La Ruta de Maya

Wel­come to Antigua!

We’ll meet at La Auro­ra Inter­na­tion­al Air­port  and trans­fer you to the beau­ti­ful colo­nial city of Antigua. The air­port shut­tle is includ­ed on Day 1 and we’ll orga­nize two to three shut­tles based on every­one’s arrival time.

We encour­age you to unwind and set­tle into your Antigua home at Los Olivos Hotel, a bou­tique hotel in the heart of Antigua and close to the main plaza. 

For those arriv­ing ear­ly, we encour­age you to explore this his­tor­i­cal 16th-cen­tu­ry city, with cob­ble­stone streets, vibrant archi­tec­ture and cit­i­zens dressed in col­or­ful Mayan clothing. 

If you arrive ear­li­er in the day, there will be an option­al shut­tle ride to get your legs spin­ning. There will also be time this afternoon/evening to build your bike with the assis­tance of the guides. 

Tonight, we’ll have a meet and greet din­ner in one of the local restau­rants, where we’ll enjoy the local cui­sine and review the excit­ing plan for the week ahead!

We’ll meet at the hotel in the morn­ing for a gourmet buf­fet breakfast. 

Then, we’ll hop on the bikes and head up to the base of the Agua Vol­cano for our first taste of the local sin­gle­track. At 3,760 m (12,340 ft) the vol­cano dom­i­nates the local land­scape and tow­ers above Antigua except when hid­den by cloud cover. 

The local Kaqchikel peo­ple have always called the vol­cano ‘Hunapú’ mean­ing “place of flow­ers.” The Agua Vol­cano is also home to a vari­ety of amaz­ing moun­tain bike trails. 

Around the back­side of the vol­cano is a pri­vate moun­tain bike reserve called “El Zur Bike Park” which includes over 30kms of hand-built sin­gle­track bliss! El Zur is the only of its kind in Guatemala, and we have exclu­sive access to it!

Thank the locals for these incred­i­ble trails!

We’ll hop in 4x4’s and shut­tle up to the end of the road at 2,800m. A short climb pays off with near­ly 20 km of flowy goodness.

Tun­nels, berms and sus­pen­sion bridges are all part of this epic ride. If there’s enough left in the tank we can climb back up for anoth­er pass on the bot­tom third or head over and take a lap on the trail “G‑line”, a 3 km jump-line built by Grav­i­ty Log­ic (based in Whistler, B.C.) and inspired by the famous “A‑Line” trail at the Whistler Bike Park.

Tonight, din­ner is on your own and there are many amaz­ing restau­rants to choose from. Your guides can rec­om­mend a vari­ety of excel­lent restau­rants close to your hotel. Explore on your own, or join oth­er Rid­ers for dinner. 

We’ll spend the night back at the Los Olivos Hotel. 

We’ll enjoy a gourmet buf­fet break­fast at the Los Olivos Hotel before pack­ing up and head­ing off on our next adventure.

This morn­ing we’ll explore the Ixim­che Ruins. The old build­ings were a Kaqchiquel Maya strong­hold until the 1520’s when it was aban­doned as the Mayan pop­u­la­tion fled from the Spanish.

The ruins are locat­ed in what is now the small town of Tec­pan, a cool, high­land forest­ed region and one of the first per­ma­nent Span­ish settlement. 

Today’s ride starts with a shut­tle up to a small vil­lage just beneath the Aca­te­nan­go Vol­cano at 2,500 m  (8,200 ft). Vol­ca­noes dom­i­nate the view as we ride down the ridge back to the val­ley floor. Trails criss­cross the land­scape as we pass through agri­cul­tur­al fields & villages.

We’ll fin­ish up the morn­ing at a shrine to a local Mayan spir­i­tu­al deity, Maximon.

A short shut­tle takes us to the top of the moun­tains over­look­ing the ruins of Ixim­che. A series of steep tech­ni­cal trail offers up the first glimpses of Lake Ati­tlán and the ravines and val­leys in-between. Our last descent drops us just out­side of the Ixim­che Ruins where we’ll take a short guid­ed tour of the site and then head off to the hotel for a well-earned rest.

Tonight, we’ll have din­ner near Tec­pan and spend the night at Casa Xara — a his­toric flour mill turned into a cozy, com­fort­able bou­tique lodge. 

