Camping & Exploration
Buy and sell tents and camping gear in Guatemala.
The guided treks into the Petén forest bring their own tents, so the gear that changes hands here, new and pre-owned, is for camping on your own terms: a family weekend beside a lake or a loop through the lowlands with a pack on your back. In the heat of Petén and Izabal a camping hammock with a sewn-in mosquito net often beats a tent, and that choice shapes everything else you carry. Stoves, headlamps and backpacks follow, and plenty of them come from travellers who end their trip in Flores and would rather pass the kit on.
Camping hammocks and mesh tents for the lowland heat:
on a hot night in Petén or Izabal what matters is airflow and whatever crawls across the ground. A camping hammock in parachute nylon, with a mosquito net sewn along its edge and a separate tarp strung above, keeps you off wet, ant-busy soil and lets air move underneath. It is a different object from the woven hammock on a porch, which has no net and soaks up rain. It needs sound trees, so it is no use on a bare volcano slope. A tent pitches anywhere you can drive a stake. For the lowlands, look for a mesh inner and a fly that reaches close to the ground and rolls back on a dry night. The cheapest domes cover only the roof with a small cap of fly, and the first downpour runs in through the walls.
Trekking packs that fit, and stoves you can keep fuelled:
a backpack is sized to the length of your back, not to your height, and a hip belt that takes the weight matters more than the capacity printed on the label. Stoves split by fuel. Compact backpacking stoves screw onto a squat threaded canister with a self-sealing valve, while the cheaper briefcase-style stoves take the long butane cartridge that slides in from the side, the same one tabletop burners use. Neither fuel fits the other stove, so decide which one you are prepared to keep buying before you pay. Dry bags and paddles sit with kayaking, and rods for an evening by the lake with fishing.
A no-name dome against a branded tent:
an unbranded two-person dome costs around Q200 new and is built for a dry weekend. A branded tent with a full fly, from High Peak, Coleman or Naturehike, starts nearer Q900 and passes Q2,000 for ultralight and large family models. The money goes into the fabric and its coating, and that is also what decides resale. A cheap dome that has spent one wet night outdoors is rarely worth listing, while a branded tent with a sound floor and fly keeps a fair share of its price, because a buyer can pitch it and see the waterproofing for themselves.
A tent that smells of vinegar:
was packed away damp. Most tent floors and flies are waterproofed with polyurethane, and stored wet the coating breaks down: the fabric goes tacky, sheds white flakes on the inside and picks up a sour smell. A spray-on proofer rarely brings it back, so unroll a used tent and run a hand over the inside of the floor before you talk money. A fly bleached by long seasons of sun tears like paper. On a hammock, check the stitching where the straps meet the fabric and hold the net up to the light for holes. On a backpack, squeeze the hip belt: foam that has gone flat stays flat. On a stove, fit the fuel and listen at the joint before lighting it. A hiss or a smell of gas with the valve still closed means a worn seal.
Kit left behind at the end of a trip:
a traveller finishing a route through Guatemala rarely wants to carry fuel and a damp tent home, so stoves often go with a part-used cartridge in the box. For a tent, say how long it has been stored and whether it was ever packed wet. Photograph it pitched with the fly on, the inside of the floor and the label with the model. For a stove, name the fuel and show it lit. A buyer coming from Lanquín to collect a hammock will want to hang it and lie in it before paying, and anyone picking up a stove needs to know whether the fuel in the box screws on or slides in.