Xetulul & Xocomil in Guatemala Trip Reports

I have been traveling around the world with my family for the past year. We are currently in Southeast Asia and I try to get to as many parks as my wife will allow.

Last fall we spent two months in Guatemala and I had the opportunity to visit Xetulul. This park is privately owned by a group of businesses who run it as a perk for their employees. While foreigners can purchase all day tickets, employees are able to purchase 10 rides for around $8USD.

The park is located in the town of Retalheu, Guatemala about five hours by bus from the capital and close to the Pacific Ocean. Adjacent to the theme park is a massive water park called Xocomil which is also fabulous.

Unfortunately the day we visited I brought my really bad camera and the batteries died early in the day. In addition it rained most of the afternoon and I didn't have time to get a lot of the pictures that I wanted to. In looking at these pictures, they really don't do the park justice.

The park has many themed areas. In the front is a main street type area. Stemming from that is a Mayan themed area that reflects Guatemalan culture. The entire back of the park is themed around European countries such as Italy, Spain and France. The designers carried the theme throughout the park and everything is maintained quite well. While we were there several painters were keeping everything from looking dull. The attention to detail is reminiscent of Disney, although this park does not compare in scope or size.

Xetulul only has two roller coasters, although RCDB says another is under construction. The first coaster is El Choconoy. It is a rather large family coaster in a double figure eight design. The second coaster is an Intamin looping coaster named La Avalancha, most famous for having eight inversions. La Avalancha was very smooth and a lot of fun.

Since I am traveling I don't have a lot of time to post trip reports, but will as often as possible. As soon as I can I will post the Xocomil water park pictures because the theming is wonderful. I have also visited several rare parks in Southeast Asia, most notably in Malaysia. As soon as I can I will post trip reports of Genting Highlands, Sunway Lagoon and Cosmo's World in Kuala Lumpur. I hope you enjoy my first TR.

If you have any comments or suggestions let me know. If you want to follow my regular travel adventures please visit www.familyrtw.com The following pictures were taken on August 16, 2007. Forgive me for not having funnier captions since I am strapped for time. Also, here is a link to the post I made about Xetulul and the water park Xocomil. There is more detailed information there. Enjoy! Xetulul & Xocomil @ familyrtw.com

The rain comes and we say goodbye!

The Guatemalans really love this ride!

The splashdown boats are themed around Venice.

The second train station located in the France section of the park.

A large theater located in the France section of the park.

More wonderful theming

The pirate ship is located in the Spain section.

Kid's boat ride.

Children's section of the park.

Jaguar display.

The Gran Jaguar Pyramid. (A replica of the pyramid at Tikal)

Nice wormie.

El Choconoy station.

Choconoy POV. The coaster is located in the park's Guatemala section.

El Choconoy (The worm) is the park's second coaster. It is a family coaster with a double figure 8 layout.

The park's newest ride. It has a Mayan theme and is located in the Guatemala section.

Supports & Tunnel

A polar bear sits over one of the tunnels.

The car goes into the station after the ride.

The first drop.

One of the eight inversions!

Approaching La Avalancha. The only full size coaster in the park.

Entry plaza

The entrance to the park goes under the elevated train station. How familiar!

The entry price for foreigners. Q7.5=~$1USD

Outside the entry gate. The day we visited was not very crowded at the park.

Nice TPR. BTW did you see any construction on their new coaster?

At the time we visited I hadn't heard anything about the new coaster, but did see an empty patch of land where they were doing some leveling work. The park is completely surrounded by rain forest and as long as it is cleared they have plenty of room to build.

Thanks for posting this, I can't wait to see your future photo trip reports. It does look like its a nice place to visit.

OMG. This must be me and my 15 year old mind frame... but take a look at the monkey in the tree... Is he happy to see us or is that a big brown banana in front of him!

I'm sorry I just about LOL here at work when I saw that pic.

On and BTW great TR... very nice looking park.

I honestly never noticed that in the monkey picture. Wow!

This is a great PTR. No need to be funny and witty when displaying pictures of a place that very few people on this site have ever seen in person.

OMG. This must be me and my 15 year old mind frame... but take a look at the monkey in the tree... Is he happy to see us or is that a big brown banana in front of him!

 

I'm sorry I just about LOL here at work when I saw that pic.

 

On and BTW great TR... very nice looking park.

Apparently we have similar minds.

Wow, what a beautiful park, thanks for sharing it with us.

great photo TR! That park looks like a great small park with actual theming! That avalanche coaster looks great with that theming and the rest of the park looks very mellow and fun.

