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Guatemala Puts The Word Out That They're More Mayan Than Mexico

The Guatemala Tourism Board has become the latest tourism organization to go all-in on web marketing. The board's new "Last Minute" campaign tries to bring together potential travel customers with potential travel providers. Ads will be placed on Google and Facebook and aimed at users who are already searching for Guatemala-related topics, so it won't interrupt your Facebook zombie app or anything.

Users who click on the ads will be taken to a campaign-specific English/Spanish website. The site tries to go beyond the usual "come here because we're awesome" tourism site, linking the 70+ sponsoring travel companies with users. Offers run the gamut from accommodations to food to activities. The site will also include 25% off coupons for these amenities, plus car rentals and tours.

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Tags: Christmas Alternatives / Voluntourism / → All Tags

Voluntour In Sunny Guatemala

Now that the holidays are here, we're chasing that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from doing good. Of course, you don't have to go out of town to find a soup kitchen or Toys 4 Tots program that would love for you to pitch in. But if you have an extra-long winter break and the itch to get out of town, why not head for Guatemala for some voluntourism?

There's no waiting for a visa for Cross Cultural Solutions' Guatemala City trip, which leaves December 13 for two weeks working with small children or the elderly in clinics or orphanages in the Latin American capital city. CCS will take care of your lodging, meals and transportation; all you have to do is roll up your sleeves. And you'll be back in the US for New Year's Eve, which encompasses all the drunkenness of Christmas without the pesky obligation of buying presents. You Scrooge, you.

Related Stories:
· Guatemala Beats Egypt At Pyramid Game [Jaunted]
· Ask Jaunted: Guatemala In A Week [Jaunted]
· Christmas Alternatives coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: antigua-guatemala]

Tags: Google Maps / Crime / Dangerous Travel / → All Tags

Where Is Lake Izabal?

Two American tourists prepping a sailboat for a cruise from Guatemala to the United States were allegedly attacked by four locals brandishing machetes on Lake Izabal. While Nancy Dryden survived the assault, her husband Perry was killed by the men, who demanded dollars, which the couple didn't have.

The four assailants then swam off, leaving the pair for dead, though Nancy was able to raise assistance on the vessel's radio. Local police say they are investigating, but this isn't the first incident involving tourists at the lake, the largest in the country.

Earlier this year, four Belgian tourists were kidnapped at Izabal by farmers hoping to use them as a bargaining chip. They were eventually released unharmed, but yikes!

Related Stories:
· US Tourist Hacked to Death in Guatemala [AP, via Google]
· Guatemalan Robbers Hack Anchorage Tourist to Death [KIMO]
· Jaunted's Guatemala Field Trip [Jaunted]
· Google Maps/Where Is... coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Central America Travel / Pyramids / → All Tags

Guatemala Beats Egypt at Pyramid Game

A change of government can be a nice thing for the tourists of the world, or at least that's how it sounds in Guatemala at the moment. Newly-elected president Alvaro Colom has announced plans to make the Mayan ruins at Mirador more accessible to tourists--currently we're talking a two-day jungle hike or a helicopter ride, and there are a few too many poachers and drug smugglers hanging out in the area.

At Mirador, there are extensive Mayan ruins, including hundreds of buildings, and the site is some three times larger than the World-Heritage-listed ruins at Tikal. There's also what they claim is the largest pyramid in the world, about three feet longer than the largest Egyptian pyramid.

Exactly what form the so-called "tourist park" at Mirador will take isn't clear yet, and we wouldn't go booking your flights just yet. Whether it's just an election promise, or a serious attempt that could be thwarted by the smugglers who want to keep that region of Guatemala for themselves, there are more than a few obstacles to Eiffel-Tower-like tourism at Mirador.

