Guatemala, Copán and El Salvador: Antigua, Lake Atitlán and the Ruta de las Flores

Arrive in Antigua

La Aurora International Airport, Guatemala City, to Antigua

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Antigua
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

A driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the drive of about 45 km west to Antigua, roughly an hour, longer when afternoon traffic is leaving the capital. The road climbs out of the city and drops into the Panchoy Valley, where Antigua sits at about 1,500 m below Volcán de Agua. It was the Spanish colonial capital until the earthquakes of 1773, and its grid of cobbled streets, painted houses and ruined churches has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Soir

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the route ahead, including how the two border days work and what to keep in your day bag. Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Guatemalan dishes, such as pepián, a spiced stew, in the centre.

Compris

• Pick-up at La Aurora International Airport (GUA)
• Welcome briefing with your guide, including the border days
• Welcome dinner in Antigua

Antigua on foot

A walking day in Antigua, ending on Cerro de la Cruz

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Antigua

Matin

We start after breakfast in the Parque Central while the light is soft and the plaza is still quiet. Your guide walks you through the layers of the old capital: the arcaded Palace of the Captains General, the cathedral front with the roofless ruins of the older church behind it, the yellow Arch of Santa Catalina, built so cloistered nuns could cross the street unseen, and La Merced, its church front covered in white plaster ornament. Inside the ruined church of San Agustín, now a small museum, you see how archaeologists have dug through the earthquake rubble to the floors and burials below.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in town. The afternoon is free for the Capuchinas convent, a jade workshop or a coffee on a rooftop.

Soir

Before sunset we climb the steps to Cerro de la Cruz, about 20 minutes up, for the view over the tiled roofs to Volcán de Agua.

Compris

• Antigua walking tour with your guide: Parque Central, the cathedral ruins, the Arch of Santa Catalina and La Merced
• The San Agustín church ruins and museum
• Sit-down lunch in Antigua
• Cerro de la Cruz viewpoint before sunset

Chichicastenango market, then Lake Atitlán

Antigua to Chichicastenango, then Sololá and Panajachel on Lake Atitlán

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Panajachel
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Every departure starts on a Friday so that today is a Sunday, the bigger of Chichicastenango's two market days; stalls are up from early morning and start packing away in the early afternoon, so we arrive mid-morning. We leave Antigua at 8 am on the Pan-American Highway, climbing through pine and maize country for about two and a half hours (about 105 km) to Chichi, at nearly 2,000 m. With a local guide we work through the stalls of huipils, carved masks, wooden saints and vegetables, then stop at the white church of Santo Tomás, built in the 1540s on a Maya platform. On its steps K'iche' prayer-makers swing censers of copal and leave flowers and candles; visitors use the side door, and photographs inside are not allowed. Around noon we sit down to lunch above the square, then drive about an hour and a quarter (about 40 km) south, stopping above Sololá for the first view of Lake Atitlán and its three volcanoes.

Soir

You reach Panajachel by mid-afternoon, with the evening free on the lakefront.

Compris

• Chichicastenango Sunday market with a local guide
• The steps and the side entrance of the church of Santo Tomás
• Sit-down lunch in Chichicastenango
• Viewpoint stop above Lake Atitlán near Sololá

By boat to the lake villages

Panajachel by boat to Santiago Atitlán and San Juan la Laguna, then back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Panajachel
• En bateau

Après-midi

Boats go out in the morning, because an afternoon wind locals call the xocomil often whips the water into chop after midday, so we board our own boat at the Panajachel dock straight after breakfast. The crossing to Santiago Atitlán takes about half an hour. In the largest Tz'utujil town on the lake we walk up to the 16th-century church of Santiago Apóstol, with its memorial to Father Stanley Rother, the American priest killed here in 1981, and visit the house where a religious brotherhood is keeping Maximón this year; the folk saint moves to a new home every year. A short hop across the bay brings us to San Juan la Laguna, where women's cooperatives dye cotton with plants and weave on backstrap looms. Lunch is in San Juan, and we are back in Panajachel by early afternoon, before the wind rises.

Compris

• A boat for the group on Lake Atitlán
• Santiago Atitlán: the church of Santiago Apóstol and the house of Maximón
• San Juan la Laguna: a weaving cooperative with natural dyes and a backstrap loom demonstration
• Sit-down lunch in San Juan la Laguna

Down to Guatemala City

Panajachel to Guatemala City, with an afternoon in Zone 1

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Guatemala City
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

The early morning is yours on the lake: the water is often glassy at sunrise, and kayaks can be hired along the shore.

Après-midi

We leave Panajachel at about 10 am and climb back to the Pan-American Highway for the drive of about three hours (about 140 km) east through Chimaltenango to Guatemala City, with a sit-down lunch on the way.

Soir

We stop here for one night because the road from the lake to Copán is too long for a single day; from the capital it is about five hours. In the late afternoon your guide walks you round Zone 1, the historic centre laid out after the capital moved here from Antigua in the 1770s: the Plaza de la Constitución, the Metropolitan Cathedral and the green-stone National Palace, and the Central Market behind the cathedral with its floor of textiles, baskets and pottery. The evening is free; your guide can suggest a restaurant near the hotel.

