hello everyone and welcome back to
another vlog if you're new here my name
is olivia and
i am currently traveling throughout
mexico with my boyfriend chico some of
you guys might have been following me
since my guatemala travels and if you
didn't know me and my boyfriend chico we
were traveling guatemala for like six to
seven months this past year we started
in may and then we left in january and
guatemala holds such a special place in
my heart and i just love it so much and
i wanted to just kind of sit down with
you guys and share some things that
maybe you should know before traveling
to guatemala and some things that i wish
i knew and also things that our friends
prepared us for beforehand so shout out
to elfie and hannah they answered so
many questions for us people are
traveling and alfie was a big reason why
we even
chose to go to guatemala because it was
never on our buggy list or never on our
mind but i'm just so happy that we did
travel there and it's just changed my
life so much i have my
starbucks here
i have
a whole list of everything that i kind
of want to talk to you guys about right
now i'm currently in mexico city we've
been traveling mexico for the past two
and a half months and i absolutely love
it in mexico as well so if you want to
see some mexico vlogs make sure to hit
that subscribe button and give this
video a thumbs up
and i'm gonna have an entire guide as
well on my blog via live.com where you
guys can have more of a written version
of you know my favorite places and
things i recommend and things you should
know before traveling guatemala i do
want to just kind of talk about though
that like guatemala is a place that you
can't
as much as you think you can prepare for
it's kind of a place that you're going
to have to experience for yourself and
especially uh lake katilan it just
brought so many different things out in
me that i didn't even
you know realize it's such a spiritual
place and yeah i didn't know how it
would make me actually feel until being
there and you don't really know how
you're going to react in certain
situations and handle certain situations
until actually being in the situation so
yeah as much as you can prepare always
express that you need to just chill out
and
relax and everything is going to be
great just have a positive mind and a
positive
attitude i guess
first we'll talk about visa so upon
arrival to guatemala you
get an automatic 90 days and you can
stay in guatemala for three months it
all depends on the return ticket and all
of that depending on who you are and the
airline and all that we didn't really
have a return ticket we just told them
that we planned to leave within the 90
days frequent stop or free grant visa
run is going to mexico san cristobal
or to el salvador or you know whatever
you want if you don't want to stay there
the entire time if you do plan to stay
there long term you can do visa runs um
to mexico or to el salvador
and it's totally fine and safe we took a
bus from guatemala to mexico and it was
so great and it's a long ride but it was
worth it i just think it's much more
affordable and you get to see more of
guatemala on the way there
things that maybe you should download on
your phone beforehand are
google maps is definitely
something that you want to download and
make sure you download the
cryptocurrency
converter and then the translate app so
i would make sure to download spanish on
a translate app and
google maps
and the currency converter are all
things that i used every single day in
guatemala and it was so helpful because
your service doesn't always work there
unless you decide to get a sim card or
whatever great to have on hand and
especially when
things happen you just have that already
on your phone
the currency so the currency there is
kidzales every 100 q is about 13 now
when we got there it was about 12 so the
exchange rate went up about a dollar
since we were last there i think that
just fluctuates and that's a normal
thing check before
cash is mainly how you pay for things in
guatemala in antigua or lake tilan if
you are in antigua some places accept
credit card payments but most of the
time i just personally used cash and we
just went to the atms the atms are
located in
the center of antigua or at the
pharmacias or in lake ceylon there's
only atms in the bigger towns and even
some of the bigger towns like san marcos
the atm was going out quite frequently
um there so you would have to travel to
another town but i'm going to get more
into that in a little bit so just keep
in mind that i wouldn't recommend
exchanging your money at the airport i
mean we made a mistake and did that and
we lost about 100 so if you do have to
make sure that like it's only a little
bit and then when you get into antigua
or guatemala city or whatever then you
can get money out of your bank account
so the main language in guatemala is
spanish but if you go to the smaller
towns and like atilan there's 21
different mayan languages that are
spoken and spanish is actually the
second language for the majority of
people there so though the main language
is not spanish around the lake or in
majority but like if guatemala city or
antigua is spanish tetland is mayan and
mayan villages surrounding the entire
lakes it's amazing to see and witness
and listen a lot of places don't really
know english and i would definitely