Related Stories:
· Guatemala to Open Park at Ancient Ruins [Reuters]
· Guatemala Field Trip [Jaunted]
· Guatemala Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Dave Kent]

Tags: Central America Travel / Ask Jaunted / → All Tags

Ask Jaunted: Guatemala In A Week

Occasionally, readers tell us about their tentative travel plans, and we use our past experience and obsession with travel to help them make the most of their trips. If your guidebook could talk, this is what it'd say. Return the favor by letting us know how you fare!

Today's Question from Jesse:
My girlfriend and I are heading to Guatemala on Christmas. I'm seeking advice on what sort of itinerary I should tentatively create. We are flying into Guatemala City and are relying on public transportation. We don't want to overestimate on what we plan to see. My girlfriend is interested in Mayan relics and I am a wildlife seeker. What sort of a compromise is there to meet our individual needs in our limited time frame?

OUR GUATEMALA ITINERARY

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Tags: Jaunted Questions / Guatemala Field Trip / → All Tags

Guatemala Trip Questions: Will Claire Join Jaunted Readers in Lake Atitlan?

Claire Duffett lives in New York City and recently completed a 10-day trip from Guatemala City to Antigua, Lake Atitlan, Tikal, and the cayes of Belize.

Not a bad way to escape this downright dreary North East April weather, huh? Claire will be sharing her field trip experience with us over the next week.

In this episode, Claire answers the Guatemala travel questions sent in by Jaunted readers this week. Enjoy

First Question

I'm wondering what is the best way to get from Belize to Tikal. Can the arrangements be made prior to arrival in Belize or is it easier to make arrangements once in Belize?

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Tags: Budget Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / Drug Culture / Rough Guides / Guatemala Field Trip / → All Tags

Rough Guides Gets It Right :: Guatemala City

The Rough Guide to Guatemala was Jaunted Contributing Editor Claire Duffett's weapon of choice, during her March 2007 jaunt through Guatemala City, Antigua, Lake Atitalan, Tikal, and the cayes of Belize. Sometimes these guide books get it right, and sometimes they are off. In this feature, we will tell you what the guide pros said about a place and then give you our take.

Rough Guides Says:

Guatemala City (or Guate as it's referred to locally) has a distinct flavor. There are rickety urban buses roaring along in thick black clouds of diesel, trawling for ever more passengers. There's the shocking contrast between the glitzy Zona Viva, home to luxury hotels, gourmet restaurants and trendy nightclubs and the poverty-stricken outlying shantytowns.

Our Take:
Everyone warned us of the perils of Guatemala City. Co-workers and friends shared with us friends' of friends' of friends' horror stories, and instructed us to leave the airport and head immediately to Antigua.

When I stepped out of the airport, the smell of leaded fuel stung my nostrils. Freshly washed, white BMW shuttle buses lined the parking lot, waiting for tourists. The city, like any enormous metropolis in a second-world country, has its poverty. Yet there is a surprising mix of wealth. Between crowded outdoor markets and abandoned shacks, symbols of capitalism dot the roads. I spotted at least 10 multistory, high-end car dealerships while driving through Guatemala City. The fast-food chain Pollo Campero is as populous in Guate as Starbucks in Seattle.

The billboard-lined roadways are clean, new, and pothole free. Grass medians with manicured bushes separate the lanes. The city's main infrastructure shames any in the U.S. Our shuttle wove between chicken buses spewing out heavy diesel and young people driving shiny new SUVs on their way home from the office. Driving through Guatemala City felt less foreign to me than I expected. It reminded me slightly of my hometown, Buffalo. A sprawling hodgepodge of an economically-depressed but modern city.

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Tags: Budget Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / Drug Culture / Rough Guides / Guatemala Field Trip / → All Tags

Rough Guides Gets It Wrong :: Hotel Mansion del Lago

The Rough Guide to Guatemala was Jaunted Contributing Editor Claire Duffett's weapon of choice, during her March 2007 jaunt through Guatemala City, Antigua, Lake Atitalan, Tikal, and the cayes of Belize. Sometimes these guide books get it right, and sometimes they are off. In this feature, we will tell you what the guide pros said about a place and then give you our take.

