Volcano Bashing in El Salvador

Our neighbor to the East, El Salvador doesnt seem to get the tourism focused on the outdoors quite like we do here in Guatemala.  So we decided to head over and check things out.

I must say we were pleasantly surprised by what we found.  Only a few short hours from La Antigua, Guatemala you can be cruising the "Ruta de las Flores", an old back-roads Salvador feel with cool little colonial and artisan towns with quaint B&B's and fun bars.

But crusing Salvadors backroads wasnt why we went.  We wanted to check out the rarely visited interior of the country with her National Parks, caves, waterfalls and volcanic peaks.  We headed first for the sulfuric crater lake volcano of Santa Ana.  Its an hour or so hike up to the cone where you are looking down on this super cool blue crater lake.  Its not a super hard hike but is very different from the Guatemalan peaks that we normally hike.

Its an easy 4 hour drive to Santa Ana from Antigua and after your hike its only a bit further to the Ruta de Las Flores where you can find food festivals, outdoor beer gardens, scenic lakes, caves and waterfalls.  We headed to Juayua first and caught up with the street-side feast that was going on.  It was like a little piece of Guatemalan Europe.  Folks drinking beers and eating food in the streets.

Just outside town is a waterfall with a system of caves that you can swim through.  Each tunnel takes you further into the mountainside and into a larger chamber.  Pretty sweet! After lounging in the pools we headed back to town for beers and a night out before we headed over to Lago de Coatepeque, the Salvadoran version of Guate's Atitlan.  It wasn't as big but it sure was pretty, we had seen it from the tops of Izalco and Santa Ana volcanoes and knew we wanted to head over and check it out.

Funny how after so much time here in Guatemala that I had neglected our Central American neighbor.  She's so close and offers so much to do than just hanging on the beach and surfing.  Dont get me wrong, Zonte and the rest of the beaches are pretty stellar.  But this highlands "Ruta de las Flores" side of Salvador was a great change from my normal trip.
We'll most likely be adding this to the long list of amazing trips on the Old Town Outfitters website.  Stop in and get yourself booked up on our next adventure!

An Exploratory trip to Guate's Green Heart

This past weekend we took off and headed north from Antigua the the lush green department of Alta Verapaz to the hidden travelers hang out near Las conchas.  This is a place that we had heard about for years but just hadnt for whatever reason found the time to get out and check it out.  It had always be rumored to be what Semuc Champey was before the tourist crowds had taken it over and made it a mainstream Guatemalan dstination of the "Gringo Trail."

No, no, this place is legit!  It is a bit far removed from Antigua but perfected placed in the middle of the country to become THE stopover spot on an overland trip between Antigua and Tikal or the Rio Dulce.
Las Conchas definitely lived up to all the hype that had been circulating  about the remote jungle river and cave system.

We loaded up the 4x4 and rolled out to our friends hostal on the Rio Chiyu just downstream from Las Conchas.  We set out not only to take advantage of cold beers, jungle swimholes and jumping off the staircased waterfalls but to create an all-in-one tour of this area of Guatemala that is not focused on Semuc Champey and the overrun town of Lanquin.

What we found was pretty amazing!  A short pick up truck ride away from the lodge is the trail head to the Setzol caves system.  Its an hour hike through the lush forest to the entrance of Setzol where a beautiful river emerges from the cave.  We spend an hour or so exploring this cave before heading further down the trail to yet another cave that seemingly no one knows the name of!  This cave still has Mayan artifacts inside, making it a truly special place.

Our recee trip has turned into a new classic Old Town Outfitters tour called the  "caves and waterfalls"  tour.  Get in touch with us and join onto our next adventure to Las Conchas before it gets turned into another Semcu Champey!

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