Our Guatemala trip did not involve diving. Pacific coast is rough and is mostly famous for surfing. There is excellent deep sea fishing which we did try. Caribbean coast was somewhat hard to get to given our itinerary and is not developed for tourism or diving. Besides, we felt we did a pretty good job on Caribbean diving in Belize, Mexico and all the Caribbean islands. So instead we focused on history, culture and beautiful nature of the Guatemala top side. We had phenomenal three weeks. People are wonderful. Food is great. We felt completely safe.

The first part of the trip was to explore Mayan ruins of Tikal and around. We flew into Guatemala city and then took a small local flight to Flores. From Flores we first went directly to the most famous Mayan site in Guatemala – Tikal. We stayed for a night in a lodge inside of the Tikal national park and had a chance to explore the ruins before and after tourist bus crowds. Here is the write up on Tikal.

We then got back to Flores and spent several days there. It is a small town which at the time we visited in December 2023 was partially under water due to the lake water level rise. One could say it was like a micro Venice. We went around the lake on a boat and saw many iguanas and birds, visited a wildlife sanctuary, and took a trip to see very impressive Mayan ruins of Yaxha. Here is the write up on Flores part of the trip

From Flores we went back to Guatemala City and headed straight to Antigua, only a couple of hours by road. Once a colonial capital and a major center for Spanish rule on the continent, it is now a city full of history and culture set among picturesque volcanoes, one of them is continuously erupting since late 1990s. Here is Antigua trip part.

From Antigua we headed, by road, to stunningly beautiful Lake Atitlan. The lake is surrounded by 3 volcanoes and has a collection of villages, some of which can only be reached by boat. We based ourselves in San Marco La Laguna and spent a few days exploring the villages around the lake, paddle boarding, hiking to see the national bird – resplendent quetzal, and taking a trip to a famous market in highlands in Chichicastenango. Here is lake Atitlan write up.

The last part of the trip was to enjoy the beautiful wild Pacific coast. We hired a car in Guatemala city and drove across to Monterrico on the Pacific side. We stayed in a nice airbnb right on the beach. We enjoyed beautiful sunsets. We went to release baby turtles and explored mangroves with plentiful birdlife. We went deep sea fishing catching and releasing multiple sail fish and catching some mahi mahi to eat. Here is Monterrico write up.