Guatemala: Volcanoes & Cred Hoes - Part 3 - Lake Atitlán

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Before reading through this, please let me know if the pictures don’t turn out okay. I haven’t written a PTR since Imgur f**ked over the UK users so want to make sure everything looks good. I’m trying out imgbb, which others seem to have success with.

This primarily wasn’t a coaster trip, but it was organized by a coaster friend and included a couple notable parks. That said, everything else was way more interesting and some of it was a little different from my typical travels.

My mind has been focused on European trips over the last few years (can you blame me? Europe is awesome), but I owe it to myself to pay attention to other parts of the world. Originally, I’d been wanting to do a little trip to Mexico (easier flight options and good-looking creds), but after looking more into the Guatemala trip being presented, it was too tempting to pass up with a small group.

The main itinerary, which consisted of Antigua, Lake Atitlán, and the theme parks, only covered a long weekend with the group. Given the travel effort—I needed a layover each way from Boston—4-5 days didn’t seem like enough for a new country, so I was like “f**k it,” I’ll take the rest of the week off and spend a few days extra on my own elsewhere in the country. I’ve also been craving some more solo travel, so those last few days satisfied that. Anyway...

Part 1 - Arrival and a +1

Two weeks ago, I had an early flight Wednesday morning with a layover in New York, getting into Guatemala City around mid afternoon. I could’ve flown in on Thursday, when most of the group was arriving, but at that point there would not be any time for Mundo Petapa (Guatemala City’s theme park, and only open Thursday-Sunday). While that park would’ve been first on the chopping block out of everything, I probably would’ve killed myself if I made the effort to fly down here and NOT grab some sh***y Zamperla. As such, I flew down a day early so I could take care of the park the next morning.

One other friend from the group had also arrived early, so we settled up in a private room at a very basic hostel nearby. I never had any real desire to explore Guatemala City (there’s not much to see), so this evening was essentially treated as a stopover before rendezvousing with everyone. We stayed in one of the “safer” neighborhoods (Zone 10, for what it’s worth), which was close to the airport and filled with restaurants, cafes, and shopping centers. I don’t have many photos of the City, mainly because there’s not much to see. It’s frankly not that interesting.

So what was there to do? Grab some nearby creds.

This place was about a 30 min walk from the hostel. It didn’t look very promising upon arrival.

Not to worry, someone was happy to open the cred for us. A rite of passage. Luckily my friend was fluent in Spanish. The “Q15” refers to 15 quetzales, the local currency. Equivalent of about 2 USD.

The operator didn’t have to do much. A lever opened up the station brake and he pushed us out. A light switch turned on the lift motor. Three times around what is listed as "unknown" on RCDB.

There was another wacky worm nearby at some zoo, but it seemed the zoo was already closed at that point. We would try it again tomorrow. Instead, it was back to the hostel to freshen up before a fantastic dinner at an Argentinian restaurant, located in some newish plaza with a bunch of shops and restaurants.

That’ll pretty much do it for Guatemala City. Outside of the culture shock of being in a different country, it really wasn’t all that exciting as you can tell. That said, halfway through the trip I was glad I had the experience just to get a glimpse of the local life, since the rest of our stay was in popular tourist/backpacker areas.

 

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Part 2 - Mundo Petapa

The next morning we took a short ride back to the airport to grab our rental vehicle, which annoyingly took about an hour to deal with. We had a van reserved for six of us, but they had limited inventory so they gave us this f**king beast instead.

Glad I wasn't the one driving!

We had a few hours before the others landed, so the two of us went up the road to Mundo Petapa for some whoring.

The entrance is a bit unsettling at first. You wind up in a parking garage that’s immediately connected to the entrance. But once inside the park, I was pretty surprised to see this plaza:

The benefit of focusing on creds when planning new park visits, especially those with less desirable coasters, allows opportunity for a pleasant surprise when you realize the park is actually really pretty.

Oh, I should mention that the two of us split a ticket for 12 rides, for 60 quetzales (about 8 USD). Each ride is worth the same single hole punch. So the 12 punches allowed both of us to get all the creds, which some punches remaining. And if you have a couple left over, you can use them at the other parks (Xetulul and Xejuyup). This park also had a general park admission of I believe Q100 ($13) and a parking fee of Q20.

But enough of that, we had creds to get!!

