I went over 25 years ago when it was a right adventure – about 100 miles up a dirt road, taking a day or 2 by bus from Guat City, or in my case, about 5 cycling, with a nights camping at a customs check point and another at a place called Finca Ixobel. But you had the place virtually to yourself

Assume now road from Guatemala City now all tarmac’ed and it is pretty busy with tourist buses etc?

Anyone been recently?

thanks

Hi went last year, flew to Flores then drove in mini bus. Visitor centre and tour buses mainly full of locals
Yaxha is the next one along deeper in to the “jungle” not so many people at that one, lots of forest cleared each side of the road for cattle.

Yes but about 20 years ago. There was a tarmac road though.

Fabulous experience – in fact, we loved all of Guatemala.

glenp – when I went it was tarmac from Flores, but dirt (mud) from Flores to the Pan Am highway – certainly for 50 or so miles

Nig – doesn’t sound as though it is too busy then? (say compared to Chichen Itza which gets pretty mobbed when the buses from Cancun start piling in)

I actually can’t remember what the road was like, thinking about it. we had done quite a bit of bus-ing it by then in old US school buses. We went up through Belize when the border had only been open a few months.

Chichen Itza was ok, but we were in the habit of going on a Sunday when it was half price and there weren’t many (any?) tour groups.

I want to go back…

We did visit on a Sunday, Llama travel organized our tour which only runs over a couple of months a year.
Yaxha was very quiet. We preferred Guatemala, way more interesting than Costa Rica.
Eldest son is out there at the moment learning Spanish at Lake Attilan

We went last year. Travelled by bus from Belize City to Flores, then took a very early mini bus trip. Tarmac road all the way there. You can camp over there to catch the sunrise but space is very limited. We arrived early just after sunrise and it wasn’t busy at all.

We really liked Guatemala and would have liked to travelled further south but time was not on our side and we’d spent longer in Belize than we expected and had lots planned for Mexico. This is always the case with travelling.

I imagine you had a right blast 25 years ago @charliemort Impressed at your sense of adventure.

We found Lamanai to be nice and quiet and a good spot to visit. It was a two hour mango swamp/river boat trip from Orange Walk, Belize to get there with plenty of opportunity to climb the structures for impressive views with nothing but black howler monkeys for company.

Went back in 1996. Overnight bus from Guat City. Bus got stopped by paramilitaries who had me and my mate kneeling down with cocked guns at the back of our heads. They thought we were American. Lots of spitting about Yankee dogs and offering fags around got us back on the bus and away. Scariest moment I ever had from lots of travelling. Great place back then though even if I may have slightly soiled my pants.

We got taken off the bus too. None of the local women got off, so I told my gf (now wife) to stay put with them and the chickens. No-one pointed a gun at me though – I would certainly not have been keen on that!

In Honduras the bus conductor chap had a very well used pistol just stuffed in the back pocket of his jeans. People all the time asked us if we were American and completely changed attitude when we confirmed that we weren’t. I met Americans with Canadian flags on their backpacks to try and swerve hostility.

kingofbiscuits

yes it was a bit of an adventure although nothing dangerous (apart from when my mate ash accepted free beers from a bunch of beeg transvestites in Honduras, to the point a few 12 year old soldiers appeared to make sure we were okay – we did a runner but I still remember the transvestites banging on the door of out hotel (that’s a generous description) at about 3am – “ash-leeeeyyyy ; ash- leeeeyyyy”

funded the trip with a summer’s door to door book selling around Detroit (that probably was quite dangerous – one of my customers was shot dead in a bar) then headed off via New Orleans in a car that cost $148, picking up some really crap mountain bikes on the way. Car kept on getting stamped in our passports to ensure we didn’t sell it or dump it, in Mexico and Guatemala, so ended up having to get it back from a bloke in guatemala we sold it to, then get a tow to the local customs office 100 or so miles away (now less seats / dash etc.) and “donate” it as a present

meant to go to Peru via Darien gap but ran out of time and only got to Costa Rica. Loads to see in that part of the world

Cool. Sounds ‘Into The Wild’-esque.

I really liked what we saw of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and intend to go back to Latin America at some point. Although that won’t be anytime soon as we’re expecting our first child. We heard good things about further south in Guatemala (not the city), Costa Rica and we’d like to see Columbia.

I’d always been a fan of Asia with Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia amongst others ticked off but there was some thing about Latin America that I really fell in love with. Especially Mexico.

The people were so friendly, the food was amazing and that little bit of Spanish could get you far. I almost wish I knew more Spanish and it was our goal to return from that month away and learn the language. We’ve not got round to it so far though. There were many an opportunity to converse with the locals who were genuinely interested in you.

Plus it would have helped when getting dragged out of minibuses by the army or polce and trying to argue ‘made up’ charges at border crossings in the middle of nowhere 🙂

Yup Glen met a lot of Americans with Canadian flags and a lot of pissed off Canadians that Americans were doing it. Made it to Peru a couple of years ago would love to go back however with work the way it is may be some time for me.

I did this overland route with Dragoman back in 2007…

http://www.dragoman.com/holidays/itinerary/overland-between-mexico-city-and-panama-city?did=59295

detailed trip notes here>

http://www.dragoman.com/holidays/trip-notes/overland-between-mexico-city-and-panama-city?format=preview&vid=4386&did=59295