After a gourmet buf­fet break­fast at the hotel, we’ll load up and head towards Panajachel. 

The vibrant colours of the mar­ket in Pana­jachel come alive as street ven­dors sell their tra­di­tion­al wares and arti­san crafts. 

Our route fol­lows the exo­dus of the Kaqchiquel to Lake Ati­tlán after the Span­ish con­quest. The area around Lake Ati­tlán is still alive with their cul­ture and language. 

We will descend the infa­mous “Sendero de las vacas” named after encoun­ters with cows ascend­ing the deep, switch­back trail that bik­ers had to climb up to let the herd pass! We’ll break a sweat on a long, grad­ual climb, but it’ll be worth it! At the top, we will get stun­ning views of the sap­phire-blue Lake Ati­tlán, sur­round­ed by vol­ca­noes, it’s one of the world’s pret­ti­est lakes. 

After a pic­nic lunch with an incred­i­ble view we’ll descend the famous San­ta Cat DH trail. It’s famous for it’s unique urban down­hill through the town of San­ta Cata­ri­na Palopó.

We’ll have a quick ride over to Pana­jachel to check-in to the Hotel Reg­is. We’ll enjoy the evening with cold bev­er­ages, deli­cious food and per­haps relax our mus­cles in the hot tub!

Lake Ati­tlán was formed by a vol­canic erup­tion 84,000 years ago. Now filled with vibrant blue water and ringed by steep, ver­dant hills, it’s known for its Mayan vil­lages and vol­ca­noes with strik­ing point­ed cones and amaz­ing riding!

We’ll head towards the lake and shut­tle high above the blue waters to near­ly 3,000 m (9,800 ft) which will pro­vide us with a panoram­ic view of the canyons and vol­ca­noes around the lake. We’ll climb 5 km on the trail to an area known as “El Cora­zon de las Nubes” which is a Mayan cer­e­mo­ni­al site.

The ecol­o­gy at this alti­tude in Guatemala is home to a unique mix of alpine grass, graz­ing sheep, and agave plants.

We will fol­low rocky, tech­ni­cal sin­gle­track through pine forests pass­ing through small Mayan com­mu­ni­ties and wave hel­lo to the locals. After a pic­nic lunch and short shut­tle we will con­tin­ue our descent to Lake Ati­tlán in a 1,000 m down­hill trail — the most tech­ni­cal trail of the week.

Today we’ll take a much need­ed morn­ing off and enjoy  Lake  Ati­tlán. Swing in a ham­mock, take a swim or pad­dle to a near­by vil­lage (Kayaks included).

After a relax­ing morn­ing, we’ll head towards  Antigua and get dropped at the top of the ridge above Antigua.

A “hato” in Span­ish is where shep­herds take their ani­mals to graze. The tiny vil­lage of El Hato above Antigua was, in the not so dis­tant past, a remote vil­lage at the end of a dirt road with no pow­er. It just so hap­pens there’s a lot of great trail rid­ing there too!

From here, we’ll ride the Antigua Down­hill course. After a short climb, we’ll ride a beau­ti­ful con­tour trail that winds its way through old-growth forests down to our moun­tain side hotel for the night.

We’ll enjoy sun­set, beers, and vol­cano views from the unique and com­fort­able Earth Lodge.

In Antigua cul­ture, there is always one more or “la ulti­ma”. Whether it be a beer before clos­ing time, or in our case, one last ride before its time to wash and pack up our two-wheeled machines. 

The last hur­rah! One last great Antigua trail ride. Short and sweet but full of steps, con­tours and tech­ni­cal rid­ing. Leav­ing El Hato, the trail con­tours down towards Antigua.

It’s the per­fect last piece of trail before you head home. Back at the shop, we’ll wash the bikes and your guides will help pack your bikes for the trip back home.

There will be time for last-minute sou­venir shop­ping before we cel­e­brate an incred­i­ble week at one of Antigua’s local restau­rants with din­ner and a few drinks at a famous local tequi­la bar!

We’ll spend the night back at the Los Olivos Hotel in Antigua.

We have reached the last day of our amaz­ing trip in Guatemala and it’s time to say good­bye. Enjoy break­fast at the hotel and then High-five your new rid­ing pals before head­ing back to the airport.

We’ll arrange for air­port drop-off on Day 8 based on Rid­ers indi­vid­ual flight times.