Antigua, Guatemala

Since leaving Belize we have already stayed in 3 different places in Guatemala. I am really enjoying visiting Guatemala so far, and the countryside here is so beautiful!

We left Belize early in the morning to cross the border into Guatemala, which was only about an hour away. From there we drove a few hours to see the ruins of Tikal. We had a guided tour of the ruins - the grounds here are very large in comparison to Chichen Itza, and we saw a lot of howler monkeys in the trees during our visit. The views from Temple IV (which we climbed) over the rest of the ruins are brilliant.

Temple I

Views from Temple IV

Howler monkeys

From Tikal we drove to Flores for the evening. Flores is an island surrounded by a lake, and the town felt really safe to walk around - we had beautiful views from our balcony over the water.

The next day we left for Rio Dulce - the van journey wasn't too bad, and then we had a short boat ride across the lake to our home for the next two nights. This was our second ecolodge stay of the trip, at Hacienda Tijax, and everyone enjoyed it a lot more than the last one! There was a great pool at the lodge, and our room had a hammock downstairs which was so nice to relax on. They had a great restaurant on site, and did some cheap meals for us as we were a group.

The pool at Hacienda Tijax

The next morning I opted to do a hike and yoga class here. The grounds had a really great trail, with suspension bridges over the jungle. We did yoga in a tower, and it was so nice to have amazing views over the countryside whilst exercising.

Yoga view

In the afternoon we visited a local orphanage Casa Guatemala that was located just a short ride across the lake, and took them some food supplies. Although there weren't many children there at the moment due to summer break it was really interesting to tour the site and speak to the international volunteers as I would love to do some long term volunteering abroad sometime in the future.

Sunset on the way back

The next morning we got up at 6am to go and visit some local hot springs. Although a bit too early for my liking it was well worth it. The water was pretty cold getting in but once we were under the waterfall it was so nice!

At lunch time we left for a long drive to Antigua, which is where I am now! Will update again soon - we hiked Volcan Pacaya this morning which was great!