Guatemala trip tribute Part I
 

I am a little slow getting my trip report written, but I think if I post a “part I” it may motivate me to get it done. So here goes….

After lots of raised eyebrows and nervous “be carefuls” from family and friends, I took off for a solo trip to Tikal, Lake Atitlan, and Antigua. DH loves to travel too, but since he does not have as much vacation time as I do he had to sit this one out. I am in my fifties and speak Spanish well but not fluently. My only real travel mishap on the way to Guatemala was that I accidentally got up a half an hour early for the shuttle to the airport. I thought the shuttle was at 5:00 but it was 5:30. It felt pretty tragic at the time.

I stayed near the airport in Hotel Villa Toscana for one night. The room was teeny tiny, but it was clean, quiet and inexpensive. It is a great option for a hotel close to the airport, and I would stay there again.

The next day I took a 6 am flight to Flores. I had arranged a shuttle from the airport to Hotel Tikal, but unfortunately no one was there to pick me up. My phone was not working. I was kind of annoyed since I had confirmed the reservation a couple of days before. The shuttle was already paid for, and I did not want to pay for an expensive taxi ride. A very nice woman with one of the tour companies asked me if everything was OK and offered to call the hotel for me. She was so kind. She called them up to get things sorted out and then hung around chatted with me until they showed up. That was definitely a theme for my trip. Almost everyone I met was so friendly and warm. That almost everyone does not include the shuttle driver and passengers that finally did show to pick me up. I had to sit on the console between the seats with my backpack on my lap in the front for the roughly hour long drive to the hotel and everyone seemed pissed off at me. The driver and a guide complained about having to pick me up, I guess assuming I could not understand what they were saying. After I asked them a question about the trip in Spanish they stopped. I was planning to do some complaining of my own when I got to the hotel, but the young man at the desk greeted me by telling me the cost of the shuttle had been deducted from my bill and that I had been upgraded to a bungalow. I was instantly back to being a happy traveler. Overall, I liked Hotel Tikal. It was clean, the staff was friendly, and the food was fine. The location right next to the ruins cannot be beat.

I had signed up for the sunset tour of the ruins and had originally planned to take a little siesta before that. Ha! I was so excited to be there, I took a little stroll through the ruins just to get my bearings. Later, I joined the guide and a nice couple from Barcelona for the sunset tour. Since part of my goal for the trip was to practice my Spanish as much as possible, I told the guide he did not need to translate into English for me. There were a few times I had to ask him to explain a word or two, but for the most part I understood everything. The ruins at dusk were wonderful. The guide was passionate about the ancient Mayan culture and architecture. It was really fascinating.

I also went on the sunrise tour the next morning at 4 am. Getting up at 3:30 am was painful, but the walk through the jungle in the dark was great. We did not get to see the sunrise due to mist, but I loved hearing all the birds and monkeys wake up and start their day. After a while, I broke off from the tour to explore the ruins on my own. There was a bit of time when the sunrise tour groups had left and I guess the day groups had not arrived yet. I sat on top of one of the pyramids by myself and took some photos of the Grand Plaza without a single person in it. It was absolutely magical. What an amazing place.

That afternoon I also went to Yaxha. I had planned to sit around and relax for the afternoon, but I heard about beautiful ruins on the shore of a lake and could not pass it up. I hired a driver and after a short nap (for me), off we went. I am so glad I went. The ruins are much smaller, but lovely. The driver was an outgoing, talkative young guy, and I got in several more hours of practicing Spanish. He told me all about the region and his family, especially his two young boys, definitely a proud papa. We also stopped and chatted with one of the guards/rangers at Yaxha, a grandfatherly gentleman who was very proud of his park. I was impressed with how much they both know about our politics. We sort of alternated between agreeing on what a complete A-hole Trump is and the two of them complimenting my Spanish. (It is not that great - they were just being exceptionally nice, like so many of the Guatemalans I met.) It was an outstanding day.

The next day, I left for Guatemala City then Lake Atitlan.

Great start - thanks for posting!!

Ana--

Enjoying your trip report so far! Looking forward to reading your thoughts on some of the ground we covered in common--which looks like it's Antigua only. I too ran into so many exceptionally nice and welcoming Guatemalans. I found the Guatemalans I spoke to for some reason noticeably easier to understand in Spanish than what I ran into in central Mexico (I love central Mexico--but there's a slangy quality about the language at times). I definitely need to return to Guatemala one day!

Best wishes, Daniel

Its funny you say that about Guatemalan Spanish. I also found that it was easier to understand. I am not sure why, but I agree that it seemed more clear to me than Spanish in central Mexico.

On a related note.... I found it very challenging to understand the couple from Barcelona I met at Hotel Tikal. I really enjoyed talking to them, but I kept having to ask them to repeat themselves. It is funny because I am used to castilian Spanish (grandparents on one side were immigrants from the Basque country). I guess the accent in Catalonia is quite different.

I hope someday my Spanish skills will be good enough that different accents don't throw me. I am working on it!

Spanish immersion programs offer a great way to visit Guatemala - 20 hours of 1-on-1 instruction and full room and board with a local family for $200-250/week. Keep it in mind!

For future reference, here is the report for the 2nd part of AnaBelen's trip:
http://www.fodors.com/community/mexi...te-part-ii.cfm

>>For future reference, here is the report for the 2nd part of AnaBelen's trip:<<

And for additional future reference -- it is usually helpful to put all the installments of a trip report on the same thread so folks don't have to jump around looking for the other parts.

Hopefulist, thanks so much for inserting the link. I did not think it through before starting a second thread.

Enjoying your report so far.
I'm told by locals that the Mayan language is closer to English than Spanish. Not sure that works for me but I do understand Yucatecans better than those from central Mx. I also think that Yucatecans, those from places like Guatemala live and speak at a slower pace.

Cybor--

Your comment made me laugh as I remembered that my teacher at the cooking school I studied at in Antigua, Guatemala told me that Kaq'chikel, her native tongue, was easy, just like English. Then I asked her to teach me how to say "Buenos Dias" in Kaq'chikel... I couldn't even repeat what she said, so different was the sound relative to any other language I've ever learned (there was a sort of intake of breath as one spoke).

Daniel

I spend quite a lot of time with Tz'utujil Maya and that language sounds nothing like English - the glottal stops sound almost like clicks. It's lovely to listen to and interesting to note where they use Spanish terms for things Tz'utujil doesn't have words for.