Guatemala and El Salvador Holiday

When you arrive at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, meet your driver guide who’s been waiting for you. As cash is king here in Guatemala (and El Salvador), it’s recommended you withdraw some money from ATM while in the airport for future personal expense. The currency of Guatemala is quetzal (USD 1 ≈ GTQ 7.7), with the same name as the national bird whose feathers were interestingly used by the Mayas as their currency. Note that if you are to exchange dollars, those kiosks would ask for new and clean bills and their exchange rate is usually under par. Ask for advice from your guide whenever necessary.

Then, enjoy a comfortable 50-minute private car ride to the hotel in Antigua, a famous historical town. The ride is a cultural tour in itself as you’ll see many colorfully-painted buses on the way, the ‘camioneta’ for locals or ‘chicken bus’ for tourists. Converted from old American school buses, they are now the town-to-town public vehicles. While the ticket is cheap, just looking at it racing at a crazy speed on the fast lane will flinch you. After check-in, maybe get around a bit. The hotel is conveniently located near many great restaurants and for tomorrow’s city tour. It’s in a quiet alley for sound sleep and has a lush courtyard which you’ll fall in love with. Bear in mind that wherever you are, don’t drink directly the tap water unless boiled.

► Special Note on Clothing in a Country of Faiths:
We are now in a country with 80% of population believing in a certain faith, most in Christianity and part in Mayan systems, which means the society is more on the conservative side. Typically locals here wear long dress, and, if you don’t want to attract much attention, it’s suggested you pack some breathable clothes as well that are below-knee or less-exposed, which would also come in handy for tours in churches and the national parks in El Salvador. Our journey in Guatemala is culturally themed and goes deep into local communities, so this is something to take special note of.

Accommodation: Casa Noble Hotel (4 stars) or similar, Antigua

After breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up to visit Antigua. Once the capital of the Spanish Guatemala colony, which contains most of the isthmus of today’s Central America, Antigua once almost fallen to pieces in the 1770s through an earthquake. But it has been brought to resurrection: now on either side of the cobbled streets, while a large number of historical sites like ruined Baroque churches and monasteries still stand, coffee houses are everywhere. Men work out the world’s best cocoa or indigo-dyed products behind walls, and people live a laid-back lifestyle. And all are set off by the spectacular volcano views in the distance. The No.1 landmark is the Santa Catalina Arch that once connected a monastery and a school. The arch frames the Agua Volcano and you’ll make a stunning postcard picture out of it. If you are people person into grand scenes, come during the Holy Week in March or April. There’ll be endless colorful carpets paved with sawdust, parades with the faithful in purple robes carrying idols, and the fragrance of corozo and burnt incense amid air. In 1979, the city was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the afternoon, we are heading for the valley town San Antonio Aguas Calientes, one of the places to find the best hand weavers and woven fabrics in Guatemala. The Kaqchikel Mayan women here live by weaving double-faced fabrics and would start their career as early as 7. They are proud of themselves for carrying on the skills inherited from their ancestors. Machines are not capable of this work, they think, because inspirations for the colors and patterns can only be encountered in human heart, life and nature. The local market offers the best chance to witness ‘huipil’, the iconic traditional Mayan cape with heavy embroidery. Sometimes you can also spot women working with backstrap loom. Finally, we'll drive back to the hotel in Antigua.

► Tips for Dinner (Self-Financed):
If you desire for some Guatemalan food, we recommend a restaurant named Rincon Antigueno, a bit walk north from your hotel. The cook is toasting tortillas at the entrance and after passing them you’ll enter a shaded, simply-decorated courtyard with wooden tables. Can’t miss their marvelous roast chicken! If you’ve known the influence of corn-focused Mayan culinary culture on local life, you’ll also want to try dishes like tamales, steamed corn-meat paste wrapped in cornhusk.
Average cost per person: USD 6-7
Address: 3a Avenida sur No. 3, Antigua 3001

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Casa Noble Hotel (4 stars) or similar, Antigua

This morning, let’s explore for some revelations of Mayan culture at Iximche, an archaeological site called the ‘Land of Corn’. It takes 1 hour to drive there from Antigua. Iximche was the last capital of the Kaqchikel Kingdom in the late 15th century. The lords had once asked for help from the Spanish against other tribes－see how they set a wolf to keep the sheep－before they themselves became the targets. Iximche then was declared by the conqueror the first capital of Guatemala. At the site, we’ll explore some plazas, pyramid-temples, palaces, and a ball court. An altar is still in use and occasionally you’d see people worship. Locals have turned the spacious ground around the site into a park, where you may enjoy a stroll as well.

