Hello!
This trip report is going to be long, but be patient! I will post plenty of pictures, helpful people, and tips on avoiding our mistakes! Also, any information about what happened to my husband is disclosed with his permission.
Day 1: Travel
We flew Copa Airlines from Washington Dulles to Guatemala City with a layover in Panama City. Our first flight departed at 1:13 AM. Unfortunately, we did not make our connection. This could have happened to me as well because I do not hydrate well either, but my husband experienced what was later determined to be dehydration. What I witnessed though was my husband sweating profusely, twitching in two episodes for five seconds each and not recalling either episode. Thus, I was afraid he had just had seizures. It did not help that my husband was absolutely sleep-deprived and could not catch up because our seats were in front of the exit row and did not recline- row 10.
We got off the plane and sought medical attention, missing our layover. Now, considering how confusing the airport is, we might have accidentally gone through immigration and missed our layover due to having to go through security afterwards. Fortunately, my husband was fine after electrolytes, and our new flight was rebooked for free since we missed our connection due to a medical incident. Nathan from Copa Airlines was an absolute angel, making sure we were in the correct place, taking care of us, and staying long past his shift end.
TLDR: Hydrate well and cushion in a longer layover. Also, unless you are flying back to the U.S., expect your gate to change in PTY.
We had booked all private travel through Adrenalina (Adrenalina). When we had given them information about our new flight, the boarding pass said we would arrive in Guatemala City around 7-ish PM. It did not disclose that that arrival time was for San Jose, Costa Rica. It was one of those flights that stopped in two cities and was the same flight number. Therefore, our poor driver was waiting and waiting for us. We did tip him well for the inconvenience, but Lenny drove like a maniac, tailing everybody. We reached Antigua to the Hotel Posada San Pedro (Hotel Posada San Pedro). With the exception of our VRBO, and our hotel in Guatamala City, none of the hotels did prepayment, so keep that in mind when you are budgeting, that the majority of expenses might be on the spot. Also, when I say the beds are comfortable, the mattresses are firm.
The bed was comfortable, and the shower was warm. Unfortunately, we were kept up by someone banging incessantly on the gate in the middle of the night, which was frightening. The hotel has a policy that the gate closes at 7:30 PM, and if you need to get in afterwards, you contact them through WhatsApp. My theory is that the person banging on the door was a guest who could not reach anybody. When you have that policy, you should make sure that someone is available to answer the WhatsApp.
Day 2- Antigua and travel to Panajachel
Our original plan was to spend part of our travel day exploring Antigua, as we would have reached Antigua in the morning. Then, we were going to take a salsa class on this day. Because of our snafu, we decided to cancel our class with Nancy at New Sensation Salsa Studio and explore what was unique to Antigua. While I do understand why we needed to pay for the class since she would have lost a lot of money otherwise, there was no empathy whatsoever about why we were cancelling, which I disclosed. There was solely griping about how I had guaranteed the slot and then backtracked. We had a good breakfast at the hotel. They offered three options.
We saw some beautiful ruins at the Convento Capuchinas

Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to thoroughly see them, as we had to make sure we got to our ride to Pana on time.
We also passed through the Parque Central and the Tanque la Union

Tanque la Union
We grabbed lunch at Rinconcito Antigueno. This was our first taste of pepian, and it was good.


We then met Fernando (not the same as our other Fernando) for our drive to Panajachel. The drive was good. He did text while driving, but he also spoke English and gave us some information during the drive, which was appreciated. However, we overtipped him, and I'll explain why. I had booked multiple legs of travel at once with the company. However, when they showed me my payment receipt, they gave me a receipt for each leg, but the amount on each receipt was the total for three trips. So, I accidentally calculated the tip wrong. Be careful when you look at Adrenalina's receipts, and refer to the WhatsApp conversation, not the receipts themselves. We then checked into Casa Esperanza (Casa Esperanza) and had a restful afternoon. We grabbed some street tacos from the market and then went to Chero Bar for pupusas.

Sorry it's oriented wrong
We happened upon a holiday parade. I love when these things happen.
Day 3: Pana Nature Center and travel to San Pedro
We started our day with taking a tuk tuk with a driver Casa Esperanza recommended who was awesome. His name is Juan, and here is his contact information:
+502 4110 6611.
The key to not getting the gringo upcharge for a tuk tuk is to use the guy (and yes, I say guy because women don't drive tuk tuks) that the place you are staying has. It seems they all have a guy. I will say, I don't mind if there is a gringo upcharge because their currency is weak, and we can afford it, but drivers are not consistent with how much the upcharge is, so you don't know what you're getting. If you see Juan around town, the number on his vehicle is 70.
The nature center was beautiful, and we did not get to see everything. We were able to see a great view of the lake and a very cute spider monkey.

