This site presents an illustrated summary of a trip to Guatemala by eight friends from Seattle between November 20 and December 5, 2006.

(1) We arrived at Guatemala City’s Aurora Airport on the evening of December 5 after a long but smooth flight on American Airlines from Seattle via Dallas-Fort Worth. Our driver Freddy delivered us to the charming Posada del Angel in Antigua within an hour of landing. We spent the next two days exploring the original colonial capital of Guatemala (first named Santiago de Los Caballeros de Guatemala, later dubbed “Santiago Antigua,” or Old Santiago, now just Antigua). Many regard it as the best preserved Spanish city in Latin America chiefly due to its being abandoned by the government after one earthquake too many in 1773. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Like Guatemala City, Antigua sits in a bowl nearly a mile above sea level surrounded by active volcanoes.

(2-3) On Nov. 23 (Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.), our new driver Axel took us to the breathtakingly beautiful Lago Atitlan, a vast flooded caldera flanked by four active volcanoes a mile above sea level. From our home base at the beautiful Hotel Atitlan, we visited the nearby towns of Panajachel and Santiago, shopped the huge Mayan market in Chichicastenango, called on expat amateur architect and sculptor, and a few of us braved a zip-line tour of the caldera canopy.

(4) Three days later, we returned to Antigua to overnight at the exquisite Meson Panza Verde (“Green Belly,” a poetic metaphor for the surrounding jungle), before Axel gathered us up for the long drive east to the Mayan ruins at Quiriqua and then north to the Banana Palms resort on Lago de Izabal. The largest lake in Central America, Izabal connects with the Caribbean Sea through Rio Dulce (sweet or freshwater river), a narrow, thickly-foliated canyon. Our lanchera (boatman) Luis took us on excursions to Finca Paraiso, a communal farm featuring a gorgeous hot spring, the mangrove swamps of Rio Dulce, and the Garifuna (West Indian-African) town of Livingston on the Caribbean coast.

(5) On November 30, we set off with driver Carlos for La Lancha, a secluded eco-resort now owned by Francis Ford Coppola on Lago Peten Itza in the northern lowlands. This put us in the jungle, complete with raucous howler monkeys, near the great Mayan city-state of Tikal and lesser ruins at Yaxha, and Tepoxte, which we toured with an excellent guide, Pablo, and driver, Ramon.

On December 3, we paid a quick visit to the little town of Flores, a former island fortress where Mayans took their last stand, before hopping a quick flight back to Guatemala City and a drive back to Antigua. We stayed again at Panza Verde and did out best to boost the local economy by buying, drinking, and eating everything in sight. Early on the morning of December 5, we paid a reluctant farewell to Guatemala for the long trip home with way too much luggage.

Our grand tour was planned by group leader Marie McCaffrey with Ken Layton of Tropical Discovery, a Miami-based agency which flawlessly executed our hotel and internal transportation arrangements. This was a truly magical journey in a gorgeous but underappreciated land.