Friday April 10th, 2026 Queen Anne, Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 5
- 2 min read
Guatemala has a lot to offer tourists; Mayan ruins, active volcanoes and classical Spanish colonial cities – unfortunately none of these things were within easy reach of the tiny Pacific port of Puerto Quetzal. Before the cruise we booked a 6 hour “on your own” trip to Antigua, one of the afore mentioned colonial cities and not the island in the Caribbean. These kinds of trips take you on a bus to the destination and then give you time “on your own” before bussing you back to the ship. Originally the journey was supposed to take 1 ½ hours each way, but a few days ago we were informed that the trip would now take 2 ½ hours – so 5 hours on the bus and 1 hour in the city, needless to say, we canceled. We were further influenced by reports from the US and UK governments to only travel in Guatemala “if you absolutely had to”, in addition internet searches warned not to go beyond the port gates in Puerto Quetzal for fear of gang related violence. It really made me wonder why Cunard would select this port as a destination. In addition, the temperature was forecast to be 97F with 80% humidity – joy! We prepared ourselves for another day on the ship.
After breakfast I went to the upper decks and I could see why Puerto Quetzal is not listed in many guidebooks; a layer of smog covered the flat plane that stretched from the shore to the distance mountains, I’m assuming there we mountains because I could not see them. A small container terminal dominated one side of the port area while the other was bordered by huge piles of coal, an arial coal transport conveyor arched over the coal heaps like the framing for some unfinished building.
On the plus side there was a small “tourist shopping village” constructed within the port and connected to the ship via a long elevated walkway. We decided to be brave and see what the “village” had to offer. Several large, thatched huts dominated the shopping village and numerous palm trees provided essential shade to the rows of market stalls. A strong breeze provided some respite from the intense heat, as did the opal “museum” which had a little bit of air conditioning but was mostly just a shop. The market stalls sold the usual array of tourist tat though the sellers were pleasantly unaggressive; we didn’t buy anything. We wandered through the village and found the Pirates Bar, a large, thatched structure with blaring music, bench seating and blatant copyright infringement – Jack Sparrow would not approve. Being hot and parched we opted to join half the crew from the ship and partook of a cold beverage – it was the highlight of the day.
In the pantheon of crappy ports Puerto Quetzal would rank near the bottom, but we’ve had worse.
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