This is a story-style travel blog featuring my adventure through Central America in the fall of 2023. I did a 17-day tour called Central American Journey, with the company Intrepid. We visited Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. You can read the blog in order, or read about whichever destination intrigues you! Within my stories, I’ll offer some local recommendations and some tips and tricks for a smooth journey. When I travel, I mostly do group tours and the reasons are:
* As a solo woman traveler, it is much safer especially if traveling long distances or to countries that can be dangerous in some parts
*The itineraries are amazing and usually include all of the things you’d want to see and do…and if not, there is free time to do as you wish
*You don’t have to worry about booking transport, finding hotels, etc. Sometimes that can contribute to the adventure, but it’s also nice to sit back and relax and let your tour leader be in charge
* And finally…the people you meet on your tour become your family, and I’ve made lifelong friends in these journeys. For myself, this holds equal importance with exploring new countries.
My plane takes off from Vancouver in the morning; with a short layover in Houston – this means I’ll arrive into Guatemala City in the early evening. My luggage has made it here in one piece (I’ve had some terrible luck on previous trips) and now I head over to immigration. Well, turns out I am supposed to fill out an online declaration before I can enter the country. Let’s say I missed this step due to just straight up not paying attention and not understanding the Spanish signs that told me to do it. Thanks for preparing me, Duolingo. I can’t get the airport WIFI to connect, and I can’t get my eSim to connect either. I end up using my regular phone travel plan for that day. Ugh.
PRO TIP: the best options for staying connected while traveling are eSims (I use Airalo), or buying a sim card in your destination country. Make sure the eSim is activated BEFORE arriving. Haha
I need to get to Antigua, which is about an hour drive from Guatemala City. My plan is to find the shuttle bus that will take me there. A bit cheaper than taxi or Uber. I can’t find it though…I ask an airport employee and he has no idea either. What the? While in the immigration line, I had met a few young guys who also needed to get to Antigua so I ask if I can join them. They have a friend there who has called them a taxi, but it is taking way too long and we’re not sure if we can all fit into one car. I’m at that point of “fuck this”, so I call myself an Uber. It only takes 45 minutes to get to Antigua because it’s late and there’s minimal traffic (in peak hours, it is a nightmare to get in and out of Guatemala City).
Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America; the landscape is scattered with beautiful mountains and volcanoes and Pacific and Caribbean coast beaches. It is rich in ancient Mayan culture, with many temples and ruins throughout the country. It’s the birthplace of chocolate, and also has amazing coffee. Antigua is filled with stunning baroque inspired architecture and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I check into my hotel, Posada Los Bucaros.
It’s a cute place and in a great location for sightseeing. I was in Antigua in 2018, so I am familiar with this charming city. I haven’t eaten much today so I am starving. I walk a few blocks over to a restaurant I visited the last time I was here. It’s called Puerta Once. https://puertaonce.com/ . I peel off my soaking wet rain poncho and settle in for dinner. A giant burger and to drink, the best local beer, Gallo. But now I’m so hungry that I’m not hungry so I only finish half the burger. Dammit.
As I’m leaving, I run into the guys from the airport….what are the chances? They waited almost and hour for that taxi! Phew, glad I didn’t wait with them.
My hotel room is on the second floor, with a cute little Juliet balcony overlooking the inside gardens. It’s small, with just barely enough room for me and my giant suitcase. I unpack a bit and hop into bed, looking forward to a sleep-in tomorrow.
NOPE. Around 5:30AM, I am jolted awake by this very loud bang…sounds like gunfire or a cannon. I don’t know…I’m in a strange land…what could this be? This happens every half hour for the next few hours, with some weird music coming from who knows where. It is impossible to get back to sleep because these explosions keep scaring the shit out of me. Around 7am, I venture out of my room to ask the hotel people and one lady laughs and says…iglesia fiesta. Ok, yeah, not funny. What she means is today is Dia del nino – Children’s Day. The ruckus is coming from the nearby church. Makes sense, but I’m still not very happy about it. I manage to fall back into some uninterrupted sleep for a couple more hours.
In the early afternoon, I head out to find a place for brunch. No rain today; it’s hot and sunny. I end up at Luna de Miel, and sit outside on the rooftop patio. https://www.lunademielantigua.com/wp_ldma/.
Everything on the menu looks amazing, so it’s hard to decide. I have a multi fruit smoothie, and now the big decision – sweet or savory crepe? I go for savory, and in it is goat cheese, onion, honey, almonds and spinach. Wow!
