Guatemala: a bus ride from the mountains to the sea

Traveling between the country’s amazing nature beauties requires letting go to the adventure.

The bus lurched us from side to side; the mountainous ran-drenched dirt road that lay before us had become a collection of mud-filled potholes. I distracted myself by staring out the cracked window at the verdant valleys of Guatemala whizzing past.

It was a few days before Christmas and we found ourselves in the isolated mountain town of Lanquin, home to the strikingly unique waterfalls of Semuc Champey. Unseasonably heavy rain had belted down for three days and the roads were quickly turning into landslides waiting to happen, so we decided it was time to make a move.

From Lanquin most travellers have two options: head southwest to Coban or north to Flores. We had already come north through Coban, a foggy regional city surrounded by dense forest and coffee plantations. Flores was another eight hours north back towards Mexico where we had already spent enough time.

We’d heard through conversations with other travellers that a third option laid to the east. Rio Dulce, a far less visited corner of Guatemala full of cowboys and lush lowlands. There you can follow the ‘sweet river’ as it starts in Lake Izabel before spurting out into the Caribbean Sea. The swampy mangroves lured us in with tales of a rich west-Indian history and end-of-the-road vibes. But the roads are so bad in Guatemala that, as a rule of thumb, you must double whatever travel time they…