By Dave Howard

Maya high: ruins rising over the Guatemalan rainforest (PhotoDisc)

GUATEMALA USED TO BE AN "IF ONLY" adventure spot. As in, if only the rumbling out of the highlands were just another earthquake, and not one of the guerrilla skirmishes that erupted throughout the country's 36-year civil war. As in, if only someone could navigate the mangrove mazes and find a killer surfing spot along the steamy Pacific coast. As in, if only more travelers had the sense to head farther south, beyond Mexico and Belize, to the winding rivers and canals, the nearly three dozen volcanoes, and the empty, stunning black-sand beaches of Guatemala. Now? It's funny what a little peace and determined reconnaissance will do. Six years after a cease-fire agreement between the

Getting to Guatemala

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government and a patchwork of guerrilla armies, Guatemala is no longer just a magnet for archaeologists unearthing lost jungle cities. Adventurers have begun sussing out quasi-secret surfing spots, ripping down the sides of volcanic craters on mountain bikes, and dipping paddles in inland canals and the Pacific, all at lower prices and with far fewer fellow travelers than in Costa Rica and the Yucatán—or even Tikal and Lake Atitlán, Guatemala's compelling but heavily touristed sites along the well-trodden gringo trail.

My own six-day recon mission focused on the heart of the nascent adventure scene: a rectangular swath that stretches along 50 miles of coastline from El Paredón to Monterrico and sweeps back up into the highlands to the volcanoes and the sublime 16th-century city of Antigua. None of the destinations are more than two hours apart, and they're all reachable by outfitters' shuttles—which meant I could flop overnight in a hammock within earshot of the surf, then summit 13,044-foot Acatenango. My companions on the volcano even bagged a first, of sorts. Guide Rafael Chicojay Diaz hauled a mountain bike up to the crater, which no one had previously attempted— walking in the loose, pebbly lava ash is like hiking a steep hill of peppercorns. At the top, Acatenango loomed over 13 other volcanoes.

All of us—a pair of Swiss dudes, two Brits with matching black polo shirts from the Dangerous Brothers Mountain Biking Club (motto: "Ride or Die"), and I—were skeptical when Rafael positioned his bike atop a 35-degree pitch. But he launched from the saddle and began to shoosh downward in a squirrelly, fishtailing, but upright descent. "It's bloody brilliant!" one of the Dangerous Brothers screeched after giving it a go. In between turns, we tried out names for our new sport: Sandboarding on wheels? Lava biking? The moment captured the essence of western Guatemala, an adventure scene so newly minted it has yet to coin its own language.

Introduction | Surfing | Paddling | Mountain Biking | Fishing

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