Looking for travel tips for Guatemala? Look no further. In this blog I will show you all the things my girlfriend and I did whilst visiting this beautiful country. This way you can look for things you like and make your own travel route for Guatemala.

We visited this country together with neighboring Belize for a month during the last summer. Guatemala is an amazing country with a very rich culture and history and diverse landscape. Varying from Mayan ruins and dense vegetation n the north-east to massive mountains and volcanoes in the middle and north-west and back to the more flatter regions along the southern shoreline. The country offers something for everyone and that's one of the reasons why you will find all types of travelers in Guatemala. Not only backpackers but also families, especially around the more popular cities.

Although we visited Belize no so extensive as Guatemala, I'd like to share some of the things we did there with you as well. Belize is different than Guatemala and has a more Caribbean vibe. One side of the country is entirely covered with coastline and more inland you will find a lot of jungle.

To make sure I don't miss anything and to keep everything readable for you, I will post multiple parts of our visit to both countries! So be sure to not miss out on the next one.

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We flew from Amsterdam via Mexico City to Guatemala City. We arrived early in the morning and on the airfield we looked for an ATM because we had to pay for a cab and a bus. Turned out the only ATM was broken and the money exchange office had crazy rates, so I had no intention of going into business with them. Luckily we had some emergency US Dollars with us so we grabbed a cab and were on our way to the bus station. The cab driver was very helpful and even brought us to an ATM first so we could buy our bus tickets at the station. Guatemala City is not known for its safe neighborhoods and nice architecture. Although we met a lot of people who stayed there for some nights and though it was alright. Just don't go out alone at night. We decided to skip the city and head straight to Rio Dulce. Most people go to Antigua first, a small colonial town just 40 kilometers away, but we wanted to go to Belize first and Rio Dulce is kind of on the route to Belize and mostly avoided by travelers because of its remote location.

The bus we took to Frontera, proper company!

After a 7-hour bus trip, we arrived in Fronteras. This little town lays next to the Rio Dulce (meaning sweet river) between two lakes. The town itself is not very exciting. It's a road with some shops on both sides and insanely big trucks continuously passing by. The real attraction is the river itself. As mentioned before, the whole area is a bit remote and therefore not so crowded but at the same time, it is one of the better National Parks you will find in this country (of course you can always argue about that statement). We already had accommodation booked on the lake, so we had to ask at some cafe for someone to pick us up with a boat. Around dinner time, after a 32-hour travel, we finally arrived at the guesthouse! Happy as we were we grabbed a proper dinner and some fresh beers.

Rio Dulce. Because the area around Frontera is a bit inland, you will find many (sail)boats here waiting for the hurricane season to pass in the Carribean

The next day we chilled like crazy in the cafe where we grabbed the boat last night. First, we had the idea to go to the Finca el Paraiso waterfall but bailed on the last minute when we saw the shuttle bus with no airco packed with way too many people. And it was very very hot outside... I guess we kind of missed out on that one because we were told that it's a pretty nice waterfall! But hey, you can't win them all right. The next day we booked a single trip down the river to Livingston. This town with Carribean vibe is situated at the very end of the river where it floats in the Bay of Amatique (Carribean Sea). The boat trip takes a few hours and is really beautiful. After we picked up people at different points around the lake, we headed down river to Livingston. On the way, we slowed down/ stopped multiple times to see or do different things such as:

• a castle called Castillo de San Felipe;
• to witness nesting cormorants and pelicans;
• to slowly pass through a big field of water lilies;
• take a break at a restaurant.

Some type of cattle egrets along the way

At the end of the river, you will find Livingston. This town is very different from the rest of Guatemala. You can only reach it by boat and the inhabitants have there own dialect and are a mix of African slaves, Carribean Indians and European castaways. They are called Garífuna.

Livingston

Taking a tuk-tuk in Livingston

We met some nice Swiss people during the boat trip and after arranging a place to stay the night we explored the town with them and a few others. We had heard that there was a place with water making pools (called Seven Altars) nearby so we grabbed a tuk-tuk and went for it. The tuk-tuk dropped us off at the beach and from there we had to walk for a small hour along the shore. It was a very pleasant walk which made it a bit easier to hear that the place was already closed due to the fact that it was already past 5 pm. We headed back, watching the sunset whilst walking. The only thing bothering me during the walk was all the plastic trash being washed up on the beaches, insane amounts.

Walk along the beach

It was a very nice walk!

Too bad this shit is everywhere

We had a pretty nice guesthouse which was run by an English lad. He also arranged a boat for us to go to Punta Gorda in Belize. There was a bit of a mix-up first about when it runs. One of his staff members thought it was only running on Tuesday and Friday. Since we arrived on Tuesday and missed that one, we were a bit afraid we had to stay until Friday. Luckily the owner told us a boat leaves almost every day, but the Tuesday and Friday ones were cheaper. Anyway, the price difference turned out to be totally ignorable (and we tend to travel on a budget as much as possible). Glad as we were we hopped on the speedboat the next day and after some crazy moments (including multiple big jumps), we arrived in Belize. It's not a very interesting trip since there is hardly anything else to see than the tip of the boat high up in the air due to the speed of the boat (around 80 k/ms an hour at some points).

After arriving in Punta Gorda we checked in with the customs. In the queue, I got into a talk with a guy from Japan who was carrying a bike with him. Turned out he was biking his way through Central and South America. Cool right! Anyway, after we were cleared by the customs we started walking in a random direction. After 15 minutes a chicken bus passed by which was heading for Hopkins. Coincidentally our destination! Since we had no Belizian Dollars yet we paid the guy with US Dollars and established ourselves on one of the benches. For the next few hours, we were just watching the landscape passing by and listening to Bob Marley, playing through the speakers of the chicken bus.

Belize from a bus

In the next part, I will tell you about our stay in Belize. We stayed in Hopkins for some time and from there hitchhiked to Belize City to catch a ferry to Caye Caulker. Here's a little preview of what you can expect! Stay Tuned!

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Cheers, Stephan

If you’re interested in any of my previous work, feel free to check it out:

• Weekend trip to London
• Relaxing and shopping in the UK. Leamington Spa and Birmingham in a nutshell
• Old castles and Shakespeare's birthplace. The UK at its best
• My personal experience with studying abroad in the UK for a semester
• Massive snowdump in the Alpes in Europe and I went snowboarding
• Malaysia: visiting the Mossy Forest and Tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands!
• Visiting the ancient temples of Ayutthaya in Thailand
• Vietnam backpackers route for 4 weeks (part 2 of 2)
• Vietnam backpackers route for 4 weeks (part 1 of 2)

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