They say all good things come to an end, so today we're finding out what is at the end of the road on our Central American tour with our intrepid group from this spring. Join Dale of The Maritime Explorer as he recounts this last stop.
Sadly, this is my final post from Victor Romagnoli’s epic tour through all the countries in Central America for Adventures Abroad. The group has been to Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and finally Belize where the trip will end in Belize City tomorrow morning as we all depart for our homes or continue travelling on our own. This final country has been a very pleasant surprise with its impressive Mayan ruins, especially Caracol which we visited yesterday and the wonderful Black Rock Lodge where we spent two nights deep in the Belizean rainforest. We saw plenty of different birds at the lodge, but few of the other elusive creatures that inhabit the area. Victor is going to remedy that today as we make a stop at the Belize Zoo on the way to Belize City. Please join us on this final journey through this tiny country.
Caracol – Visiting Belize’s Amazing Sky Palace
A small country with a big list of historical sites, with the most prized spot being the Sky Palace of Caracol. We join Dale of The Maritime Explorer for another look at travelling in Belize while on our Central American Tour.
This is my second post from Belize, the final country on Victor Romagnoli’s one of a kind guided odyssey through all of Central America for Canadian tour company Adventures Abroad. In the first post from Belize I gave my first impressions of this tiny country as we visited several Mayan sites including climbing El Castillo at Xunantunich. In this post we’ll pay our final visit to a Mayan archaeological site, the very important city of Caracol where there is a chance to climb the highest structure in the entire country, the aptly named Sky Palace. It’s a journey that will take an entire day on very bad roads through the Belizean rain forest. Please join us to find out if the effort to get to Caracol is worthwhile or something to take a pass on and enjoy the day relaxing at the wonderful Black Rock Lodge, as many in the group chose to do.
Travel Belize
Have you ever wanted to travel Belize? Then you'll want to read this fascinating take on our Central American tour by Dale of the Maritime Explorer.
I’m finding it hard to believe, but we are headed for the final country in Victor Romagnoli’s guided tour of all seven Central American countries for Adventures Abroad. We have just wrapped up an amazing eight days in Guatemala capped off by a visit to the best Mayan site I’ve ever seen – Tikal. This morning we will drive through the Guatemalan rain forest for about 60 miles (100 kms.) to cross the border at Cuidad Melchor de Mencos into travel Belize. Please join us as we explore this former British colony which is the only non-Spanish speaking country in Latin America.
Tikal – Guatemala’s Mayan Masterpiece
If ancient cities in the overgrown jungle are your type of travelling dream, then you'll want to read this installment from Dale of The Maritime Explorer about Tikal.
This is my final post on our visit to Guatemala as part of Victor Romagnoli’s Central American odyssey for Canadian travel company Adventures Abroad. Visiting every country on this vast isthmus that stretches almost 3,000 kilometres (1840 miles) from Colombia to Mexico has been an eye opening experience to say the least. I now understand that each country has its own ethos and that they are not just a bunch of banana republics with similar histories of civil oppression, American interventionism and endless wars and revolutions. I also know that, despite being third world countries (Panama and Costa Rica might dispute that designation), that they each have a unique beauty, unmarred by poverty and lack of opportunity. Guatemala has been particularly notable in this regard as I’ve noted in my posts from Chichicastenango, Lake Atitlan and Antigua. Our final stop in Guatemala will be at the fabled Mayan city of Tikal which is deep in the rain forest in the northeast of the country not far from the border of Belize.
Antigua – Guatemala’s Magic Ruined City
Often described as the jewel of Guatemala - but how does Antigua feel in real life? Luckily we have the words, wisdom and photos of our traveller Dale of The Maritime Explorer to explain.
Alison and I are continuing our journey through every country in Central America with guide Victor Romagnoli leading the way on behalf of Canadian tour company Adventures Abroad. We just spent two amazing days in the Lake Atitlan area which I describe in this post and now we are headed the short distance to the famed colonial city of Antigua Guatemala. On the way we dropped into the shrine of San Simon, which was an other worldly experience to say the least. We are now leaving the domain of the various Mayan peoples who dominate most of the Guatemalan Highlands and entering an area where there are more mestizos than purely Indigenous peoples. And although we got our first taste of a true tourist town in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan in quite some time, Victor tells us to expect Antigua to be much more crowded.
San Simon – A detour on a Guatemala tour
Life is full of detours, our Guatemala tours can be as well. Dale of The Maritime Explorer takes on one such detour as he ventures with Victor over to San Simon. Read on to find out how it went.
At the end of my last post on beautiful Lake Atitlan I wrote that I would see you next in the city of Antigua during our Guatemala tour, but we’ve decided to take a detour to see something that wasn’t on the original itinerary. By we, I mean a group led by expert guide Victor Romagnoli for Canadian travel company Adventures Abroad with which we have travelled many times over the past twenty-five years and never been disappointed. This tour is a specialized one-off designed by Victor and will include all seven countries that make up Central America. A few days ago we arrived in Guatemala from Honduras and I have been blown away by this very unique country. It is the only one in Central America where a significant number of the population are Indigenous Mayans. During our stay in the market town of Chichicastenango where the population is overwhelmingly Mayan, I got my first glimpse of the syncretic religious practices that incorporate Catholicism with traditional Mayan gods. Our group saw it again with the cult of Maximón in Santiago Atitlan and when our local guide Tony mentioned that there was another, quite different shrine between Lake Atitlan and Antigua we all said we need to see it. So here we go to visit San Simon in the village of San Andrés Itzapa. Won’t you join us?
