Surfing the Pacific Coast

We have teamed up with our good friends down at the Paredon Surf House on the sleepy but up and coming surf beach of El Paredon.

Unlike many other Guatemalan beaches Paredon as its known, has a good surf break and super fun waves even if your not a surfer.  Our new trip will be sea-kayaking and surfing focused.  Like our kayak trips to Monterrico we will spend some time exploring the back waterways and mangroves before heading out to the beach for a fish lunch.

We'll overnight in ocean front thatch bungalows.   We'll have an afternoon surf lesson as well as one the following morning before breakfast.

Get in touch with us at Old Town Outfitters for more information on this new great trip down to Guatemala's Pacific coast

The OTO Underground

Its not every weekend that we are lucky enough to make it out to the sleepy mountain town of Lanquin, but when we do, it certainly always puts a smile on our faces.  This past weekend was that weekend.

The drive to get there is long, but once you leave the congestion of Guatemala City behind the scenery changes and so does your mood.  Along the way we stopped off to break up the drive with a cool hike to a remote waterfall for a picnic lunch and a swim.  This part of Guatemala is incredible!  Full of rivers, waterfalls, big hills and more shades of green that you thought was possible,and the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the elusive Quetzal.

After an hour at the swim hole, we loaded up and pushed further into the back-country and finally made it to Lanquin just in time to pull into the local cave system to watch thousands of bats come pouring out at sunset.
After checking into our digs for the night at El Retiro  we had a drink down by the river and then headed over to pour friends place at  The Zephyr Lodge for good eats and and some quality time overlooking the river.

This being a 4 day trip we are definitely able to take advantage of all the amazing things there are to do in the this adventure travelers play ground.  The limestone geology of the Lanquin area means that rivers and caves abound.  We stopped into the Lanquin caves and crawled our way past where the lights end and tourist trail stops.  Here we found ourselves at the edge of a dark cliff.  Our headlamps just barely making out the stalagmites at the bottom some 50 feet below.  We set up the repel and headed down into that dark cavern below.  There's something special about lowering off tierra firma and dropping into the unknown.

Our next objective was the cave system of Can Ba.  Can Ba is a water cave so we pull on wetsuits to be able to go well past the candle holding bikini clad tourists and push deep inside the mountain.  Up and over waterfalls, swimming dark channels, and scaling around rock formations we plunged some 3 hours into this seemingly never ending cave until we came to our turn around time at "La Playa" a nice sandy beach inside the cave where we had lunch.

Emerging back out into the warm sunlight we strolled across the Cahabon River to the pools of Semuch Champey.  This is a place like no other!  A raging river disappears under a limestone mesa formed by multiple creeks that have dropped their mineral loads forming the terraced pools of Semuc Champey.  Each pool cascades into the next before returning to the raging torrent of the Cahabon exiting the cave formed by la mesa.

This place is worthy of a National Geographic cover!  We soaked up the warm sun and lounged on the rocks separating the pools until thoroughly water-logged.  We headed back over the bumpy road to Lanquin for a huge Mexican BBQ feast at the lodge and fell into hammocks for the rest of the evening.

If you got a few days and want to see a unique part of Guatemala, a world away, underground, floating rivers, and chasing the Quetzal, this is your place.  Get in touch with us at the shop and we'll pull a trip together for you.

See ya out on the trail or perhaps under it...

                                                                    Mateo

Rio Dulce - "Paddling in Paradise"

Just back in from the field!  Old Town guides just brought in pictures and stories from the trail, our most recent trip out the to Rio Dulce, an amazing jungle river on Guatemala's Caribbean coast. 

 This is must hit do-it-all outdoor excursion for the adventurer who wants a good mix of culture, adventure and nature all rolled up into one fantastic 4 day tour.

 This part of Guatemala is riddled with limestone river canyons, beautiful lakes and plenty of other cool stuff stuff to do like caves, waterfalls and even a stop in at a thermal waterfall hot-spring! 

The trip starts out with an early leave from Antigua to beat the traffic in Guatemala City.  As we drop out of the city we start to leave the mountains behind and move into a Caribbean the landscape past vast banana plantations and covered Mayan temples

 Arriving to the River we detour for a stop in at "Finca Paraiso" where there is the most unique oppotunity to shower under a natural thermal waterfall.  The falls cascade into a cold river that comes out of cave just upstream.  You are able to mix the hot and cold of the falls and river to find just the right balance.   

After a picnic lunch we river walk upstream to a hidden cave entrance in the forest where we don headlamps and navigate our way to where the fresh water river exits the cave and float back to the hot-springs!  Pretty insane really.

Each night we move on to a new and unique riverside jungle hostal  as we paddle our way down the Rio Dulce towards Livingston, Guatemala's only Garifuna village.  The paddling on the river gives us plenty of opportunity for bird-watching and if we are lucky enough perhaps a glimpse of the endangered manatee.  As we float down stream we'll pass local fisherman out for looking for the days catch, which most likely will end up on our plates that evening.

 As the river gets closer to Livingston we float through perhaps the nicest part of the, the Canyon, where the river narrows and steep limestone walls rise out of the water hundreds of feet over head.  It is a truly amazing site.  

The town of Livingston with its funky mix of Guatemalan and Caribbean culture is at the mouth of the Rio Dulce and the Caribbean ocean.  It is an amazingly vibrant town with the sounds of steel drums in the air, open cafes and cool Garifuna culture. 

 To round out the trip to Guate's Caribbean coast we stop in at the Mayan ruins of Quirigua on the way back to Antigua.  These ruins once controlled the Mayan lowland area between Copan las Ruinas, Honduras and the mighty ruins of Tikal.  Quirigua boasts the largest stelae known in the Mayan world.

If you are looking for something different and off the mainstream tourist track this is certainly a great option.  Get in touch with us at the shop and we'll help you  put together a custom trip out this way.  There's loads more to do out here than this and we know it all!