First up was this powered Chinese dragon thing.

The park is laid out pretty nicely. The main strip from the entrance plaza is lovely, and then most of the rides are placed in the same area.

Next up was Moto Bala, a Zamperla motorbike. This is only my second one, so I’m not quite sick of them yet. The launch is really good but the rest of it is pretty awkward.

What I am sick of are these spinning mice, or in this case Raton Loroco.

To be fair, I did like this area with the mouse and the “big” Zamperla. The plaza is behind a food hall, so it’s a pretty cool approach.

Relámpago is basically a Zamperla eurofighter, nearly down to the Rage layout.

I haven’t done one of these models and always heard terrible things about the Thunderbolt clone, but this wasn’t too bad. It actually ran better than a typical Gerstlauer, so I suppose it’s a win. That’s probably down to the (admittedly over-engineered) restraints, which don’t really allow for headbanging.

+4 complete. Time to walk around. The park is on some pretty good terrain.

Down the hill behind Relámpago was a pretty depressing zoo.

The only other ride we were interested in was the drop tower, which I now realize I lack a photo of. It’s a pretty good combo cycle of a shoot up and a final, paused drop. We mostly did it for the view of the volcanos, but it was kinda freaky because the OTSR was oddly narrow, so my legs were kinda open (…please disregard the phrasing of that sentence…).

Nothing else interested us so we hit the road for La Aurora Zoo, which was near the airport and supposedly had another Wacky Worm. After paying for the cheap parking, walking past the security guard holding a pump shotgun, and paying for the entry (think it was another $10 equivalent, probably less), we walked over to the rides area.

Hmmmm...

There it is!

Oh. Nevermind then.

Spiteful Worm wasn’t having it today, so we grabbed lunch while we were here (surprisingly decent Guatemalan food in a quiet part of the zoo) before picking up the rest of the gang at the airport.

We had a bit of a drive ahead to Panajachel, one of the major towns on Lake Atitlán before taking a launch (or “lancha,” essentially a water taxi) to San Marcos La Laguna, where we’d be staying the next couple nights. The lancha service normally closes at 7PM, so we needed to arrive in Panajachel by then (where we’d drop our van for two nights). From Guatemala City, it can be about a three hour drive. We stopped a couple times (including a late lunch stop for the new arrivals—they were eager for the local cuisine... aka Taco Bell) and ran into some annoying city traffic, so altogether it took us about 5 hours. It was a pretty exciting drive to be fair.

One of Guatemala’s forms of public transit is their Chicken Buses, which are old American school buses and customized to look like Mad Max vehicles. It looks like a pretty wild ride at the speed they go, and they have a second worker on board to handle rooftop luggage and maximize efficiency at stops. They’re absolutely ridiculous and I love them.

The geography is very mountainous, so the main “highways” are very windy. There aren’t many branching roadways, and most of the businesses in between towns are on the main road.

The descent into Panajachel is a pretty sketchy road with minimal illumination, narrow and tight turns, and busted speed bumps.

We arrived around 7, narrowly securing a spot in a parking lot. The lot owners offered our group a private lancha transfer at a pretty good price, directly to San Marcos.

After checking into our airbnb, we had a brief look through the neighborhood. The main “street” is basically a nice little pedestrian path with some restaurants and little shops spattered about.

No crazy plans tonight, so we settled up at a very disappointing brick oven pizza place. Well, the owners were friendly and the vibe was there, but the pizza was bland. On the bright side, the restaurant had taken in some stray kittens.

Lake Atitlán adventures will be in the next part.

 

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...There was another wacky worm nearby at some zoo, but it seemed the zoo was already closed at that point. We would try it again tomorrow....

Did you get the zoo cred? The park (Esquilandia) is actually located to the right of the zoo entrance, and I was able to get the cred while the zoo was closed. Too bad the 'death trap coaster' was removed in 2014. Still one of the most memorable experiences I've had riding a coaster.

I really enjoyed Guatemala City the week I spent there, and need to get back for that Relámpago cred. The folks running the parks in Guatemala were also among the most accommodating I've ever worked with.
Bring on Xetulul! Just getting to that park is an experience in itself.

 

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Did you get the zoo cred? The park (Esquilandia) is actually located to the right of the zoo entrance, and I was able to get the cred while the zoo was closed.

