Guatemala

We arrived in Monterrico in late afternoon. It was also just as hot and humid as Iztapa, but we were hoping to be able to relax and enjoy the swimming oriented beaches (opposed to surfing beaches of Iztapa). We were also hoping to be able to have access to better internet. Montericco is quite beautiful and picturesque, however, neither our internet problem, or desire for beach time were fulfilled. The beach has very hot black sand that is nearly impossible to handle during the peak swimming hours of the day. The accommodation prices in Montericco are also much higher than our budget, and most places do not have communal kitchens forcing us to eat out and spend more money. After much deliberation, we decided to go back to Antigua to escape the heat and capitalize off of the cheaper accommodation prices while we tried to decide where to go next. But first, we spent about three days in Monterrico to enjoy the beach!

On our last night in Montericco we decided to stay at a very… rustic… hotel because it was amoungst the very very few options within our price range (60Q/night/person). The owners and workers of this hotel were wonderful, accommodating, and friendly people. But the hotel itself was definitely an experience to say the least. We stayed in a concrete room that resembled something of a jail cell, shared an incredibly run down comunal bathroom between other guests and restaurant patrons; it was primarily made of concrete with toilets that rarely had toilet paper, and did not flush, the showers were mearly cemente stalls with no shower curtains that contained a pvc pipe sticking through the wall that only spouted out cold water, and most of the lights did not work. Finally, the restaurant portion of the hotel was hosting many drunk locals that were listening to extremely loud music until about 12 am. This was amongst my least luxurious stays in my lifetime, but I wouldn’t change it for anything else because it was such a bizarre and authentic experience. The hostel owners were very generous in finding us a fan for our room and gave us free ice water which tremendously helped us cope with the heat. 🥰 We spent our evening talking, drinking, and I even hula hooped to the loud local music!

LINK TO MY YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/b_ZbAdo4SmgRead more