Our trip to Guatemala 2019

 

I thought I would share a bit about our recent vacation along with some pictures and videos.  I took a lot of photos, so it’s going to be tough deciding which ones to share, but I’ll try not to overdo it.

 

We flew into Belize on April 16th and just went to the zoo that day.   Our first full day was April 17th and we took a tour to Tikal in Guatemala.  I highly recommend taking a tour vs trying to go through the border on your own.  Also, please be aware that you will see a lot of police or military on the sides of the road holding very large guns.  It was a bit intimidating, especially when there would be 6-8 closer to the trees.  I highly recommend buying some mango juice while exchanging your money at the border.  I already miss the fresh juices.

 

 

This first photo was taken through the car window.  I can’t remember which lake this was.  We passed two.  One was freshwater and one was saltwater.  Guatemala has some gorgeous scenery, but most of the two hour drive were spread out houses with a lot of animals.  Most looked to be living in poverty or close to it.

 

The next group of photos were taken at Tikal.  This park is huge.  It’s hot and tiring, but worth the 5+ miles of walking and climbing.  We only saw half the park.

 

 

 

 

We didn’t see a ton of wildlife there, but I did get to see the one thing I needed to see.  Monkeys!  There were a lot of birds and you could always hear noises in the jungle.  We saw both Spider Monkeys and Howler Monkeys.  Also, there were Coati everywhere.  Even though you’re not supposed to feed them, people do and so they didn’t have much fear coming really close.  We only saw one small lizard.

 

I believe these were Howler Monkeys.  This might be one of my favorite pictures.  I just wish I could have been closer.  But the one on the right looks like it’s staring right at me.  And the upside down one is just adorable.

 

These were all over the park.  They’re very cute and I was always excited when they would come out.

 

 

 

I completely failed with videos in Guatemala.  I blame the heat.  I didn’t take any videos until the very end.

 

 

After leaving Tikal, we stopped for lunch at this restaurant/shop.  These were beef fajitas and were really good, but different than ones we get here.  And the fresh fruit was incredible.  We bought a few things there including some cacao.  They had a tree which I’ll show below.  It’s a bit dry and hard, but it’s pretty good.  And it was cheap.  The package had to be over a pound and it was $10 USD.   They had beautiful gardens behind the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we ate lunch late that day, we ended up just getting soup from our hotel restaurant in San Ignacio.  The place was amazing.  They didn’t have soup sitting out.  They made it fresh when you ordered.

 

 

This was Mestizo Soup which is corn tortilla strips with chicken consume, queso fresco, and ranchero sauce with cream.  So good!

 

I was so sore and hot from walking, so I took a shower while my husband walked down the market.  Most of it was closed so he wasn’t gone long.  We passed out fairly early.

 

 

So that was our first full day.  I’ll be sharing more later this week, too.  I loved our trip and wish we would have been able to stay and explore a couple more days.