recommend learning some basic spanish
before traveling to guatemala uh basic
like buenos dias buenos aires just basic
words and phrases everyone says good
morning and good afternoon and good
evening in guatemala everyone is so
extremely friendly and it's just nice to
be able to communicate those
special little phrases and greetings
towards them that really go a long way
and just show your respect to the local
people yeah i definitely recommend
knowing some basic spanish and not
assuming that they know english because
they
they probably won't and i will say that
my spanish is not a hundred percent but
i definitely do my best and
uh people are definitely willing to help
you if you look willing to learn that's
just really an amazing place to learn
spanish there's also spanish schools
surrounding lake atlanta and also in
antigua i unfortunately didn't get to go
i don't know why it just didn't work my
excuses right but um it's a great place
to learn spanish
getting around if you don't go to
guatemala city you're typically going to
get off the airport and
you're going to grab a taxi from the
airport and you might have to barter a
little bit but you're going to
get a taxi to antigua and that will take
you there
i recommend not skimping out on
guatemala city i think it's an amazing
city and i think underrated and i think
so many people kind of make you scared
of guatemala city like oh it's so scary
and um it's dangerous and all these
things and while that may be true in
certain neighborhoods just like any
other city like new york and chicago and
la mexico city and all these different
cities in the world of course in paris
and london but there are some really
beautiful places in
uh guatemala city and i think it's a
different energy than the rest of like
antigua or lake tatitlan and i just
think it's an amazing place there's
really amazing coffee shops and food and
just like a cool little culture there so
i just don't think that you should be
scared of it obviously be cautious
wherever you are and the lake and
antigua and all these different places
if not you're gonna take a taxi from ur
guatemala city to mt1 and that's about
an hour drive it says it's 20 minutes
it's not it's about an hour drive
there's traffic in the city of course
and then from antigua to lake atlan it's
around a three and a half hour drive and
you can book a shuttle for that and you
could beat a group or private but we
used a tea trends and i'll put them here
and also leave them in the description
box below we use them for all of our
travels and really really loved them and
enjoyed them and we also used them from
lake atlanta to
san cristobal and yeah it was just great
and they're amazing so they have a
location in antigua and they also have a
location in panacha but the main
way to get around in antigua is by tuk
tuk or walking i i mean we barely took a
tuk tuk we took it once just for fun
because we were pretty tired when uh
vince came to visit us but the other
times we literally walked everywhere
such a walkable city it's kind of like
san francisco in a way where you can
walk the entire place in one day it's so
amazing how it's kind of set up i mean
you can take an uber too but
we've had some weird things happen with
uber there where they tried to like they
denied our ride when we got there
because they wanted us to pay extra and
like all these weird things were
happening so we didn't really rely on
uber i think we took a taxi either but
yeah uber's available but i wouldn't
really say it's like the best
when you get to lake etylon a bit tricky
so you're gonna arrive in pana hotel and
from pana hotel wherever you're staying
around the lake you're gonna have to
take a boat to whatever town you're
staying at for instance if you're
staying in san marcos you're going to
have to take a water taxi a boat a
lancha from pana to san marcos it's
about a 20-minute uh boat ride you can
do public or private and this is very
important to know
before going to lake atlan because i've
seen so many youtube videos where they
got stuck in different towns where
they're not staying and then they had to
book a private boat or stuck in the town
that they were at okay from pana hotel
to any other town the last boat is seven
o'clock or 7 30 and then if you're going
from like san marcos to other places the
last vote is five o'clock so if you're
going from san marcos to haibalito it's
like 5 5 30. so that's something to be
very aware of that the last boat i would
say is five o'clock and you can get
stuck and it's just a good thing to know
before going to guatemala and when
you're in your town in guatemala or you
get to a different town the main source
is either walking or took and tuk tuks
are really great you can take a tuk tuk
from certain towns to another town but
honestly the boat is a little bit better
tooks can definitely be hard on your
body especially if you're going through
a lot of rocks and stuff for instance
like from sununa to san marcos it's
definitely like really hard on your body
and i did experience whiplash from i
believe like both the boat and that and
i was just in really bad pain for like
five days i don't know if you guys
remember everyone tried to diagnose me
and i realized that i think it's because
of the boat and we were there in rainy
season and the boats are just like going
like that and there's also the chicken