Later, hop on a ride for 1.5 hours to Chichicastenango Market. This market with a history of more than 100 years is the largest in Central America and opens every Thursday and Sunday. There are wooden carvings including Mayan masks, decorative themed paintings, traditional attire, silver and jade wares, ceramics, and fabrics with all manner of patterns from volcano to the national bird. The Mayas here speak good English to make a living and they know to raise the price for tourists. If something tickles your fancy, your guide is there to help you to bargain. Amid mixed Mayan languages and Spanish in the background, we’ll then climb a flowers-lined staircase to reach Church of Santo Tomas, where the Mayan Bible was found and which the market centers around. Erected on the base of a pyramid-temple, this is the world’s one and only church that worships a Mayan god. What’s more, as we stroll the town, gaze far somewhere on the high ground and you’ll spot an incompatible area with houses too colorful. You’ll be surprised to know that it’s actually the local graveyard. For the Mayas, death is continuation of life so it’s natural to build decent houses for the deceased. As for the colors, red for them means blood, yellow the sun, green and blue nature, and white serenity.

Continue onwards to a 1.5-hour drive to Panajachel, the gateway to the Lake Atitlan embraced by three volcanoes. We’ve carefully selected for you a hotel by the lake. If it’s clear today, be prepared to discover an unparalleled landscape, which is all the more spectacular at sunset. It is highly recommended to take a walk in the hotel’s tranquil private garden that is free for their own guests. Bathe in a hot pool if you feel like winding down.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel Atitlan (5 stars) or similar, Panajachel

Start today with an immersive boating on the Lake Atitlan. It’s considered ‘the most beautiful lake in the world’, but whether it’s hype or fact, leave it to your own eyes. The lake was formed after a collapse of a volcano eighty thousands years ago, and nowadays there are a submerged Mayan city and still hot springs underneath.

We’ll then disembark to visit two of many Tz'utujil Mayan villages around the lake. In San Juan La Laguna, women also weave to live. What’s unique about Tz'utujil people is their unyielding tradition of using 100% natural pigments for dying. We’ll visit a textile cooperative and admire the hand-knitting articles and fabrics, as well as woven mats made from lake reeds. It’s specially established for the women weavers, with the purpose to carry forward their customs while providing financial support for their children’s education. Next to visit is the village of Santiago Atitlan, where the traditional Tz'utuhil lifestyle also prevails. On the main street of the village, we’ll wander through galleries of oil paintings which depict the busy market scenes and the life of the highlands. There’s also another typical Mayan-Catholic church, whose front 20 steps stand for 20 days of each Mayan month and the altar of which has symbols of corn and quetzal on it. A fun fact is that this lakeside landscape is similar and often compared to it of China’s Yunnan, which also boasts textile markets and villages of local ancient minority tribes, as well as an immense lake. If you wonder how humans are related wherever they are, it should be on your bucket list.

Do you know that Guatemala, for the lower price levels, is also one of the most cost-effective destination to learn Spanish? And the region around Lake Atitlan has the most schools all over the country! If interested, why not consider a mid-long term study tour?

It’ll be noontime as we boat back to Panajachel, where you may have your lunch at your own cost. Afterwards, we will drive 2.5 hours back to Guatemala City, the world of the Ladinos who dig urban culture. The Ladinos are people of mixed Spanish and indigenous origin and the other largest ethnic group beside the Mayas. They only speak Spanish and have much greater influence in the commercial and politic spheres. Word has it that the Ladinos are thought as traitors by the Mayas, which you may ask your guide about.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Wyndham Garden Guatemala City (4 stars) or similar

Today we’ll cross the border to Ataco, El Salvador. The whole journey is around 3 hours. If you are carrying American dollars, there’s no worrying about the money exchanging as El Salvador is also using them as the national currency (the other is Bitcoin).

Take a nice break. In the afternoon, you’ll explore the Flower Route or Ruta de Las Flores. The route takes the name because flowers on both sides bloom each spring and this is where El Salvador’s most beautiful cultural landscape unfolds. We’ll start from Concepcion de Ataco, one of the ends, and visit the towns of Apaneca, Juayua, and Nahuizalco along the way one by one. Ataco will impress you most with its fancy street murals everywhere. The ‘street gallery’ interestingly stemmed from a cat lover and artist, who attracted people to her shops by painting blue cats on the walls, which indeed succeeded and the whole town followed her example. Other towns beckon with expansive coffee plantations or traditional handicrafts, and you’re highly recommended to drop by some coffee house en route to try the country’s specialty volcanic coffee (at your own expense). If we are here on weekends, we’ll join the boisterous food festival in Juayua. While in Nahuizalco, you’ll experience the indigenous culture of the Pipil people, spot traditionally-dressed women, and hear people speak Nawat language that is facing extinction. The Pipil was an Indian tribe that once dominated in El Salvador, which is why local Spanish has many Nawat words in it. Nawat has been an UNESCO heritage and the town is one of only a few places to encounter it. At the end, drive back to Ataco.

The hotel for your stay tonight belongs to Casa 1800 boutique series, the local brand that selects only the most charming spots of El Salvador to be their sites. Ataco is one, where you’ll find tons of cafes and restaurants for dinner and some night markets to explore.

