Antigua: Catedral de Santiago
Antigua Town Centre with Volano in background
Pre-dawn view of Volcán de Agua with Antigua in Valley
Green Mountains at Dawn
Coffee Beans
Coffee Nursery
Semuc Champney Falls
This three week trip began with a flight to Guatemala City via Miami. We spent the next ten days visiting Antigua, a typical colonial town, Cobán, near the geographic centre of Guatemala, as well as two major Mayan sites: Quiriguá and Tikal.
Antigua: Catedral de Santiago
Antigua Town Centre with Volano in background
Pre-dawn view of Volcán de Agua with Antigua in Valley
Green Mountains at Dawn
Coffee Beans
Coffee Nursery
Semuc Champney Falls
Quiriguá was probably an offshoot of the dynasty of Copán in nearby Honduras and at its peak in about 700AD. It is known for the relatively good preservation of 22 carved sandstone stelae or standing stones.
Acropolis at Quirigá
Carving of King Cattac Sky, on the largest known Mayan Stone
Details of carving on another Stella
At its peak Tikal was a city of over 100,000 people, but in common with all the other Mayan sites collapsed around 900AD (for unknown reasons) and reverted to jungle.
Great Plaza At Tikal with Temple 1
We crossed into Belize and stayed at a hotel 25km from the main road, along terrible unmade roads. Our vist to Caracol Mayan site was approached again by 50km of terrible roads, in continuous heavy rain (hence the blurry photo). The site was very similar to the Mayan sites in Guatemala.
The site was probably occupied for about 1200 years, with peak influence at about 700AD. It was then lost for about 1000 years and only rediscovered in the 1930s. Even today only about 10% has been excavated.
We then transferred by plane from Belize City to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, for a week by the sea. Our main ambition was to see the Belize Barrier Reef, second in size only to that in Australia. We did some snorkelling, but neither had learnt to scuba dive then, and, sadly, our waterproof camera failed early in the week.
Acropolis at Caracol, Belize
Corals