Lago Atitlan

Last Saturday morning, Sioned and I set off for Lake Atitlan!

It was a great trip! After about two and a half hours in a van we arrived at Panajachel ... which is not great. It's just an okay city. As soon as we got of the van we were accosted by people trying to take us to hotels or boats or whatever. I really dislike being hustled. But we found our way to the dock and a took a ride across the lake to Santiago.

The lake is beautiful! It's ringed all the way round by verdant volcanoes and the shore is dotted with villages. One of these mountains is supposed to look like the face of an old Mayan dude. If you look at it from left to right, you can see his forehead, eye, nose, mouth, and ... well you know the parts of a face.

Oh, I also found a setting on my camera called color accent - pretty cool, right?

Supposedly there was some kind of festival going on in Santiago. When we arrived, there were lots of booths set up selling all the usual handicrafts. We didn't dally for long. After lunch we hopped back on a boat and went to San Pedro.

San Pedro is a nice little village. Very granola as Donna would say - lots of gringo hippies and lots of people selling weed. It's a neat village built on a hill with lots of really, really narrow winding roads. There's a huuuuge church at the top of the hill where we could hear people singing from time to time.

We got a room at Casa Elena - really nice place on the top floor with a fantastic view of the lake and a hammock on the patio! After dropping our stuff at the hotel, we wandered the city for awhile. Most of the people of San Pedro dress very traditionally - we even saw a few men in traditional dress. It's kinda like a kilt made out of the same material the women make their dresses out of.

Near the top of the hill, we found a place that made chocolate covered frozen bananas! Sioned had never tried one before so we had to go for it.

We chilled at the hotel for awhile enjoying the hammock and then headed out for tacos. They were quite tasty. After tacos it was hot tub time! There are a few places between the Panajachel and Santiago that take water from the nearby volcano and heat it in a series of black coiled pipes. Then they fill up a few small pools for us to chill in!

All day we kept encountering this lady who was trying to sell us banana bread. We decided to get some to take to the hot tubs, but we couldn't find her! We wandered for awhile until, about to give up hope, we rounded a corner and a woman materialize with a basket of chocolate cakes! It was like magic. We bought a couple slices and headed to the tubs.

It was really nice and relaxing. Besides a group of four Germans (I think), we were the only people there. It was completely dark with a few candles for light and there was a really nice breeze. The setting was nice too - we were surrounded by exotic trees and plants and had a view of the lake!

After a few bites of cake, I set it on the side of the tub. Awhile later, I took another bite of cake ... and it bit me back! Our cakes were covered in ants! They were biting my face and hands! At first I was annoyed, but then Sioned pointed out, "I'd probably bite you too if you were eating my cousins." No idea how many ants I ate ...

The next morning we went for a dip in the lake near where the locals bathe and wash their clothes. The water was chilly but refreshing! After a great breakfast at Cafe La Puerta, we rented a couple of really sketchy kayaks and spent an hour cruising around the lake. The wind came up though ... it's really hard to kayak against the wind!

We headed back to Cafe La Puerta for lunch and then were on our merry way back to Antigua! Except there was a little hiccup in our return trip. We were half an hour down the road when our driver got a call saying that there was someone else who had just called the travel agency and wanted a ride ... So instead of telling this person "sorry, gonna have to catch the next shuttle," we turned around and drove back to pick them up!!! Added an hour to our trip. Ridiculous.