooms

There were cabanas, with fireplaces (how we envied those), a playground made of tire and wood, two pools - all surrounded by jungle, woods and trails. 

We ate dinner at the restaurant where we tried the local dish, Kaq'ik, which is basically a boiled turkey leg with a bowl of turkey broth, half a chayote squash and tamales. Surprisingly delicious, though I was smelling and tasting turkey all night.

We decided not to park by the road, in the safe, drained parking lot. Instead, we parked beyond the cabanas, a little too close to the cliff, despite warning on iOverlander that it might be tough to get out in the morning. How bad could it be, we thought?

A lovely, isolated spot

Then night came. And the rains fell. Hard. 

I could not sleep a wink, imagining the newly-tamped dirt underneath us liquifying, our van being swept into the jungle. Then our roof started leaking, and water splashed on my face just as I started to drift off. We rigged up a temporary solution to catch the rain, but both of us had various van subsidence nightmares and woke up cold, unrested, and ready to move on. But not before a good breakfast, the best of which, fortunately, was literally around the corner at our hotel restaurant.

But don't take my word for it. A constant stream of locals kept coming into the restaurant for the restaurant's breakfast.  The parking lot was packed, and I saw at least three Guatemalan ladies in their embroidered finery leap out from under the tarp-covered backend of a pickup truck to grab breakfast before work. Clearly, this is where you eat on the highway here.

Coban

The day was wet, but we made it to Coban relatively easily enough. We had read of the city's famous cardamon (the city's production is the largest in the world), and its coffee culture, and were excited to see the city everyone was raving about. 

But we'd set our Google Maps to take us to pick up groceries at their equivalent of Food Basics, so I guess our route passed by the scenic, tourist locations and instead traveled through your everyday-Guatemalan streets, which - like all everyday streets - is not so exciting in endless drizzle.

Our campsite, though, was unexpectedly wild. At the north end of the city, the National Parque de los Victorias is a wonderful nature reserve with jungle walks, lagoons (with crocodiles!), and gigantic trees full of local birds with the most melodious calls. Then again, some bird calls were so screeching-ly awful I thought they were monkeys. Regardless, it was exotic, despite being able to hear the rabid soccer fans cheering at the nearby stadium as we made our way through the bush. 

Campsite on the edge of the city in National Parque de las Victorias

Jungle walk

The crocodile warning

Ivan looking for quetzals

Hard to see but it's a crocodile!

The signage, shown below, was a bit lacking however, and we ended up getting quite lost (the story of our time in Guatemala so far). Luckily, an armed man directed us down a very suspicious short cut. We made it back with about 10 minutes to spare before sunset. We were walking pretty fast by then, I can tell you.

The site map. Yes, this is all there is to take you through the jungle and "crocodile habitat".

Leaf cutter ants! (Will post video to Instagram.)

 Semuc Champey

Which brings us to today. We slept late under the constant jungle drizzle in the park, but finally hit the road at 11 for what we thought would be a short, paved 2-hour drive to Semuc Champey. 

Only ... we ran into a dense fog along the way. This cut our our GPS, and we ended up driving WAAAAY out off the highway. Suddenly we're on these pot-holed dirt roads, no other vehicles in site, with locals staring at us wondering where the heck we'd come from. 

The fog descends and GPS gets cut out

However, we soon realized our error (before Google did) and turned around, only to run into yet another GPS error that had us winding through cobblestone streets following the other gringos-in-cars-following-google before being turned around by a cop, one vehicle at a time, and sent back to the highway towards the alternative route. Which, to be fair to the cop, was actually properly signposted and a way easier route. All to say, we got here late but safe and sound. 

We turned into the only campground in the area that our van could (barely) make it to, Camp Rana (no website, only a facebook post) and managed to squeeze the van into a mud-slicked parking lot above a riverfront campground and behind a tienda. We only barely made it in. Still waiting to see if we make it out.

Parking lot of Camp Rana

The walk to the viewpoint at Semuc Champey is muddy, slippery but well trod. Not for the faint of heat, but what a view! Turquoise pools, cascading down into a cloud-forest valley. 

At the top of the climb, with the pools below us,

The climb to the mirador (viewpoint)

The Semuc Champey pools

The walk, reportedly 30 minutes, took an hour in the poor conditions, but we were rewarded by a swim in the softest water I've ever swam in and a free manicure from the local fish.

Swimming in the pools and getting fish pedicures

Now we're in the camper van, praying for no more rain. But no one here is listening. The hope is that the rain eases early and we make it out of here with minimal squealing tires, so we can head towards Flores, where we're planning to hike the Mirador with James. 

Eating Chef Ivan's Pumpkin Lentil soup out of the drizzle

Stay safe, and warm, and we'll let you know when we make it out of here and up north!