Rough Guides Says:

Hotel Mansion del Lago, right above the Pana dock. The most comfortable place in San Pedro, where the spotless, superb-value rooms all have nice pine beds, private bath and balcony areas with lake views. Also has a rooftop Jacuzzi and Internet café. Book ahead at weekends.

Our Take:
Weary and eager to drop off our bags, we assumed upon arrival that we found a bargain. We believed the guidebook's promise of hot water and booked one of the last remaining rooms.

The place looked pretty from the outside. Inside, our room felt sterile and institutional rather than simply "clean." It reminded us of a hospital room. The place still smelled of aerosol from the bubbly white flowers spray-painted on the walls.

The clerk charged us for Internet and refused to sell us coffee from an urn sitting in the middle of the lobby. The "Jacuzzi" -- an empty cement pit on the roof filled with leaves.

Sleeping near the bars and restaurants surrounding the main port presented a challenge. We lay awake, listening to the bohemians' celebratory drumbeats and the ruckus of the alcoholics loitering near the dock. In the morning, sleep-deprived and surly about our ill-advised choice, the water remained fiercely cold between lukewarm bursts.

Worse, we paid Q50 each (about $7). We discovered cheaper places dotted throughout the town when we explored the next day. These hostels, tucked behind charming gardens and atop the hills, cost about Q20 per person. Most had actual hot water, a clean but still cozy feel, with porches facing the lake.

Related Stories:
· Jaunted in Guatemala [Jaunted]

Tags: Budget Travel / Drug Culture / Jaunted Field Trips / Restaurants / Guatemala Field Trip / → All Tags

Jaunted in Antigua: Desayuno Tipico @ Fernando's Kaffee

Claire Duffett lives in New York City and recently completed a 10-day trip from Guatemala City to Antigua, Lake Atitalan, Tikal, and the cayes of Belize.

Not a bad way to escape this downright dreary North East April weather, huh? Claire will be sharing her field trip experience with us over the next week. Enjoy.

Oh, and if you have any questions about traveling to Guatemala, now would be the time to ask.

Fernando's Kaffee does Guatemalan breakfast best. The perfectionist owner has mastered each facet of desayuno tipico, from the warm, doughy tortillas to the soft, fried plantains and the exquisite coffee, made onsite and sold to Ferndando's followers in air-sealed bags.

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Tags: Budget Travel / Drug Culture / Jaunted Field Trips / Volunteer Travel / Guatemala Field Trip / → All Tags

Jaunted in Guatemala: Semuc Champey

Claire Duffett lives in New York City and recently completed a 10-day trip from Guatemala City to Antigua, Lake Atitalan, Tikal, and the cayes of Belize.

Not a bad way to escape this downright dreary North East April weather, huh? Claire will be sharing her field trip experience with us over the next week. Enjoy.

Oh, and if you have any questions about traveling to Guatemala, now would be the time to ask.

Citing the most beautiful place in Guatemala is sort of like pinpointing the gaudiest casino in Vegas. Too many overwhelming sites of natural beauty riddle the landscape. Semuc Champey, however, may be to Guatemala's beauty what The Aladdin is to Vegas' kitsch.

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Tags: Budget Travel / Drug Culture / Jaunted Field Trips / Volunteer Travel / Guatemala Field Trip / → All Tags

Jaunted in Guatemala: San Pedro La Laguna

Claire Duffett lives in New York City and recently completed a 10-day trip from Guatemala City to Antigua, Lake Atitalan, Tikal, and the cayes of Belize.

Not a bad way to escape this downright dreary North East April weather, huh? Claire will be sharing her field trip experience with us over the next week. Enjoy.

Oh, and if you have any questions about traveling to Guatemala, now would be the time to ask.

San Pedro La Laguna boasts two primary appeals: scenery and drugs. Locals offer gringos a kayak and heroine in the same breath, we joked. Without judgment, they want to sell tourists what they want to buy. If rowing makes you high, so be it. If you require pot, LSD, or cocaine, you're in luck.

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