Our overnight stay in Guastatoya

We had an unplanned excursion this weekend to the town of Guastatoya. Guastatoya is a town that we can see down in the valley as we travel to and from Guatemala City. Often we say as we pass that we would love to stop and look around there sometime. It looks like a nice place to visit.
Well, this weekend we got our chance to see it! We left Guatemala City on Saturday around 11:00 headed home to Coban. It is normally a 4 hour drive. Guastatoya is about an hour and 40 minutes from the city. Just beyond reaching there we were stopped in the road by a long line of traffic. We were not sure what happened but knew it didn't look good up ahead. We sat in the line for over an hour and then decided to drive along the edge of the road to Guastatoya and get something to eat. We ate and killed some time and went back up the hill to the main road and waited some more. We talked to some locals that told us about a gravel by-pass road so we tried it. Us and SEVERAL other cars! After traveling it a good ways it looked like it was getting backed up as well. So, we turned around and headed back to town. We waited until 5:00 and the traffic was still not moving. We then decided just to get a room. I am still recovering from having a wisdom tooth cut out and I had spent all the time I wanted to in our truck for the day!!!

We asked at a local restaurant about a good place to stay. They recommended a decent place and it was right across the street from the police station (made us feel safe, ha). We checked in and unloaded our car- which was FULL from our stuff and left over team stuff.

This was our room- they gave us a triple. It had t.v. with Spanish cable....."warm" water in the shower

and best of all- Air Conditioning!!! Guastatoya is a hot area.

We left and went walking around to find a place to eat dinner. We found a nice local place that was very crowded so that made us feel good. Where we stayed was very close to the central park. They have one of the prettiest parks we've seen in Guatemala.

Guastatoya is the CLEANEST town of all we have visited here. I just kept saying over and over how clean the streets and town was. We could not believe it! It was really a nice town.

These are some views from behind the hotel we stayed in

And these are views of the town as we were leaving the next morning. We got up, went to find a bite for breakfast, and then drove on home to Coban.

They have a water park there that you can see from the main road. We'd love to return and check it out someday.

We didn't plan on getting delayed but it worked out just fine. We were able to visit a new place and see some new sights. It was a fun overnight stay even if it was inconvenient & I wasn't feeling well. The cost of our stay including hotel (with air), dinner, breakfast, ice cream, and two bottles of water= a whole $26.00!!! Not bad for an overnight trip. HA HA