Immerse yourself in Caribbean rainforest – welcome to Las Escobas

When you reach the Caribbean coast of Guatemala you suddenly realise the forests are different. For the first time you find yourself in Guatemala’s only true rainforest. As lush and verdant as cloud forest and yet, being close to sea level, hot and humid. The forest here is tall and overpowering, if you are lucky you will find some shards of light penetrating the canopy.

To be classed as rainforest, a forest needs to receive over 2000mm of rain a year, and as the local saying goes ‘if you can’t see Cerro San Gil then its raining, and if you can then it will be raining soon.’

Cerro San Gil is a lone mountain on the Caribbean coast, and on its lower slopes you will find the Las Escobas Reserve. Here is the perfect place to unwind amongst the waterfalls and fern surrounded pools, whilst you soak up the forest atmosphere.

Entering the rainforest of Las Escobas you’ll notice that because it’s close to sea level, it’s home to different species to the highland forests of Guatemala. This is particularly true for snakes in particular and Las Escobas is a great place to search for eyelash vipers that are often found coiled up on palm leaves.

Another speciality of the area is the rarely encountered annulated treeboa. Considered uncommon across its range, the annulated treeboa is found from Colombia to eastern Honduras, with an isolated northern population in the Caribbean rainforests of Guatemala.

A night hike might reveal the orange eyes of a treeboa reflecting back in light from your headlamp.