Guatemala Guide
The Pacific coast
Monterrico
The setting of MONTERRICO is one of the finest on the Pacific coast, with the scenery reduced to its basic elements: a strip of dead-straight sand, a line of powerful surf, a huge empty ocean and an enormous curving horizon. The town is a bit scruffy but steadily being tidied up, and several excellent new accommodation options have opened in recent years. It's a friendly and relaxed place fringed by the waters of the Canal de Chiquimulilla, which weaves through a fantastic network of mangrove swamps. The atmosphere changes a little on weekends when party-geared visitors from the capital fill up the hotels.
Monterrico sits at the heart of the Biotopo Monterrico– Hawaii, a nature reserve that embraces a twenty-kilometre-long beach-blessed slice of the Pacific coast and includes a vital turtle-nesting ground, abundant wetlands and the small villages of Monterrico and Hawaii. Sadly, however, the reserve's officially protected status does not prevent the widespread poaching of turtle eggs. It's well worth making your way to Monterrico, if only for the fantastically beautiful ocean setting, though if you intend to swim, be aware of the vicious undertow. Lifeguards are posted here at weekends, but swimmers regularly get into trouble and drownings occur.
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