After brunch, I walk over to the beautiful La Merced church, and have a look at the weekend market stalls scattered over the church grounds.
I walk down to have another gaze at the Santa Catalina Arch, a landmark within the city.
There are lots of families out today, enjoying the festivities.
Parque Central is hopping; children are playing around the fountain, there are vendors selling everything from dolls to hats to balloons.
I can’t stay too long, as there is a van picking me up at the hotel for my afternoon trip to hike Pacaya Volcano…little do I know this will be the worst experience of this entire trip….
After we’ve picked everyone up from various hotels around Antigua, it is an hour and a half drive to the volcano. The road is windy and I manage to avoid carsickness, but my ears are getting completely messed up as we drive to higher altitude. (I’ve started this trip with a minor cold, and my ears will stay messed up for the next couple of weeks. Ugh.). There are tons of volcanoes in Guatemala, and Pacaya is one of three active ones here. Once we arrive at the starting point for the hike, it starts to pour rain. Like, “do I want to hike up a volcano in this shit weather” kind of rain. Luckily, I have brought my rain poncho, but let’s face it, I’m still getting wet. A group of young boys are trying to sell everyone walking sticks for the hike, and I understand the value of one of these things, so I gladly pay the few dollars to rent one. Let’s Go!
About 20 minutes uphill into this hike, and I am struggling. If I could just go at a slower pace it would be fine, but everyone else on this tour is much younger and more fit than I, so they trek ahead and I’m left with the guide…constantly asking me if I am ok and if I’d rather rent a horse to get up. That wasn’t really what I had planned but it’s either that or I turn around and wait at the bottom for a couple hours. I’m not super comfortable on horses either, but I figure I’ll give it a go. For some reason, whenever I get on a horse the handler can’t seem to figure out how to get the stirrups to a level where they reach my feet. Seriously. So I have zero balance and have to just hold on to the front of the saddle with my arm strength. I foresee every muscle in my body being sore tomorrow.
I get to the viewpoint before everyone else so I have some time to admire the beauty of the volcano on my own. The top is periodically covered by clouds, as they casually drift over its peak.
When the rest of the group catches up, we walk further into a garden of rocky lava remains and hot smoke rising from the ground.
The guide has some marshmallows to roast under one of the hotter rocks.
The local dogs enjoy this part (they have escorted us over to this area. Haha).
The sun is starting to set, so the guide says we must make our way down before it gets too dark. I figure going down will be much easier, especially with my handy walking stick. No, it’s not. I feel like I’m going at a good pace, but I’m still slower than everyone. And that stick saved my life and from falling and breaking my ankle. It’s slippery walking down on the volcanic sand.
At one point, the girls ahead of me stop and seem a bit scared – it looks like they’ve spotted wildlife. Right away I think OMG it’s a panther and we’re all going to die on this volcano. But relax girls, it’s a COW. I’m like, just walk around it for god sakes. HAHAHA. It’s getting dark, so I whip out my cell phone for light but it really doesn’t help because of the foggy mist. Everyone else has gone far ahead of me but I catch up with one of the girls who turned back from the hike a couple of hours ago (I should have done this too?), and I have no idea where she came from but thank God for her because otherwise, I may have had a meltdown/panic attack. So it’s the 2 of us, with very little light, we can’t see the ground we’re walking on, we have no idea how far we are from the bottom, or where the guide is. I know they can’t leave without us, but still. I am SOOOO pissed off. In my defense, I did read some reviews about this hike and it said moderate level of fitness and someone said they brought their mom so I figured I’d be ok. Lesson learned. No more hilly hikes!
PRO TIP: feel free to explore on your own, but I like to use the website www.getyourguide.com for local tours and activities.
By the time I get back, it’s late and a lot of restaurants are closing soon because it’s a Sunday and a holiday. For a cheap easy meal, I walk a few blocks over to McDonald’s. This place is huge and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more chaotic McDonald’s. It’s just so busy. While there are many other great local options for food when traveling, I also find it kind of fun to check out a McD’s here and there. I bring it back to my hotel room and that Big Mac completely hits the spot. After this shitshow of a day, I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep with no exploding cannons in the morning………
*for more on Antigua, check out my previous blog Glorious in Guatemala Antigua Day 1 & 2 2018.
Everywhere On Earth With Erin 