After the Trans-Mexico Trail-- Adventures in Guatemala
San Juan la Laguna to Ciudad Vieja and Antigua
Day 23 San Juan and San Pedro la Laguna
March 7th, 2025
¡Qué onda desde San Juan la Laguna! This morning, I decided to get my hike on and trekked up to this place called the Eco Hotel and restaurant Mayachika. Saw it on Google Maps, and the reviews were kinda intriguing. Man, it turned out to be something else! The grounds were like a little jungle paradise, all lush and green with benches and tables tucked away for some serious chill time. I had breakfast inside this open-air building – a veggie omelette that was muy delicioso, a cafecito to wake up the brain, and a licuado de banana that hit the spot. ¡Pura vida!
Hiked back down to town just in time for my eleven o’clock Spanish Zoom call with Maria and four other estudiantes. ¡Qué divertido!
After the virtual Spanish immersion, I hopped on the bike and cruised over to San Pedro, the next pueblo to the west. Only a quick two kilometers. My turnaround point was the church, which had this cool statue of San Pedro with the words “Soy San Pedro” right there. No mistakin’ who it was!
Pedaled back to San Juan, and the whole little excursion only took an hour. Picked up my ropa limpia at three in the tarde, then strolled down to the muelle (pier). Started out just people-watching – always a fascinating anthropological study, ¿sabes? – then I went down to the beach and wandered along this old path huggin’ the shoreline. Found a bench and just parked myself, watchin’ some doggos do their doggo thing and these two horses chillin’ out, munchin’ on the marsh grasses. They were hobbled, but seemed pretty content.
Then this dude comes along luggin’ this massive bundle of green stuff on his back and just dumps it on the ground. Curiosity got the better of me, so I asked him por qué. Super friendly guy, he came and sat right next to me on the bench, and we had a real nice chat. Turns out, he’d hauled all that greenery down from the hills for his horses. His name was Rogelio. ¡Buena onda!
Later on, I hit up this restaurante that’s practically next door to my lodging here at Casa Lolitas – La Viga. Ordered some fish that looked kinda like perch. Tasty enough, but man, those little bones were everywhere! ¡Cuidado!
Tomorrow’s plan? Gonna conquer that summit known as La Nariz de Indio. Indian Nose. Yeah, I guess it kinda looks like one. ¡Vamos a ver!
Day 24, Saturday March 8th, San Juan La Laguna
March 8th, 2025
¡Qué onda! This morning was all about conquerin’ La Nariz Indio (Indian Nose or Mayan Face). Set out bright and early at 6:30 AM. Got to the trailhead, and this señora hits me with a 30 quetzal entrance fee. Then, wouldn’t you know it, at the summit, this young vato wants another 40 quetzales! Apparently, it’s a whole different ballgame up there – “different jurisdiction,” he says. Santa Clara on top, San Juan down below. ¡Órale! Guess you gotta pay to see the nose from all angles.
The initial trail was pretty civilized – paved and rock steps leading up to this first viewpoint. That’s where about ninety percent of the folks called it quits. There were a couple dozen people chillin’ there with a big cross and a bunch of little snack stands. ¡Turístico!
After that, the trail got serious. Straight-up climb, with ropes in some spots to help your clumsy gringo self. I stuck to the recommended path on the All Trails app, but I mentally bookmarked some of the other trails on the map, figurin’ I’d loop back on ’em later. The main trail went over a pass to the other side and then looped back to climb the nose from a different angle. Looked like the Santa Clara side had an easier route – saw a moto parked up there and some hikers who definitely hadn’t earned their summit views the hard way from San Juan. ¡Tramposos! (Just kiddin’… mostly).
At the top, the young attendant was there to greet me and collect his dues for the panoramic privilege. A young chica was weavin’ placemats or seat covers. The views were pretty epic, though – San Juan and San Pedro Volcán on one side, and Santa Clara sprawled out on the other.
I asked the young dude about this formation called El Pico del Loro (Parrot’s Beak) on my map, and he pointed to this crazy steep trail droppin’ straight off the summit. Wasn’t even on the app’s map and looked like it had a serious attitude. Asked him if it was dangerous. “¡No!” he says, so naturally, I went for it. Wasn’t too gnarly, and it connected to those other trails on my app, so I made my way to El Pico and then looped back to the main trail and headed back down to San Juan. ¡Aventura!
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Órale, so it was casi eleven in the mañana when I got back to San Juan, and I decided to take a lancha over to San Marco. I visited this pueblo back in 2023, and I wanted to grab some late desayuno or almuerzo ’cause I hadn’t eaten nada yet. Turns out, it was a veggie burger for el lonche at the same restaurante I remembered eating at in dos mil veintitrés. It’s off the main andador from the dock, but you go down a short little camino and it’s all pretty with the árboles and tables.
I walked up to the Eagles Nest, just like I did in dos mil veintitrés. Around the Eagles Nest, some güey asked me where I was headed. I told him, and he goes, like, “I’ll show you.” I didn’t really necesitar him to guide me, but I followed him anyway, and ¡no manches! when we got there, he asked me for a propina. I gave him five quetzales, and you could totally see he was, like, bummed, but he took it and left me alone. I got a licuado de plátano and tried their WiFi, but it was, like, chafa.
