Western Highlands

Our favourite Western Highlands Blogs (beta)

• Guapo Guatemala – Chiabal, Laguna Magdalena & Chajul, Sierra de las Cuchumatanes

  Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 8 November 2011

  North of Huehuetenango the Sierra de las Cuchumatanes mountains, the highest non-volcanic range in Central America, rise into the sky. This spectacular bit of Guatemala is home to high altitude plateaus, tiny windswept villages and a naturally infinity-edged lake that almost no one visits.The Cuchumatanes are also home to two new community tourism guest houses that get you into the terrain and into the culture. Chiabal The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it village of Chiabal is perched on a wide, sheep-speckled plateau at nearly 11,000 feet.

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• Drunken Horse Racing – Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, Guatemala

  Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 2 November 2011

  Though we missed the world famous annual drunken horse racing in Todos Santos local guide Rigoberto Pablo Cruz (rigoguiadeturismo@yahoo (dot) com, good English spoken) knew that locals in a nearby town were putting on a smaller race so we jumped in the truck and drove about an hour out of Todos Santos, climbing up to more than 11,000 feet (3,352 meters) into the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes mountains. A soft dirt straight-away about an eighth of a mile long had been cleared through the center of the tiny, dusty town where, weirdly, there was a porta-potty in front of nearly every house.

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• Party Town – Todos Santos, Guatemala

  Blog: Trans-Americas Journey - 31 October 2011

  Todos Santos Cuchumatán (commonly called just Todos Santos) is a stronghold of some of the most spectacular traditional dress in Guatemala and living Mayan customs like using a small sweat lodge called a chuj. It’s also a town that likes to party. Their annual free-for-all drunken horse race, held on November 1, typically involves dozens of riders all of whom are too drunk to walk let alone ride a horse down a muddy road at break neck speed. A picture from this insanity is on the cover of the 2007 Lonely Planet guide to Guatemala.

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