Hey Friends,
Cheers from a Taco Bell in Guatemala with a leaking roof! We are in Flores, a town located between Belize and Mexico, and our flight to Guatemala City has been pushed back so we are camped out here editing (Reyka) and writing (Wyatt). The sky drains outside the windows and we’ve changed tables to protect our camera gear from rogue droplets.
Travel Update:
The verdict is in. Guatemala is UNDERRATED.
Nature? Check. Lakes, volcanos, rainforests, rivers, beaches. You name it. Monkeys, fish, deer, jaguars, tarantulas. Branching trees so high your neck hurts.
Culture? Check. A single traditional Guatemalan woman’s outfit likely has more colors than I sport in an entire year.
Affordability? Double Check. We’ve averaged $24 a night in Airbnbs and eating out rarely goes higher than $20 for two people including appetizers, drinks and the main course.
Safety? Check. More than anywhere else we’ve traveled, we were warned about Guatemala. Yet, we’ve had absolutely zero issues. And, even more notably, not a single traveler has told us about anything bad, which they always do.
Cool stuff? Literally scrape the sharpie across the list, off the page, and on to the table. Yesterday we went to the Tikal Ruins and they absolutely blew our minds. Easily the best “touristy” thing we’ve ever visited, and I’d recommend it to anyone into architecture, history, or really, really cool ruins.
Here were our destinations throughout the country:
- Antigua – Beautiful colonial city surrounded by volcanoes. Kind people. Great coffee.
- Lake Atitlán – So gorgeous, peaceful, and fun we honestly were talking about how cool it would be in the future to buy a house on the lake and live half of every year there. We also slept in a treehouse with our own private dock for a few nights!
- Semuc Champey – A series of mini turquoise lakes on top of a river. Sounds cool, right? Well, this was honestly the let-down of the trip. If we did it again, we would skip this and come straight to Flores by plane.
- Flores – Cute island city in the middle of a lake. We slept in a converted shipping container in the jungle. It’s the launch-off point for Tikal tours.
- Tikal – The abandoned capital of the Mayan empire. Around 50,000 – 100,000 people lived here at its peak in 700 AD. The structures are straight out of Indiana Jones and the Millennium Falcon flies over it upon entry to Yavin IV in Star Wars: A New Hope. Absolutely unreal. We also saw a spider monkey here and had many temples all to ourselves.
- Guatemala City – We fly there today!
Upcoming Plans:
We fly to Columbus, Ohio on August 3rd and directly leave for a family vacation with Reyka’s entire family in Hess Lake, Michigan. Couldn’t be more excited for the snacks, lake adventures, book reading, and much needed family time.
Then midway through August we fly to the Pacific NorthWest to Seattle, Washington where we’ll drive up to Bellingham, Washington to spend a month at my home! Reyka is seeing it for the first time and we are stoked to go hiking, head up to Canada (Spoiler Alert: Country #10! ), and hangout with my family and friends. I haven’t been home in a year and although I’ve become used to the road, being home, introducing Reyka to my friends and many of my family, eating at all my favorite restaurants, golfing at my favorite courses, and swimming in my favorite lakes puts a grin to my face with the slightest trace of a thought.
Travel Tip:
Get a fanny pack and make it your travel wallet. A normal wallet is thick in your pockets and easy to forget at a restaurant counter, and a purse is just an extra bag to carry. Fanny packs stay attached to your waist where you can forget about them until you need it, unzip, and you’re good to go. Also, they’re easily tucked away within clothing in crowded, pickpocket prone areas.
If You Want to Support Us:
Literally no pressure whatsoever, but just in case there is anyone out there who wants to ‘buy us a coffee’ and financially support our travels, we created a place to donate!
Here’s the link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wyattandreyka
Video to Watch:
Big news! We are doing our first ever giveaway! We want to connect with the community while also speeding up the rise to 1,000 subscribers. Here’s the video. Send it to your friends and family so they could be entered to win!:
And here’s our newest video which came out yesterday in Punta Cana exploring probably the best beach there: https://youtu.be/Oqhc87OAmRs
This Thursday, August 4th we’ll post a video where we see how much we can do in the Dominican Republic for $20! It’s our first ever cash challenge and we accomplished a TON! It’s the last adventure vlog in the DR, and we definitely went out with a bang. Don’t miss it: https://youtu.be/jOqwLpEochA
Next up is a series of informational travel videos as they seem to help a lot of people planning trips, a few Belgium videos from the backlog when Wyatt stopped there on the way to the DR, and then we’ll post our first Guatemala vlog! It’s in Antigua and should come out in mid-late August if not earlier!!
Love and Peace,
Wyatt and Reyka