1 December: Semuc Champey, the place of Turquoise cascading pools – in theory… The pictures in guide books look spectacular and so we made the trek here (short distance but so many curves) but it is overcast and has started to spit, the forecast doesn’t look much better for tomorrow so it may have all been for naught (as the turquoise only shines through in sunlight).
The camping is in the backyard of a little kiosk/shebeen and feels like parts of our trip into Africa: lots of rubbish, many children gawking, no power, bucket showers etc
2 December: We woke up to rain overnight and it continued this morning with lots of mist which meant viewing of Sempuc Chemay was not likely to be very good – we think the turquoise colors come from good sunlight. And the walking paths would be slippery and muddy. And we wouldn’t swim becuase it was cold and wet SO it wasn’t too much of a decision to pack up and leave even if that meant we had driven 2 hours in and 2 hours out for nothing. It was raining and misty for almost the entire 6 hours of driving today so we probably made the right decision.
3 December: Skirted around the side of Guatemala City today with its horrific traffic but it still took us 3 hours to do 90km. We are now camped just outside the historic town of Antigua which based on first impressions looks very nice and one of the nicer colonial towns we have seen. Apart from he tourist attraction of Antigua there is another reason to visit here, and that is to visit a Landy mechanic who has a good reputation in this part of the world. Mr Jones steering has been feeling “sticky” for a while and we are going to use the opportunity to attend to that. The hope is that it just needs a flush of the power steering fluid however Will (the mechanic) can only see us next week as this weekend they are hosting a big Landy gets together of all Land Rover owners in Guatemala to which we have been invited to attend.
5 December: Macdonalds & Starbucks are not usually places we hang out in BUT when in Antigua we just had too.. Antigua has done a really great job of preserving its architectural heritage and both these establishments are located in beautiful old buildings and really do not feel like fast food establishments. MickeyD’s courtyard even has stunning views of one of the 3 Volcanoes that surround the city
6 December: Small wins but starting too feel better about getting some jobs done, have cleaned up the rust as best as possible on Tania door and started to give it some coats of paint. The internal panel should fit on still but there will be big gaps at the bottom where the rust was really bad. Also put an off/on switch on the water flow meter as it seems to measure movement when we travel and hence give a wrong reading of how much water has been used and therefore how much is left in the tank.
7 December: Over the last days the campsite has started to fill-up with quite a nice crowd of people and we have spent many fun nights and days “kuiering“ with Debbie&Miguel (American, Mexican), Christof&Linda (Germany), Christian (Swiss) and not to forget el presidente (Clinton, also American).
8 December: Our first Land Rover rally, was very interesting to see the amount of landys here in Guatemala and to drool over some really beautiful old series short wheel base ones. Also couldn’t help but smile at some of the very smart and totally pimped ones that probably never see single day off-road or at best do some 4x4ing on a man made track. Overall a fairly fun day.
10 December: Such a lekker kuier last night with fellow campers with a little bit of everything going on from Swiss Cheese fondue to burgers to sitting around a big fire.
11 December: A simple but good day at the Land Rover mechanic, we could have done the rear anti-sway bar bushes ourselves but very glad we got them to do the replacement of heater matrix and power steering fluid as both are “painful” and time-consuming ones. Now to hope that the replacement of the power steering fluid solves some of the steering niggles Stuart has been noticing while driving.
14 December: Volvano Acatenango and Fuego. We haven’t done many tour operated excursions on our travels and wouldn’t have done this if it hadn’t been for the big group but very happy to have done it. Thanks to the Christoph and Linda organisation we enjoyed a very rough and steep bakkie ride up the volcano followed by a relatively easy walk to a base camp. Base camp is on a very steep slope with great views so initially Tania was very scared but she got used to it overtime. Through the night we enjoyed spectacular views of Fuego exploding. All round a fun little outing.
15 December: A relatively easy drive out to Lago Atitlan, although we did have to stop to top-up the brake fluid as the warning light kept coming on (it was midway between low & high marker but the steep slopes triggered the warning) and for about 10km needed to use low range 1st and 2nd for the descent (despite being on tar) as the gradients were crazy steep. Our American friends weren’t as lucky as their brakes overheated and had to make an emergency stop in the bushes which made for a very stressed bunch when they joined us at camp.
19 December: In between helping with brake repairs, Stuart has made new cover plates and modified the kitchen drawers for replacement locks we brought from South Africa. Hopefully now we won’t have any drawers sliding open on rough roads and perhaps they may even be quieter on said roads as theses ones clamp them close better than before. In betweeen we have enjoyed the serenitty of our campsite with NO “no-see” biting miggies (a pleasant change) and lots of bird life around us.
20 December: Over the last few days we have been slowly working on Miguel sprinter van brakes and today when attempting to start the bleeding process he broke off one of the nipples, so Stuart and he went off in search of a mechanic who could perhaps get the nipple out. A round trip of probably only 20km to the town of Santa Clara involved 7 Tuktuks, 1 “collectivo” pickup and a chicken bus. All in all, quite the little adventure especially for Miguel who got to see proper “bush mechanics” in action when solving the stuck bleed nipple issue, something that would never have got fixed in the “western” world.
22 December: Fun little outing today with everyone across the lake to the little village of San Juan. To get there involves flagging down and catching a water taxi from the dock below camp and then a 30-minute ride across the lake (smooth on the way their and very rough on the way back). The village was quite touristy but also beautiful with lots of colorful murals and streets.
24 December: A low key Christmas Eve dinner with our little group, nothing too fancy but a mix of foods as we all run down fridges and freezers. Overall a fantastic evening with a great group of people.
25 December: our typical on the road Christmas – juggling timezones as we make lots of WhatsApp video calls to catch up with family around the world followed by a nice afternoon and evening of chilling.
26 December: We finally “broke the group up” as we all set off on our separate ways: Miguel & Debbie left a few days ago to meet their daughter in Antigua and today Christoph & Linda started the trek to Veracruz (Mexico) from where they will ship their van back to Germany, Christian headed across Guatemala to one of his volunteer work projects and we headed to the coast and El Paredon for hopefully a little bit of surf. All in all, the group spent an awesome 21 days together. As we have learnt over the years, friends made on the road are usually friends for life, hopefully this will be the case this time around as well.
29 December: It’s been a nice few days in El Paredon with a few surf sessions thrown in but tomorrow we will leave as they place we are staying at is fully booked out for the New Years Eve and, anyhow, it is only 100m from a huge beach party stage that has been setup for the celebrations which we aren’t brave enough to be camped near. We hoping to move just a little bit further up the coast to a quieter village where there may also be some surfing.
30 December: Today did not go to plan. The camping and little village we had in mind turned out be a bit scruffy and dirty and held no appeal so we made a quick decision to call it quits on Guatemala and head north to put us close to the Mexico border which we plan to cross tomorrow. Gas station camping for us tonight.
31 December: Quite the end to the year, woke up (in a gas station) to none of the house electrics working which meant 2 hours of problem solving to fix it before we could lower the roof and hit the road. Then it was a 2-hour drive to the border, a 3 hour border crossing and another 2 hours to get to another gas station for the night. On the positive side, we got given a 10 year TIP for Mr Jones in Mexico which will make future parking options much better and none of our food or alchohol got confiscated at the border.