A while ago I introduced you to Ayla. We remember each other from our time in Valencia, when we both stayed in the same coliving. In her last two blogs, she shared her adventures as a digital nomad in Colombia and Mexico. Now she talks about her experiences in Guatemala. Hi all, am I (Ayla) again! This time I would like to tell you about my experience in Guatemala. This was one of the three Latin American countries my boyfriend and I visited last fall. And a little spoiler alert: Guatemala stole my heart! We decided to go here because my stepbrother and his girlfriend back in 2021 had also made a stop here during their backpacking adventure through Latin America. They had climbed the active Acatenango volcano here then and it looked so cool that I thought, I want that too! So we decided to delve a little deeper into Guatemala, because we were not really that familiar with the country. You hear more travelers about Mexico or Colombia. We listened to a really nice podcast and were actually sold immediately. This is also how we started planning our trip. First we would go to Mexico for a longer period of time and later we decided to add Guatemala and Colombia on top!
Antigua: The city surrounded by volcanoes
In Guatemala we were the shortest, actually mainly because we wanted to spend the holidays in Medellín, Colombia. After all, that seemed like an event to us (and it was ;)). Once we flew over Guatemala, we feasted our eyes. What a beautiful landscape! Our first destination was Antigua, a small town surrounded by volcanoes. Once
arrived there we immediately felt a fantastic energy! Antigua is such a nice place. It’s hard to describe in words, but I’m sure if you go that way, you will feel it too. From Antigua, we were going to climb the volcano. We had booked this tour in advance, at the Tropicana Hostel. By the way, we didn’t stay here. I had understood that it is quite a party hostel. We were not in Antigua itself for very long. So we didn’t really work from restaurants or cafes, but there are really plenty of nice places. Fellow digital nomad, Andrea, is from Guatemala and just spent a few months in Antigua with her Dutch boyfriend Martijn. Fun fact: Martijn and I are from the same place in the Netherlands and years later we saw each other again in Guatemala. Because we travel a lot, we know people from all kinds of countries. I really think that’s one of the best things about this lifestyle! For example, I am now on the train in Norway, on my way to meet Dutch friends we met in Valencia. How fun is that? Back to Guatemala: Would you like to know more about life as a digital nomad in Antigua? Then feel free to send Andrea or Martijn a message!
Ayla on the streets of Antigua, Guatemala
Ayla on the streets of Antigua, Guatemala
We really liked going to Cafeteria & Bakery Santa Clara in Antigua. This is a great place to eat, and they have a sort of covered roof terrace, overlooking one of the volcanoes. We were here several times, for both breakfast and dinner, and you can spend quite a few productive hours there during the day, I think.
Climbing the active Acatenango volcano
And then the time had come: the volcano hike! On Saturday morning we left for Hostel Tropicana, where we started the day with a delicious breakfast on their roof terrace. We could already see the Acatenango in the distance. At the hostel we could also rent clothes and a few things were included. Usually you can rent mountain boots and the like in Latin America, so there’s really no need to lug all this around. Just be careful with a large shoe size, because for my friend, with size 46, it was a bit more difficult. I was really nervous before the hike, because my condition is not that good and climbing a volcano like that is really advanced. Good idea, Ayla, haha! Once we got to the starting point, you could rent hiking poles and even someone to carry your backpack. My friend carried his backpack, but we gave mine to one of the tour guides for the way out. Now you may be thinking, unnecessary, but make no mistake. You carry quite a few pounds of water, food and warm clothes for the night, and I’ve seen a few people who were stubborn and almost went off their sticks. Besides, a little extra income for the tour guides is not a bad thing. The Acatenango hike was definitely my highlight of our entire trip. It almost feels a little surreal when I think back on it! The views were beautiful, we made great friends and the cold we experienced at night was not normal. That does strengthen the bond with your groupmates. Once you get to base camp, you can hike even further to the volcano you are facing: El Fuego. This volcano is also active and spits lava about every 20 minutes. Now I didn’t see that much lava (mostly a lot of smoke), but fortunately we had good weather unlike the group the day before us. That’s the risk of an activity in nature.
Volcano El Fuego, Guatemala
Basecamp Acatenango, Guatemala
The Acatenango hike itself is divided into two parts: the first day to base camp and the next morning to the summit. So some people went even further to El Fuego, but I had already figured that that might be a little too much of a good thing and that we could enjoy the views very nicely right at base camp. So that’s what we did, with most of the group. We watched the sunset, ate dinner, roasted marshmallows and then quickly went to bed hoping to warm up a bit.
Acatenango hike
Lake Atitlán view from basecamp
All evening I felt a kind of pressure around my head. I thought that must be the cold, but what turned out: I had altitude sickness. I slept briefly and mostly lay awake with enormous head and stomach aches. And my friend? He slept like a baby. Something about growing up on an Austrian mountain. So the next morning I did not go with him to the summit and watched the sunrise from base camp. My friend did go and had a fantastic view as well. The climb up was tough though, especially since it was still dark (you leave around 4 a.m.) and rocky.
Lake Atitlán: The picturesque crater lake
After Antigua, we continued on to Lake Atitlán, a lake surrounded by volcanoes. By the way, we could see these from base camp, how cool is that?
San Pedro La Laguna
Arriving in San Pedro La Laguna, unfortunately, I got sick, so I lay flat for a few days. So we decided afterwards to extend our stay there a bit. We first stayed in the house of a Guatemalan family, but we couldn’t stay there any longer so we moved to another accommodation. Here we had the top floor all to ourselves. Perfect for working and with a fantastic view. Highly recommended!
At first we were thinking of staying in the various villages around the lake, but because we liked San Pedro so much, we stayed there. From there we went for another day to San Juan by TukTuk and another day to San Marcos by boat. Of these three villages, I liked San Pedro the best, especially from the digital nomad perspective. San Pedro is a hilly village, where you can do everything on foot. There are all kinds of cool restaurants and also plenty of places to work. You can’t swim in San Pedro, because the water is not very clean. Fortunately you can easily get to San Marcos, where you can.
San Marcos La Laguna
San Juan La Laguna
Tikal: The ancient Mayan city
Most travelers also travel north to Tikal National Park, where you have Mayan ruins. Since we had already seen these in Mexico and this would have been a big detour, we decided to skip it for now. In Guatemala, unlike Mexico and Colombia, we didn’t travel around much, but we loved that very combination. In San Pedro, we worked many more hours, which was nice for a while. We felt so inspired there. And that’s also the beauty of traveling around like that, the flexibility and doing what suits you and feels right. As I said at the beginning, Guatemala stole my heart. The nature, the people and the delicious food. That’s why I can definitely see myself returning and hope you don’t forget about this country when you go to Latin America. And that was already my last blog about my Latin America experience. I hope you enjoyed reading it. There are still a lot of countries there that I want to explore someday, but for now, my boyfriend and I are spending some time in Vienna again. Vienna is also a wonderful city to work remote and with plenty of fun sights and activities. If you are ever in the area, don’t hesitate to drop me a line on Instagram!