buzz that you can take from
antigua to lake a tea land or from lake
atlanta to kentucky
or shella but we never did that it's
definitely you can and i know many
people that have we just never tried it
out if you have definitely leave it in
the comments below and share your
experience with us because i would love
to
know
how that was
it's rainy season versus dry season so
rainy season is may to about
end of september and then october
to
april is dry season i was there in both
a dry and wet season and as much as dry
season is incredible because like it's
not raining all the time definitely more
crowded and the prices definitely jump
up at the lake and i saw it with my own
eyes coffee bags went up uh like just
coffee beans that we were getting every
single few days
went up the food went up um so so many
things definitely rise which makes sense
because they're going to take advantage
of the tourism coming in but that in
itself is just kind of like okay just
see it kind of like changing also
there's just a ton of tourists so it's
going to be more central and it's a
little bit more busy and packed all
around and you'll definitely get a
little bit more obnoxious characters and
that's totally fine because if people
are enjoying their life but i would say
we enjoyed the rainy season so much and
it was just beautiful and everything was
so lush and green mostly rained in the
afternoon and then you know you have
your morning and then you go hang out
the difference though is the bugs
because in what season you have so many
mosquitoes and so many bugs and they
definitely took advantage of my feet and
my body and it was really a nightmare
for me as far as that but it was worth
it in all the other ways but if you're
not like really
one to get bit up by uh bugs i meant uh
rainy season i just think it's so
beautiful and
the weather and it's quieter
what you should pack and what you
shouldn't pack it's definitely not a
place to dress fancy show out or
anything like that the lake definitely
humbles you and even antigua it's a
beautiful city but i definitely wouldn't
recommend like wearing heels or you know
really flashy items because it is still
not like that you definitely dress nice
and antiqua keep your heels at home wear
comfortable shoes because it is
cobblestones and in lake atlanta it is
dirt roads nature and there is just
you're not going to need that at all so
i would wear really comfortable clothes
i would also if you're going in
a wet season i would bring a poncho i
would bring a reusable water bottle
because the trash system in guatemala is
not amazing and every place that we've
stayed at offers eco filters and you can
refill your water bottle right then and
there and it's totally perfectly fine
and clean i was skeptical at first but
we were fine so yeah definitely bring a
water bottle sunglasses obviously to
protect your eyes
and sunscreen because the sun is pretty
harsh there i'd recommend bringing a day
pack you to be going between different
towns as well and you would need to
bring some of those items bug spray like
i said there's a lot of mosquitoes in a
lot of bugs thing to kind of talk about
is that guatemala opened you up to
insects and creatures and if you're not
comfortable with that it's definitely
going to take you outside of your
comfort zone and that's something to be
aware of and to kind of just let
everything kind of come your way the
first place we stayed at lake atillon
was i i will link it here it's the eco
like tiny home
and
there were spiders everywhere like all
above us and it's kind of insane and
then there are scorpions as well and i
don't mean this to scare anyone but i
just want you to be aware that these
things are real they're part of life in
their nature and i think so many of us
in the us have been like thought that
these things are bad including myself
because i used to be so scared of
spiders and bugs and everything and i
would make my sister kill them and then
i would like not go in my room for a few
days because i'd be so scared that
i think it's just like we're privileged
enough to not have that and kind of feel
like we can control those things but
when you're in a place like
a team on that's a
forest and like untamed jungle there's
nothing you could do about it and
because you kill one there's going to be
more that keep coming in
and so our first experience with that i
actually handled it pretty well and i'm
pretty proud of myself chico as well and
but it definitely opened our eyes a lot
to that situation and he actually got
stung by a scorpion
which is crazy but like he ended up it
was here and then he touched and then
stung him and then he also woke up with
one in his hand i don't know scorpions
kept coming for him something to be
aware of and it's totally totally fine
but um i wouldn't let it ruin your
experience at all because it's part of
the beauty there earplugs that like a
t-lawn there are wild dogs everywhere
and you're going to see a lot of things
that like might not look normal to you
where you come from there's going to be
hurt dogs and there's going to be
hungry dogs and there's going to be
a lot of sad situations that
i mean i just put life into perspective
for you and i've had a lot of cries over
it but
what can you do it's part of life and
you can't save everything um as much as
you want to bucks can be pretty loud at