Compris

• Sit-down lunch on the road to Guatemala City
• Zone 1 with your guide: the Plaza de la Constitución, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Palace from outside and the Central Market

Activités en option

• Kayak hire on Lake Atitlán before breakfast (paid locally)

Across the border to Copán

Guatemala City to Chiquimula, the El Florido border and Copán Ruinas, Honduras

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Copán Ruinas
• Environ 5 h de route

Soir

There is no town on the way with a hotel worth a night, so we break it instead: we leave at 8 am, follow the Motagua valley east and stop for a sit-down lunch in Chiquimula. From there a mountain road climbs to the El Florido border. Your guide collects passports and walks the group through: the Guatemalan exit stamp, a short walk across, then the Honduran desk, where officers take a photo and fingerprints and a small entry fee is charged, which we pay. It usually takes 30 to 60 minutes. Our vehicle, or a partner vehicle that meets us on the Honduran side, takes us the last 12 km to Copán Ruinas, a small town of cobbled streets and red tile roofs at about 600 m. You arrive mid to late afternoon, with time for a coffee on the plaza.

Compris

• Sit-down lunch in Chiquimula
• The El Florido border crossing with your guide, including the Honduran entry fee

The Maya city of Copán and the macaws

Copán Ruinas to the Copán archaeological park, then Macaw Mountain Bird Park

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Copán Ruinas
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

Late morning we visit the Sculpture Museum at the site, where a full-size replica of the painted Rosalila temple stands as it was found, buried inside a later pyramid.

Après-midi

After lunch in town a short drive takes us to Macaw Mountain, a bird park and rescue centre on forest trails by a river.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Copán archaeological park entry with a local guide: the Great Plaza, the Hieroglyphic Stairway, the Acropolis and Altar Q
• The Copán Sculpture Museum and the Rosalila replica
• Sit-down lunch in Copán Ruinas
• Macaw Mountain Bird Park entry

Activités en option

• The tunnels under the Acropolis (separate ticket, paid at the site)
• Hot springs in the hills outside town in the late afternoon (paid locally)

Two borders to the Ruta de las Flores

Copán Ruinas to El Florido, Esquipulas and the Anguiatú border, then Juayúa, El Salvador

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Juayúa
• Environ 6.5 h de route

Soir

No town between Copán and western El Salvador has a hotel at our standard, and a night short of Juayúa would cost the Saturday food fair, so we break the day into legs instead. We leave at 8 am, cross back into Guatemala at El Florido and drive about 100 km of mountain road, under two hours, to Esquipulas, where we stop at the white Basilica, home of the Black Christ, Central America's best-known pilgrimage shrine. After a sit-down lunch it is about 45 minutes to Anguiatú. Here we leave Guatemala and enter El Salvador; under the CA-4 agreement this is usually a quicker passport check than El Florido, and any arrival fee is paid by us. From Metapán the road runs south to Santa Ana, where we stop for coffee on the cathedral square, then climbs to the Ruta de las Flores. We reach Juayúa in the early evening, our base for two nights.

Compris

• The El Florido and Anguiatú border crossings with your guide, including any fees
• The Basilica of Esquipulas
• Sit-down lunch in Esquipulas
• Coffee stop in Santa Ana

Coffee, the food fair and Ataco

Juayúa to a coffee finca, the Juayúa food fair, Apaneca and Concepción de Ataco, then back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Juayúa
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

By late morning the stalls are filling the streets around Juayúa's church, which houses a Black Christ carved in the 16th century, and we sit down to lunch at the fair: grilled meats, river fish, pupusas and dishes you will not see elsewhere on the trip. In the afternoon we drive about 40 minutes west through Apaneca, one of the highest towns in El Salvador, to Concepción de Ataco, where house fronts are painted with murals and small workshops weave and dye cloth with indigo.

Soir

You have time to wander before we drive back to Juayúa in the early evening.

Compris

• Coffee finca walk and tasting
• Lunch at the Juayúa weekend food fair
• The church of Juayúa
• Apaneca and Concepción de Ataco: the murals and an indigo workshop

Joya de Cerén and Suchitoto

Juayúa to Joya de Cerén, then Suchitoto and a boat on Lake Suchitlán

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Suchitoto
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Then it is about an hour and a quarter (about 55 km) north-east to Suchitoto, a hill town of cobbled streets and whitewashed houses that grew rich on indigo, with lunch on arrival. In the late afternoon a boat takes us out from Puerto San Juan on Lake Suchitlán, a reservoir that draws herons, egrets and hawks, as the light drops behind the hills.

Soir

We finish with a farewell dinner near the white church of Santa Lucía.

Compris

• Joya de Cerén archaeological site with a local guide
• Sit-down lunch in Suchitoto
• Boat on Lake Suchitlán from Puerto San Juan
• Farewell dinner in Suchitoto

San Salvador and home

Suchitoto to San Salvador, then Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport (SAL)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

The morning is free in Suchitoto. Walk the plaza and the lanes around Santa Lucía before the heat, or, in the rainy season, take the short walk with your guide to the Los Tercios waterfall, which falls over a wall of hexagonal basalt columns just outside town. We leave at about 11 am for the drive of about an hour and a quarter (about 47 km) to San Salvador. If your flight home leaves after about 4 pm, we stop in the centre to see the Metropolitan Cathedral, where Archbishop Óscar Romero, killed in 1980 and canonised in 2018, is buried in the crypt, and the modern church of El Rosario, lit through bands of coloured glass.

Après-midi

Lunch today is your own. Then it is about 45 minutes south to Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport (SAL), where your guide sees you to check-in and says goodbye. With an earlier flight we go straight to the airport, and we help you choose the timing when you book.

Compris

• San Salvador with your guide: the Metropolitan Cathedral and the church of El Rosario (for flights after about 4 pm)
• Drop-off at Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport (SAL)