I'm assuming you typed this before reading the second part .

I don't recall there being a separate entrance to Esquilandia. There was an access road between it and the rest of the zoo, but it didn't look like the road led down to its own entrance (it probably would've been there at some point). It was all cheap enough anyway, even with the spite. That Galaxi looked ratchet though!

The folks running the parks in Guatemala were also among the most accommodating I've ever worked with.

Yes, all the staff we encountered seemed pretty efficient and friendly, even the dude that was happy to open the other Wacky Worm for us.

Bring on Xetulul! Just getting to that park is an experience in itself.

Thank you for the foreshadowing... lol

 

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Part 3 - Lake Atitlán

Today was our full day to explore Lake Atitlán. Our group had splurged on a pretty nice Airbnb, and this was the view we woke up to. Very nice to see after arriving in darkness last night.

A look back at our house.

Started off at a nice cafe for breakfast before taking a lancha to San Juan. Each ride is 25Q per person, or about $3. Most of the passengers get packed underneath, but if you’re lucky you can snag a seat on the bow for a better view.

Anyway, here’s San Juan.

Like some of the other lakeside towns, San Juan is situated in a hillside. The main touristy strip is pretty steep.

We were on our way to some viewpoint of the lake. I didn’t realize until after I took this photo that we’d be climbing up here.

It’s about a 15 minute walk up and they charge everyone a cheap fee at the base. Apparently it used to be free, but they probably realized they can charge everyone since it’s kind of “the thing to do” in San Juan. I don’t really have any photos of the path up, but there were lots of little, lonely shops for tacky things and refreshments. More shacks were being built too.

This was another shop being built partway down. I should’ve taken a picture on the way up, where some worker was just standing out on one of the beams, no safety harness or anything, hammering the foundation in. It’s a pretty steep drop-off.

Some barren "resort" at the bottom of the path:

Most of the lakeside towns aren't connected by road, but San Pedro was close enough to San Juan that a cheap tuk tuk did the job. Each lakeside town had its own little vibe or gimmick. San Pedro is a popular backpacker/party town. San Juan has more of a tourist/shop focus. San Marcos, where we were staying, is pretty small but has a hippie vibe—lots of white 30-somethings, tattoos, tank tops, messy hair, etc.

Anyway, we just did a walk around San Pedro, grabbing a chill lunch by the waterfront, and eventually taking a lancha back to San Marcos.

Some hotel resort in San Jaun, obviously catered toward the white tourists:

We did a brief regroup at the Airbnb before changing into our bathing suits for a dip in the lake.

Well, I wouldn’t call it “a dip” per se:

This diving platform is about 13 meters high (~42 ft) and was ridiculously fun. I was all pumped to go, but once I left the platform, I realized that this was the highest I had ever jumped in the water and the brief moment of free fall was actually pretty freaky. Landed okay though!

The water also felt amazing. I was expecting it to be frigid due to the altitude, but thought it was really warm. And the air was hot enough that a towel wasn’t absolutely necessary. That said, I’m used to cold New England ocean temperatures in the summer, whereas our Coast Rican friend couldn’t handle it after dipping his toe in.

My second jump landed a bit more awkward. I somehow lost balance midair and my body turned at a slightly awkward angle. Felt it a bit in my left hip/glute, but all good.

Our Airbnb also had a temazcal hut—essentially a sauna—-which obviously had to be done while we were still wet from the lake. After that I tried to go get some views of the sunset, but the clouds weren't cooperating (thankfully this was made up for a few times later in the trip).

A night of drinking was desired.

Dinner was at this homey Guatemalan restaurant.

Post-game was this little club in town with a live DJ. It was small and had maybe twenty people, but had a good vibe and had the hippies dancing the entire time. Drinks were incredibly cheap as well. We were gonna go to this other cocktail bar nearby but the drinks were twice as expensive and—who’d a thunk it—the place was dead. Instead, it was a trip to a market for snacks and chicken stock sangria to bring back to the Airbnb.

In the interest of keeping all the Lake Atitlán stuff tied to this part of the write-up, I finish off with some (admittedly repetitive) photos from the lancha journey back to Panajachel the next morning.

A preview of what’s to come:

After breakfast in Panajachel, we grabbed our van and hit the road, which I’ll discuss more in the next part.