So was it really less then 1 U.S. dollar to get in? that's a steal! (Granted the travel costs would negate that but heck, that would make going there nothing if you happen to be visiting Guatemala.)

Great Trip Report! Those are some nice looking photos! This park looks like it is themed quite a bit. Would be nice to vist in a few years when they add more additions to their line up.

Wow! This is a very nice park! Great TR...What new coaster is the park getting?

I love stumbling upon parks that I've never heard of before... Xetul looks great! Hey, is that Intamin looper, Avalanche, essentially a clone of Colossus at Thorpe Park (minus two extra inline twists)? The layouts look pretty similar! Great pictures by the way!

7.5:1 was the conversion factor. Entrance would be around 25 dollars. I wish companies in the US (like Wal Mart) would use some of their money to build some nice little theme parks with maybe a couple roller coasters so people can enjoy them. Instead of building a billion of the same store, they could devote some of their money to putting a nice little theme park in the community they chose to put their ugly box store in.

I wish companies in the US (like Wal Mart) would use some of their money to build some nice little theme parks with maybe a couple roller coasters so people can enjoy them.

We already have one of those, Dollywood! (hehehehe) JUST kidding. Nah, the last thing we need is a company like Wal Mart ruining the theme park industry, they did mighty fine ruining retail.

I love stumbling upon parks that I've never heard of before... Xetul looks great! Hey, is that Intamin looper, Avalanche, essentially a clone of Colossus at Thorpe Park (minus two extra inline twists)? The layouts look pretty similar! Great pictures by the way!

I believe you are right about it being very similar to Colossus at Thorpe Park. As for the new coaster, from what I can tell it is a Zamperla motorbike coaster, but that information is not confirmed.

As for filling out the park, since it is well off the tourist track and mainly used by employees and their families, the park will fill out quite slowly. I wouldn't expect many new things there as they don't draw huge crowds. With what they have, the park makes for a nice day trip and the water park next door is well worthy of a look. I will post a TR of the water park when I can.

What a very beautiful park!

Sometimes, it's more intresting to see the theming and decor in a park instead of only doing rides.

I've always waondered if there were any theme parks in South America that actually have major rides and such. Xetul and Avalancha satisfies my wondering! I'm glad that even in relatively 3rd world areas of the world there are theme parks with major thrills and the like...it warms my heart

Great photos of a gorgeous park!

^Almost, but Guatemala is in North America, on the southern border of Mexico. Sorry, I'm just really nitpicky with facts/info about Guatemala.

Great TR and what looks like a Busch-esque park in terms of appearance. My little brother's adopted from Guatemala, so I know we'll be making a trip down there again eventually (he's only 3 now, so there's no point yet), and it looks like I'll be talking my mom into a little side trip while we're there!

And yes, Avalancha is Colossus minus the last two twists. Actually, according to rcdb.com, it opened just 3 months after Colossus.

Nice TR of a for me unknown park.

That white coaster IS very white

The coaster is a clone of Monte Makaya, in Brazil. Colossus is Monte Makaya, with two extra twists.

That park looks amazing, and has so much more than I expected from the few coaster pics on RCDB!

Nice TR from a great looking park.

Avalancha really is in great condition especially how damn white that thing still is.

When we were in the park there literally was a fleet of painters working on various areas of the park. Since it is government subsidized and labor is cheap I am sure everything receives a fresh coat of paint pretty often. The park truly was immaculate in every spot. I kept looking for signs of wear and tear and didn't see any. In addition, for a country that has no other major theme parks, it seems to be run very professionally. I had no idea what to expect when I went to the park and was truly blown away by the time I left.

I apologize since I promised I was going to be posting the Xocomil water park pictures. For some reason I forgot about them and went on posting TRs from my Southeast Asia trip. Anyway, here are the pictures from the best themed non Disney water park I have ever been to. I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for the memories Xetulul and Xocomil. I miss you!

Its time to say goodbye!

The least themed area of the park.

Random theming.

Wave pool numero dos.

A massive slide complex.

Angry villagers attacking...

More lazy river theming.

Theming along the lazy river.

Toilet bowl with a drop slide that runs right underneath it. It is a head chopper for sure!

These racing slides had some amazing airtime!

And heading back!

Coming down.....

All of the towers are nicely themed. This is a shuttle tube slide which was a lot of fun.

A small play area in front of the wave pool. They actually have two identical wave pools right next to each other.

Children's play area

The Guatemalans love speedos way to much IMO.

Mayan restaurant complex

Entrance plaza.

that water park looks fun and nice. One of those slides needs a new coast of paint.