With busy lives, and a big world to explore many travellers operate on more of a time budget than a cost budget. Mapness Top Traveller Ben Robinson shows us where to go, what to do, and what to see if you want to do Guatemala in a week.
Follow Ben’s trip on Mapness to read the complete description and see dozens of stunning images, or check out some highlights from Ben’s journey, such as the Mayan ruins at Tikal:
This place will blow your mind! Built by the Mayans it is enormous. I have visited ruins in Honduras at Copan and Lago Jojya but this place is breathtaking. It is fully surrounded by rain forest (see note below). The trees envelope you and then suddenly you come out into a clearing and there is a 50m high pyramid in front of you.
And read about some of the challenges of getting around as Ben describes the route to Chichicastenango:
Although on this map the road looks like a main road it’s not. By any stretch of the imagination. This is 4wd country. We aimed to get all the way to Chichicastenango but didn’t make it. This is probably the best drive I have ever done. The road winds along the sides of mountains, up and down through spectacular valleys. When I say road… well track is probably a better word. Despite being basically a mud track it was actually quite busy.
There were many trucks and buses as well a few brave motorcyclists. In places the road practical carves through the mountains. You have steep drop offs on one side and vertical cliffs on the other. All the way there were areas of landslides, the solution seems to be to just shove the fallen rocks off the side. When the road finally became paved again it was slightly more hazardous. Areas would just drop by 50cm or so like steps. I had to keep my wits about me to stop us from completely wrecking the car.
Editor’s note: Sorry you didn’t make it to Chichicastenango Ben, but you might like to look at Mark’s Chichicastenango trip on Mapness.
Follow the complete journey on Mapness
Been to Guatemala? What do you think?
Images courtesy of Ben Robinson