We grabbed lunch at the reserve's restaurant, and it was good. I would recommend if you have more time, which we didn't, to get lunch elsewhere.
Juan then picked us up from the reserve as scheduled and took us to the public boat dock. We then moved on to San Pedro.
The thing about the lanchas is that some will ask you to pay prior and others will take payment once you get off your stop. For every boat stop, we paid Q25 per person. Make sure to ask for a public boat and tell the people at the dock where you are going, and they will direct you to the right boat. Also, public boats leave once the staff have determined that it is full to their satisfaction, so plan accordingly. With the boat departing from Pana, it made multiple stops, and the staff will periodically name destinations, so pay attention, because you need to respond appropriately by raising a hand or shouting. Also, not every town has public boats to every destination. When people said that the afternoon boats can be choppy, they meant it. I would advise if you tend to get sea sick to try to take morning boats and/or take sea sickness precautions.
We arrived at San Pedro la Laguna, had a restful afternoon, and then went to Pita Sabij for dinner. The food was amazing and so plentiful.

And here we made yet another mistake. The advice the CDC gives about only eating and drinking food and drink that has been peeled, boiled, or cooked is very valid advice. In the excitement of travel, we didn't always think everything through. Again, the mistake my husband made, I made as well, but only he paid the price for it. I too failed to ask to leave out the hummus and fresh vegetables in my pita. He had hummus that came with his schnitzel. Soon, after, he was hit with traveler's diarrhea. By the next day, he had started antibiotics and was feeling better.
We stayed this night and the next night at Hotel Mikaso (Hotel Mikaso). Again, the bed was comfortable but firm. Another thing to know about hotels here or at least the places we stayed at: don't expect AC, just fans.
Day 4: cooking class and Chabad
We had a delicious breakfast at Sababa Restaurant of shakshuka and French toast.


We had originally intended to do a cooking class with Anita (Anita). Unfortunately, she WhatsApped us and told us that she had fallen down the stairs and dislocated her knee, so she had to cancel the night before. We quickly went to find another cooking class and found this one (Guatemaya). I do want to note that the people who did this cooking class were not proficient in English. Luckily, the German couple who took the class with us was able to interpret. We made guacamole, tamalitos, rellenitos, and pepian. This was an amazing husband and wife team who got all the ingredients from organic stands.

Market

Rellenitos before frying

Tamalitos
I thoroughly enjoyed eating afterwards. Unfortunately, my husband did not feel up to it.
After the class, we tried to go to the Tzunun' Ya' Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed. So, we walked around. We ended up stopping at a store across from Johanna. Estella, the owner, was incredible. After I tried on several of her blouses, she took the time to cut and rehem one of them to better fit my petite torso. While I was waiting, I learned more about her, her children, and the state of the country. I learned that unfortunately, Guatemala's tourism industry has still not recovered from the pandemic. It was at this point, and learning about how much time products take to make and how much initial offers are given my currency conversion, that I would not haggle then or for the rest of the trip. Would some consider me a sucker? Potentially. However, my thought is that in order to plain make a sale, the initial offers are way lower than they should be. Based on how the shop owner in Antigua immediately went Q200 down when I went to walk away (and I did because we couldn't afford the caliber of her work), it seems these people are desperate, and I felt ashamed to take advantage of them in this way. I mean, who haggles down for a handwoven tie that's already $10?! Rant is over. We also bought a hoodie for my husband.
Later that night, we went to Chabad Pedro. I came in knowing that the genders would be separated during services, but I did not expect that the people there would only attempt to make conversation with my husband. This is not true of all Chabads, so I will only speak to my experience that night. Also, the main course for dinner that night was spicy, which did not meet either of our needs. We had to leave early, and went back to Pita Sabij to have an alternate dinner and for my husband to rest and recover.
For any tuk tuk needs for San Pedro, we used Nico. His information is here:
+502 4034 9476
Day 5: Weaving Class and San Juan
We took a tuk tuk in the morning to Tintemaya (Tintemaya). For some villages, you can take a tuk tuk between, but the drivers have a territorial arrangement where they can take you to the border of the villages, but once you go beyond, you have to take a tuk tuk of the second village. So, we took a tuk tuk to the border of San Juan and walked to the weaving co-op. We had breakfast with the weaving co-op, and then took a weaving class.

Breakfast provided by the co-op

Weaving set up prior to tools and attachment
It was during this class that my husband and I got even more appreciation for the handwoven goods. Part of the process is literally attaching yourself to the product and using your body to make the product better. It is painstaking, back-aching work that takes time. When you read Tintemaya's website, you will learn about how in areas of the country, there is not an opportunity to learn Spanish, so work opportunities are limited. This is one of the few of them. Co-ops like these ensure a living wage. At one point, the teacher did have to help me finish, and the speed was incredible. I won't post the video in case she doesn't want to be on social media, but it was awesome to see.
We came home with two beautiful scarves. The co-op also offers a wall hanging if you prefer that.