► Tips for Dinner (Self-Financed):
What a waste of chance if you are visiting a country but missing local food? We suggest you walk 10 minutes south from your hotel to find the family-owned restaurant Pupusería Cielito Lindo, which offers the best pupusas of Ataco. Pupusa is the national dish, a cake made of corn, and here you’ll be fascinated with versions of varied fillings. Must-tries include the one stuffed with Salvadorian truffle or shrimp. You may accompany it with Horchata, a traditional drink made with seeds of coconut-like morro. 
Average cost per person: USD 5-10
Address: Avenida Central Esquina con 6° Calle Poniente, Barrio El Calvario, Concepcion de Ataco 503

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Casa 1800 Ataco Hotel Boutique (3 stars) or similar

In the morning, drive 1 hour and a half to Cerro Verde National Park, in which we’ll hike up to the Santa Ana Volcano, the highest of its kind in El Salvador. A small land holding over 20 volcanoes, the country deserves its moniker ‘the land of volcanoes’. We’ll start hiking before 11 am. The path, pleasantly challenging, includes a jungle walk and then a climb over the barren volcanic terrain to the top. At the base of the mountain, we’ll meet locals selling wooden sticks as trekking poles, which would come in handy on rocky, slippery stretches if you hasn’t burdened yourself to take one. Along the way, also explore a wonderful orchid garden, savor the magnificence of Lake Coatepeque and Izalco Volcano, and encounter curious animals. You may have the luck to see El Salvador’s national bird torogoz, the beguiling colorful bird with a long tail seen in both sexes, the local symbol of nature’s beauty. On the top of the volcano, take a stroll on the crater rim amid a sulfurous smell and worship the bubbling florescent green crater lake in the middle of the dark landscape. The hike lasts 3 to 4 hours.

In the afternoon, head to the Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park to discover a pre-Columbian Mayan farming village and delve into the nitty-gritties of Mayan daily life. Like the globally-famous Pompeii of Italy, Joya de Ceren had also submerged in volcanic ashes, which kept it well-preserved for 1,400 years. What’s surprising about these ruins is that, the houses here has similar structures to modern ones of the Maya people. Archeologists have unearthed all kinds of daily-used articles, like pots, spindle whorls, sleeping mats, and iconic obsidian tools, and we’ll witness all these in a nearby museum. There is even a building only for shaman and ceremonies, in which the blade for blood sacrifice was found. A public sauna room was probably used for ritual cleansing. From the situation, it’s likely that the villagers had left in a haste. After the tour, we’ll drive back to San Salvador.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Barcelo San Salvador (4 stars) or similar

This morning sees us exploring the capital city of El Salvador, and, by extension, the history of it and even the whole country. We’ll walk main streets and the old plazas to visit some monumental historical sites. San Salvador started from no other than Plaza Libertad, where our architectural highlight, the Iglesia El Rosario with a brutalist exterior sheltering the rainbow-colored holy world inside, is in the east. At Plaza Barrios, your guide will recall the stories of a national hero who fought for peasants before the central statue, as well as the loved yet assassinated archbishop in the splendid Metropolitan Cathedral. The National Palace and the super-modern National Library sit here. Plaza Morazan is the most northeastern one, where the neo-classical National Theater stands. Surrounding these plazas are cafes, restaurants, handicraft stores, etc., which make this area also a life center for you to experience.

Then we’ll drive around 1 hour and a half to Suchitoto. You can use these adjectives to describe this town: quaint, artistic, and tranquil, for the cobbled streets, colorful houses, and a location by mountain and lake. As the first capital of Spanish colony in El Salvador, it keeps some beautiful colonial buildings to see. Upon arrival, we’ll move through the central plaza to visit the white-all-over Iglesia Santa Lucia, Suchitoto’s first church, looking like the subject in an oil painting against the blue sky and surrounding low-rises. You’ll next have some time to stroll around the plaza to discover the life scene. Afterwards, let’s visit the house of Alejandro Coto, the trailblazer in the country’s film industry and who brought art to Suchitoto. It’s Coto who inaugurated the International Art and Culture Festival, which is held every February. From here you can gaze towards the largest lake in El Salvador. In the late afternoon, we’ll drive back to your hotel in San Salvador.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Barcelo San Salvador (4 stars) or similar

Today is the last day of your Guatemala and El Salvador holiday package. It’s suggested that you ask the hotel staff to keep your luggage after check-out and seize the chance to see more of San Salvador, before we pick you up at the lobby and escort you on a 40-minute ride to the international airport for your flight home.

If you are looking for local specialties, we couldn’t recommend it more that you visit El Salvador’s biggest supermarket chain Super Selectos for reasonable marked prices. Or maybe dive into the Museum of Art, entry-free on Sunday, to look into the country through art.

How many chances do you have to visit Central America in a lifetime? Why not extend your trip to enjoy its unique charm as much as possible? You may continue to Belize and fly over the formidable Great Blue Hole, to Honduras to experience the Caribbean dive mecca, and in particular, to Mexico, from which you’ll bring back epic experiences of whether the most spectacular Mayan pyramid-temple in the world, the cenotes, the diverse gastronomy, or the cultural extravaganza of Day of the Dead!

Meals: Breakfast