The town of Río Hondo [1] is an oasis of fun, featuring excellent restaurants, refreshing swimming pools, and even a water park. Many travelers heading between Guatemala City [2] and Puerto Barrios [3] like to break up their journey here.
Heading south from the Río Hondo Junction, the road passes through the hot lowland towns of Zacapa [4] and Chiquimula [5] before climbing into the mountains and into a bowl-shaped valley dominated by Esquipulas [6].
There’s really not much here for international travelers, so the towns along this corridor won’t be covered in depth, aside from a few hotel and restaurant listings should you need to stop while passing through en route to other attractions.
A worthy side trip is the Ipala Volcano and Crater Lake [7].
Links:
[1] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/el-oriente-and-izabal/rio-hondo-esquipulas/rio-hondo
[2] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/guatemala-city
[3] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/el-oriente-and-izabal/puerto-barrios
[4] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/el-oriente-and-izabal/rio-hondo-esquipulas/zacapa
[5] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/el-oriente-and-izabal/rio-hondo-esquipulas/chiquimula
[6] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/el-oriente-and-izabal/esquipulas
[7] http://www.moon.com/destinations/guatemala/el-oriente-and-izabal/rio-hondo-esquipulas/near-chiquimula/ipala-volcano-and-crater-lake