night roosters are also loud i mean i
love the roosters and i think they're
beautiful and i love waking up to them
but if that bothers you or if you're
sensitive to noise and also fireworks
are constant
like noise there's if you're sensitive
to sound or just might worry that it
might bother you please bring earplugs
to help make your trip a little bit
easier but
i didn't use them and it was totally
fine i definitely had a few nights where
i was woken up but it's all part of the
experience honestly i would also bring
quick dry towel
i'm going to link everything below also
on my blog post but a quick dry towel is
just going to be great if you go
swimming at the lake or if you're in a
place where like they don't really offer
towels if you stay in hostel um it's
just nice to have i'll link the one that
i used below i would bring your yoga mat
there are yoga mats purchased around the
lake but if you want to bring your own
yoga mat and feel comfortable with your
own yoga mat it's definitely a nice
place to do yoga because it's such a
spiritual experience and i mean the
views and there's a bunch of yoga
classes surrounding the light you can go
to eagle's nest you can go to yoga
forest you can go to musical yoga farm
there's multiple yoga
experiences around the lake the water
shoes or like slip-ons definitely good
like if you're going in an outdoor
shower or
uh just easy access to kind of like walk
around
and i brought my tivos which were great
for swimming because like you can wear
them in the water they're waterproof not
bringing a suitcase it's really not
realistic at all when you
get to antigua i mean it's all
cobblestone so rolling it is kind of a
hassle and then when you get to the lake
it's even more unrealistic because you
are
hopping on a boat you're putting your
luggage there and then there's really
nowhere to lug your luggage so if you
can or if you have a backpack you would
recommend doing that or something you
can carry so that's as far as like what
to pack and what not to pack if you guys
have any questions let me know
some things to do there's so many things
to do surrounding guatemala there are
some things that i haven't done but i
would recommend checking out if you're
interested um you can hike a volcano the
most common one is fuego or akitango and
that's in antigua you can also hike some
at lake atlan but yeah some of them are
pretty
i don't want to scare anyone but like
things have happened and
yeah i just do your own research um as
well uh you can learn spanish you can go
to the big market in chichi kasanango
and just see all the artisanal goods and
the food and everything like that you
take a chicken bus there chella is also
a beautiful place i would explore all
the different towns surrounding the lake
visit all the ruins and churches uh in
antigua because they're so incredibly
beautiful visit the local mercado
everywhere that you can because they're
my favorite you take some classes
running lake like i mentioned there's
ton of yoga classes but there's also
mushroom
classes there are permaculture classes
there are herbal everything that you can
possibly imagine
is surrounding the lake and artisanal
you know hand woven classes and i would
also recommend visiting a coffee farm or
obviously tasting the local coffee of
guatemala because it's just
so good and antigua is a beautiful cafe
culture city and i have a whole video on
my favorite cafes in antigua so check
those out yeah i just love integra all
the cafes it's honestly just like my
dream and i just love it so so much
oh i also wouldn't bring any hair dryer
or anything like that it's definitely
not needed unless you're going to be in
antigua long term but i didn't um i
barely wore any i barely did not wear
any makeup or do my hair um it's
definitely not the place for that
where to stay antigua is kind of like
north south east and west and i stayed
at every part of that and i loved every
park for different reasons we've stayed
in both in an airbnb and we also stayed
at the good hotel for one night which is
kind of pricey but i really really
enjoyed it it was beautiful so they're
airbnb and then there's like a ton of
hostels as well around antigua just do
your research yeah we've had really
great luck with airbnbs in antiqua and
i love antigua so so much at the lake
lake has 11 different towns surrounding
the lake san marcos san pedro panna
hotel san juan
santiago santa cruz javelito sununa and
a few other ones visit a majority of
them but there are some that i still
didn't get to check off because it takes
a lot of energy to go to each town but i
kind of talk about
the different towns and what i think
about them so panachel is a beautiful
town it's the main town when you enter
into lake island it's great for like it
has beautiful art and it has a beautiful
church and a great place to walk around
we stayed there for three nights on our
way to leaving to mexico and learned
that i didn't like
staying there the food was not great
like at all
and the cafes are pretty good the coffee
is good but like it's not really like a
place to like work or anything like that
yeah it just wasn't my favorite as far
as living i love visiting and i love
like i have a nail salon there that i
love there's a few like breakfast places
and it's nice to like go see the little
shops around the lakefront it's really a
nice place to visit there's not a lot to