We also bought a blouse and a kippah from the store.
We got caldo res from Comedor Elenita, and it was good.
Afterwards, we walked around, saw the artwork, bought some dessert from Licor Marron, and went to Santiago to rest up for an early morning.


We stayed at Hotel Bambu (Bambu). To get to Santiago via public boat, we had to backtrack to the dock at San Pedro via tuk tuk. I think the website needs to be better, as there was no way to book via the website, and there needs to be better signage for the different parts of the hotel. Otherwise, the room was good. We had dinner at their restaurant since it was further afield, and the food was very good.
Day 6- birding and travel back to Pana
We had signed up for a very early morning birding tour with Rolando. (Rolando). I cannot recommend him enough. The night before, we had arranged for a boxed breakfast from the hotel. Unfortunately, there was a lack of communication of specific details, and at 5:15 AM, we came to a locked reception door. We tried calling the hotel to no avail. We had seen a cooler next to the door, but it was not labeled, and we had no idea whether it was our breakfast. They also did not tell us this would be how it was delivered. So, we did the hike on an empty stomach, which was not ideal. The bird watching was at the Tepelul reserve, and he said the hike would take 35 minutes. As we are slower, it took longer, but Rolando found us two steady hiking sticks. I would consider the difficulty if AllTrails were to rate it as moderate as an educated guess.
Fortunately, we still got there in time to see the birds and get pictures before they moved. We saw the quetzal and the toucan. The guide and his assistant are very familiar with the area and have even named each bird. The guide got pictures by putting my phone next to the scope.





When we got back to the hotel, we explained what happened, and they comped us a fresh breakfast at the restaurant. We then went to explore Santiago. To pay homage to those missing and killed during the civil war, we wanted to go to the Parque de la Paz. We were disappointed when we realized it was fenced off and we couldn't get in.


We declined offers to see Maximon because we thought it was giving tobacco and alcohol to an effigy and didn't realize we could have lit a candle. We then took a tuk tuk to the center of town and got very badly ripped off. At that point, our disappointment took over. We went through a very authentic market where our backpacks had no place in it and we were the only foreigners there and took a boat back to Pana. That night, we got takeout from Restaurant Hana since our gate key didn't work, and while the food itself was good, not much protein was provided for the dishes.
Days 7 and 8- we could have planned better
Day 7 ended up being a very slow day due to poor planning. At this point, I realized I did not transfer money in a quick enough manner to the only working debit card, so some of our plans fell through. We wanted to go to the Museo Acustre de Atitlan, but it only took cash, so that had to be nixed. We thought we would get a massage, but that needed two hours notice, so that did not work out either. At this point, we also realized that we would potentially be spending a whole day in a Guatemala City hotel because we did not plan that either, and the reception at the Regis Hotel and Spa generously let us use their space and WiFi to work that out. With the help of my parents on WhatsApp, we also figured out another way to fund driver and guide tips. By that point, we needed to grab lunch, and we went to Circus Bar.
It is delicious food if you need a change of pace, and you can definitely split.

Gemelli pasta with eggplant and basil

Spaghetti bolognese
We then met our driver (another Fernando) to go to Guatemala City, and it was a safe drive. We stayed at Eco Suites Uxlabil Guatemala City (Eco Suites) in Zone 10. They were very good about us having a place to eat our Uber Eats for lunch after check out as we were cutting it close to our flight time. We fortunately found a last-minute half-day tour with Authentic Guatemala (Authentic Guatemala). Byron was an amazing tour guide. He had a reason for everything he showed us, and he is so passionate about conveying the history of the city and why he loves it. We were grateful that someone wanted to give us a tour on Christmas Eve Day, and him working did not change any of his plans. Although tour books don't seem to prioritize Guatemala City in their suggested itineraries, I think you should allocate time to it, if not a later flight and a half-day tour.
Our tour went to Berlin Plaza, the market, the cathedral, and the tech district. The relief map is usually included, but it was closed that day.

Pieces of the Berlin wall painted by contest winner


Christmas decor


National Palace

Photos of those missing during the civil war

Cathedral

Inscription for those missing during the civil war
We then had lunch and got our ride to the airport. Note for this hotel that it is very securely gated, so any drivers need to be aware. Our flights back were thankfully uneventful. For our flight back to the US from Panama City, the gate was cordoned off with the same security protocol as the rest of the airport, so that means you should get your water in between the two sets of security.
​​​​​​​Thank you for getting to the end of the report.

Thanks for sharing; even the things that didn't go like you had hoped or planned. Very nice report & loved the pics.

Thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us!

Wonderfully complete report that will be very helpful! Proud of all of your planning skills!

Thanks! Learned from the best!