The hurricane season has 2 months to go, so we choose to make use of this time to travel on land, After the short trip to Copán, we take about 3 weeks to visit Antigua, the lake Atitlán and Semuc Champey in Guatemala. Three aspects of Guatemala stand out for us: the colours, the geology and the religion.
From the yellow and white buildings in Antigua to the colour explosion of the markets, through the women dressed in the traditional huipiles with everchanging patterns of flowers and birds and everything set on a background of lush green rainforest or black lava rock, nothing is plain in Guatemala.
Guatemala is a very seismologically active country being situated in between the Caribbean plate and the Cocoa plate. It has 37 volcanos, some of which are very active. We climbed the Pacaya volcano which erupted last in 2015. That was a training for the climb of the Acatenango, involving an elevation gain of 1,300m on a 6 hour hike to a height of 3,600m. The Acatenango is not presently active but it provides from its summit a spectacular sight of Volcán de Fuego with constant explosions. We climbed it with our friends from Adventure and Zephyros. Another geological wonder is Semuc Champey (Mayan for ‘where the river disappears underground’). The river Cahabón disppears under a limestone platform creating pools of turquoise waters, waterfalls and caves where we swam. It was the first time (and probably the last) that we swam in a dark cave while holding a candle; no photos of that experience were taken, too busy holding the candle and squizing through narrow holes with water up to the neck
The guatemaltecans are a very religious people. The catholic tradition has melted with the Mayan culture creating a sincretism religion with interesting and colourful rites. We paid a visit to Maximom, a Mayan god who has blended with the Catholic religion. He receives offerings of booze and cigarettes, while the priester says The Lord’s Prayer and burns incense. Maximom is sitting right next to Jezus laying in a glass coffin, the whole lighted with blinking strings of led lamps.
All churches in Antigua have been ruined or at least heavily damaged by earthquakes. The façades are rebuilt, but behind there is not much left. There are also some monasteries. When visiting I must have walked through some doors I was not supposed to, as I found myself suddenly in the sleeping quarters with the nuns sleeping there…(also no pictures were taken here).
We now go back to the boat and prepare for the next leg direction Panamá.