I took the lancha back to San Juan and just chilled in the cuarto and talked to Leslie on WhatsApp about the plans for mañana when she and Andrés are gonna drive to meet me. We figured it’d be mejor if I take the lancha to Panajachel and meet them over there.
Later on, I went to cenar at this El Salvador pupusa place. ¡Qué padre!
Day 25, San Juan to Panajachel to Antigua
Sunday, March 9th, 2025
So I left San Juan a little before eight in the mañana on a lancha to Panajachel with my bike on the techo.
I had desayuno while waiting for Leslie and Andrés, and I stretched it out with three tazas of café so I could keep the WiFi. Finally, I just went out hoping to run into them. It took a while, but eventually we found each other. ¡Qué bueno!
We put the bike in the car – we had to take off the front llanta to get it in. Later, we even had to take off both llantas to make room for another person in the back asiento – and went looking for a barco to Santiago Atitlán.
The car was near the private lanzamiento, but we realized pretty quick that it would be better at the public muelle, a fifteen-minute caminata away.
In Santiago, we visited the big sixteenth-century iglesia and went looking for Maximón, that Mayan estatua that moves around. Google Maximón for the whole interesting story. Let’s just say that Maximón is a figure who can bend the rules and is not bound by conventional morality. Andrés had to ask where it was three times before we found the narrow callejón that led to it. Andrés paid the twenty-five quetzales to get in, and we got to watch them pretending to give the estatua alcohol.
We rushed to the muelle after having almuerzo because we heard the barcos only left every hour. Turns out, we waited forty minutes after it was supposed to leave while they waited for enough pasajeros to fill up the barco.
We finally got on the carretera to Antigua around four in the tarde. Andrés found out from talking to his mamá on the phone that the tuktuks had blocked off all the entrances to the city to protest the alcalde who wants to ban them from the city. The alcalde wants to only allow electric vans that fit ten or twelve pasajeros. I agree with that. The tuktuks are a noisy menace.
Day 26 Ciudad Vieja and Antigua
March 10th, 2025
After Leslie had finished her morning Spanish classes, we hopped on the chicken bus downtown. First thing we needed to do was find Mickey’s Bike Shop, which was actually a little hidden inside this sort of mall—tucked away behind a restaurant.
They had a box that would work for packing my bike for the airplane, even though it was a bit narrower than I would have liked. They charged me this crazy price of 100 quetzales (fifteen bucks) for what was basically garbage to them. I paid it because I didn’t have another option, and we told them we’d be back later to pick it up, and then we went on to our next things—lunch and checking out the tour options.
Lunch was at a nice, quiet restaurant—I had a sandwich that was just piled way too high with meat and mushrooms to fit in my mouth, so I had to kind of work it down with my fork.
The tour office had a bus going to Rio Dulce, which leads to the boat to Livingston, where that unique community of Garifuna people lives, the descendants of escaped African slaves. This trip started with a colectivo to Guatemala City where we’d get on a bigger bus to Rio Dulce. It was more than a six-hour trip each way. Other possibilities included a local coffee tour, which we might do instead.
We went back to the bike shop for the box and managed to drag it onto a chicken bus to get back home.
I was able to get one pedal off the bike, but the second one was really tough. When Leslie’s papá came home around five PM, I asked for WD-40 or his help. He tried a wrench to give more leverage to the allen wrench, but it didn’t work. Finally, he tried a wrench on the nut on the other side of the pedal, and it came off easily.
Day 27, Antigua Guatemala
Tuesday, March 11th, 2025
Okay, so I packed up the bike in the caja yesterday mañana and mostly just read until mid-tarde while Leslie taught her online Spanish clases. She made this really amazing almuerzo of homemade lasagna and ordered an Uber for a little trip to the Museo del Café Azotea and a tour. She knew our driver from having worked with him at a local bank over ten years ago.
The guía for the tour was very dynamic and spoke excellent English since the others on the tour were mostly European, though there was a couple from Israel. The guía even knew some Hebrew!
We learned some interesting facts about the planta de café and how they prune the arbustos to get the most life out of each one. Also, mosquitoes pollinate the plantas! It’s a working finca, so they had granos de café out drying in the sol and machines in operation.
After the tour, I bought some café for both of Leslie’s padres and Rebekka. We had café and postre in the open-air cafetería. Very tasty waffles and helado for me.
We had a late cena with the familia and made plans for our viaje to Livingston on Friday and Saturday.
Day 28-29 Ciudad Vieja, Antigua
March 12-13
Wednesday we went to El Tenedor del Cerro. Back in 2023, I had actually run up there in the mañana from my hotel and had desayuno.
This time, Leslie Karina and I took the chicken bus to Antigua, then the free shuttle van up to El Tenedor. The restaurante and hotel are quite luxurious with art galleries, museos honoring poets and musicians, and impressive fountains, not to mention the fabulous views of the city of Antigua.
We walked the grounds for an hour before we went to the restaurante and had café and postres.
