(23 March) Belize - Lake Atitlán

Our first stop after leaving Belize City was Gales Point, further down the coast and about 95 km and 1 hour 45 minutes away. The lagoon here is famous for manatees, which drink from a fresh water spring. We made a tentative arrangement with the manageress to offer half hour boat trips for our participants at approximately ten US dollar s a head.

We continued south for 40 km to the little port of Dangriga. The streets were full of the hustle and bustle of daily life - an ideal place to pick up supplies.

Next we took the Hummingbird Highway, a road as beautiful as it sounds, through green mountains whose rich scenery is a wonderful mix of forestry, jungle, and citrus orchards.

After about 68 km and 55 minutes, we came to the Blue Hole, a jungle pool close to the highway. A few people were swimming. The water was inviting in the heat, but unfortunately we didn’t have time for a dip.

On our way to the Guatemala border, we stopped to visit the Land Rover garage of Graham Herbert, a Welshman by birth, a very interesting character and self professed Land Rover geek who claims that green blood runs through his veins.

Graham has lived in many different parts of the world, including the Middle East and North America. He and his wife moved to Belize around a year ago and decided to set up his Land Rover facility near the small village of Georgeville. He confessed that this was certainly not to make his millions but to lead a fairly easygoing existence. Graham kindly offered to provide any possible assistance to our participants’ vehicles during our time in Belize.

Ferry to Xunantunich, Belize

Our final stop before leaving Belize was the small Maya site of Xunantunich. What made this excursion particularly enjoyable was the hand-cranked return ferry journey across a small river. The man operating the ferry soon picked up on my English accent and insisted on calling me ‘mate’. This gentleman, who had worked on the ferry for many years, had lots of experiences (not all favourable) of the British Army that used to patrol the Belize-Guatemalan border nearby. He informed me that in his experience Englishmen turned into animals whenever a football competition was on television - I found it hard to argue with that!

The car park for the ruins was 1.5km from the ferry. From here it was a steep uphill walk of approximately 10 minutes to the first Maya ruins. It was quite late when we reached Xunantunich and we worried about crossing the border in time to reach Tikal before sunset, so spent only 10 minutes at this site, which had some good examples of well preserved ruins.

About 10 minutes after returning to the main road, we reached the Belize-Guatemala border 4.5 km away. It took us 45 minutes to go through both sets of formalities and enter Guatemala, our third country. After 22 km the good gravel surface gave way to asphalt, and we made quick progress to reach Tikal, 77 km further, in an hour and 35 minutes after leaving the frontier.

You feel that you are somewhere very special when you visit Tikal, one of the most impressive examples of Maya ruins in all of Central America. There is an amazing sense of being completely surrounded by wildlife - the air is full of the sounds of the jungle. The overriding feature here is the great height of many of the structures. Many of the ruins have staircases attached and visitors can climb to the top to experience the awesome view of the surrounding rainforest.

From Tikal it took only 50 minutes to reach the Villa Maya hotel near Flores. We chose to head straight to the hotel rather than taking the route around Lake Petén Itzá, which Arne and Kurt completed the following morning.

The Villa Maya resort is a beautiful lagoonside property surrounded by rainforest. It really is a first class resort and like the Chan-Kah and the Mayaland Resort, it has a ‘back to nature’ feel which is achieved in a very luxurious way.

The resort has both bedrooms in blocks close to the main complex or cabins. The rooms are very modern in décor although simple in style. The ‘back to nature’ ideology at the resorts dictates the absence of televisions and telephones; there are however minibar facilities! Each room has a balcony where guests can sit and enjoy the surrounding views.

The very beautiful swimming pool is set beside the lagoon, which is also overlooked by the splendid bar and restaurant/bar. Crocodiles often float towards the restaurant during meal times, hoping for a guest to take pity and throw in some food. The crocs have killed two of the hotel’s dogs in the past few years!

Next day, we took the fast sweeping blacktop road towards Sayaxché, about 86 km away, where we took a ferry across the Río de la Pasión. The crossing took about 15 minutes - the vessel will take up to 12 4x4s.

Our next stop was Cobán, about 190 km or 2 hours 40 minutes away, a very busy town with plenty of shops and places to eat. A colonial cathedral overlooks the town square.