offer even as far as food goes and it's
kind of weird to me that like the other
towns have much better food than that
one but that's just my personal opinion
and we don't eat meat either so we
definitely look for more vegetarian
options and they don't have that in pana
and the views just didn't seem as great
as other places so san marcos is one of
my favorite places around the lake for
many reasons it's the accessibility to
things that i love and ingredients that
i love and um it's a great like balance
between expects and locals while some
may agree that or not people call it the
hippie town and that's totally fine like
whatever i guess
judgment or word that you want to say i
don't really like
uh divine myself in that way but i
definitely just love everything it has
to offer has nice restaurants and food
and the community there is great and it
just feels like a nice place to have a
market it's a little bit bigger than
some of the other towns and it just
feels kind of like curated to people who
you know take good care of their body
and their health and all of that if that
makes sense there's a lot of yoga
classes in health food stores and
there's a few markets there as well so
everything's pretty accessible i really
love it so much the night there is quiet
it's not a night place at all it the
nightlife is not really there i mean you
can find it if you want but
most places close around seven or eight
and um yeah it's just really a nice calm
environment san pedro i love visiting
san pedro for the food and just for like
a different experience it's definitely
much bigger than san marcos it's known
for being a backpacker town
amazing and it's incredible i
necessarily wouldn't stay there because
it definitely is a party town and it's
more alive and that's totally fine but
like when i go to the lake i wanted to
be at the lake i love it so much and
it's beautiful i love visiting i
definitely prefer
san marcos but if you are like single or
wanting to meet people other
backpackers i definitely would recommend
san pedro san juan i went there once and
i don't know why i never really went
back because i don't understand at such
a beautiful town but they do a lot of
artisan made goods and hand woven items
and there's a lot of coffee shops and
stuff like that definitely feels a
little bit more local but yeah it's a
great place santiago we went there on
the last trip and
i fell in love with it it's incredibly
beautiful and you get just a whole
different view of the lake that you
don't get from the other side
and the people were really great it
feels definitely more mine and it's
bigger there's a lot of shops it kind of
feels like panna but like yeah it just
feels like a really special place and i
definitely recommend going there we went
to the mirador uh where you can see the
bird the local bird it's like one of the
only place you could see that i'll leave
the link below i guess the best time to
go is in the morning i wouldn't say
there's a lot of vegetarian food so if
you are vegetarian i just didn't really
see it but maybe i'm wrong and let me
know javelito is one of the smallest
towns around the lake we stayed there
for
almost a month or two weeks or something
and really enjoyed it it wasn't my
favorite there's a few restaurants um
like three there's not much to do in the
town at all there's no atm really
enjoyed the stay and it's a beautiful
view we want more things to do and like
cafes and stuff like that so sununa is
my second favorite town for many reasons
and it's just beautiful and kind of
untouched and there's like a lot of
farms coming up and
permaculture farms and yeah just really
cool conscious things
developing there and there's a waterfall
and there's a really great restaurant in
there as well i just think it's a really
beautiful place we stayed there and i
honestly found it to be my favorite
stay
um it kind of was secluded from the main
town or main like road and so it gave us
a really nice calm and serene place and
we stayed with the local family i really
enjoyed it so much if i were to live
in guatemala long term or in like a tea
land sununu would probably be the place
for that like for farm or land or
whatever but it's a beautiful place
another question i got is about like the
outlets there the outlets there are the
exact same as the us so you do not need
a converter at all i believe it's the
same in all of latin america but
definitely correct me if i'm wrong if
you're coming from europe or australia
or wherever else you're definitely going
to need a converter but just so you know
i really hope you guys enjoyed this
video i hope that i covered majority of
all the questions and things that you
might want to know before traveling to
guatemala
if there's anything that i missed out
definitely leave it in the comments
below or anything that you learned while
you were on your trip if you are going
to guatemala soon i really hope that you
enjoy your visit there it's such a
beautiful beautiful country and place
and i hope you guys enjoy if you like
this video please make sure to give it a
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traveling throughout mexico so make sure
to like watch these mexico videos and
yeah stay tuned for where we are going
next hope you guys have a great day and
i will see you guys soon
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