At San Cristóbal Verapaz (27 km and 35 minutes) we took the turnoff onto Highway 7 West, a rough but beautiful stretch of road. We turned a sharp corner shortly after joining the highway to a growing line of traffic. Kurt jumped out to investigate and discovered that road repairs were taking place up ahead producing quite a delay.

We sat for a while watching a local entrepreneur selling ice-cream to the other frustrated road users before Kurt finally decided that he had had enough and went to talk to the guy in charge at the barrier. After a few minutes a smiling Kurt returned to the car and informed us that he had told the chap that we were a party of travellers who had a particular interest in road repairs. We were given permission to move around the traffic queue, through the barrier and onwards to take some photos of the heavy machinery at work. After five minutes, a smiling chat with the site manager and several photos we were allowed to continue carefully through the site and barrier on the other side. It seemed having ‘Reconocimiento de Ruta’ on the side of our vehicle had its advantages. I am not sure what the road users on the other side of the site were mouthing at us as we passed them but I am sure they were just cries of hello?

We passed through different sized villages and towns of various interest. The mountain scenery surrounding the highway was breathtaking as we drove along variable standards of asphalt, gravel and dirt roads. After a few hours we found ourselves faced with yet another queue of traffic; this time not even Kurt’s charm could not get us through. After a quick chat with a roadworker we discovered that the entire Highway 7 was currently being asphalted, with Japanese investment funds. We had to wait for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes before being allowed to continue.

At last we arrived in Chichicastenango, famed for its weekly markets. The lateness of our arrival made it difficult to get a true impression of the town (although the guidebooks certainly make it sound like a wonderful place to visit.) We confirmed that the market will be in full swing when our participants arrive on a Thursday afternoon.

With the help of the local people, we plotted a route through the town’s winding streets which were lined with fine colonial architecture. We also passed the town’s main plaza which has two fine churches. Even after dark, Chichicastenango had an interesting air about it.

A winding highway took us through the black mountains towards Panajachel. Before long the twisty road took us down towards the dark shape of Lake Atitlán . The 57 km journey from Chichicastenango to Panajachel had taken 1 hour 15 minutes.

Children of Lake Atitlán

The Hotel Atitlán is situated on the shores of the beautiful lake of the same name – a very special location. From the rear of the hotel, the lake spreads out like a beautiful rich blue carpet with towering mist-covered volcanoes as it’s backdrop. This spot is a true paradise on earth.

The style of the hotel reminded me of an Alpine mountain lodge in Austria. There is much use of dark stained wooden beams and old fashioned furniture. An ornate botanical garden surrounds the hotel, providing a home to many species of plants and tropical birds.

The bedrooms are very spacious and continued with the mountain lodge theme, complete with wonderful views to the lake, gardens and volcanoes. There is a large restaurant at the hotel and a separate bar where you can relax with a drink whilst enjoying the view. The hotel also has a decent sized outdoor swimming pool and hot tub.

We spent two nights in Panajachel but due to the lateness of our arrival on the first night we did not have enough time to journey around the lake. Arne and Kurt completed this the following morning.

Whilst Arne and Kurt where completing this journey, I met my contact at the hotel before heading into the village on a motorised rickshaw. I only had chance to visit the town’s main street, which is very much aimed at the tourism market. There were many gift shops selling a wide range of arts and crafts, plus plenty of bars, coffee shops and restaurants.

We enjoyed many more breathtaking views of Lake Atitlán after leaving the hotel on our journey towards Antigua Guatemala. This part of the trip will stay in my memory forever - the surreal sight of the damage caused by the mudslides brought about by Hurricane Stan last year. This highlighted the sheer force of nature that must have swept through, such a placid part of the world - simply phenomenal.

We witnessed small cottages that were buried halfway up their front doors in deep mud. Further along we saw the unbelievable sight of a huge chunk of main road completely destroyed by what must have been an inordinate force of mud, lost forever down the side of a cliff face. The damage was evident in many different places along this part of our trip. Every local I spoke in this area seemed happy and friendly, and yet whole communities of people were lost during that fateful night last October. These people should certainly be saluted for their bravery in the face of such loss.

Hurricane Stan Mudslide damage, Guatemala

© Copyright 4x4xplore.com

Top of Page