Guatemala

Week 4

Monday. Our first border crossing. After a lot of research we decided the simplest way to do this was to take a shuttle bus from San Cristobal straight to Lake Atitlan, and at 300 pesos it was cheap! 

The shuttle bus picked us up at 8am and took us to the Guatemalan border. There was a real variety of people on the bus, 1 Mexican, 3 Japanese, 2 Dutch, 1 American, 1 Aussie and us! 

On the way, there was a traffic jam, that kept us stationary for about 1hr. Once on the move, we passed the cause of this - locals making their own 'toll booths', and only allowing traffic to pass if they coughed up some cash. We came across this twice on the way to the border. Apparently this is nothing new, and is a way for the locals to raise cash for their community, as they have been forgotten by the Mexican government.

If you have been in Mexico over 6 days you have to pay an exit fee of 300 pesos. To ensure that this went smoothly, the driver collected our passports, exit card and pesos, and took it to the bank on the Mexican border. Here is where you get your exit stamp (make sure the exit date was correct).

We then left the the bus behind and walked for about 5 minutes to the Guatemalan border. 

We handed our passports over at the immigration office to get our Guatemalan entry stamp (no entry fee was taken much to my surprise).

Hey presto, border crossing complete.

We then had to wait for our connecting bus to take us to Panachjel.

Advice. If you have any pesos left over, you can change them at the border (black market) exchange rate is 2 pesos for 1 Q. Keep a small amount of pesos in change as you will need these if you want to go to the loo at the border.

During the journey we got to know how the Aussie made her life in Honduras, and some interesting travel stories from the American who now lives in Antigua, Guatemala. Some good advice was given about dodgy cash points, card cloning and bed bugs!

We discovered that the Dutch couple had no place to stay so I suggested that they come with us as we were staying in Panachjel.

After 11 hours on the bus, we arrived in Panajachel (Pana to the locals), found our 'hippie' hostel Sotz and were surprised to find out that we did not have a private room as planned. We would be sharing a small dorm with a lady from Germany. Quote from Roland...."what are we going to do? I didn't bring anything to sleep in? Where do I get changed?" To which I replied "sleep in your clothes". We were both pleased that we were only staying there for 1 night and that it was relatively cheap at 160Q.

The Dutch couple who we travelled with, found a hostel right next to ours.  As soon as they dumped their bags, they 'knocked on' and we all went out for dinner and drinks. It was only meant to be a quiet one but we found a bar with happy hour and took full advantage! 

Just as I was getting used to the Mexican Peso, we changed over to Guatemalan Quezales, this resulted in making  a peanut selling Guatemalan very happy. I handed over 200Q for a tiny bag of peanuts, when in fact I should have only given him 20Q! Not amused, as this equates to half the Daily budget! 

Ah well...

After drinkies, we found The Rock Cafe which served up a massive meat platter for about 70Q. It was delicious!!

Sausages were amazing!!!

Tuesday. We got up early (not surprisingly) and went for a little wander around Pana. Even though the travel books didn't rate Pana as a top destination on Lake Atitlan, I thought that it was quite pleasant and a good place to stay for a night or 2. We also caught sight of the lake for the first time which was surrounded by volcanoes and mountains - amazing!

Guatemala = coffee.  I have never been served such a pretty cup of coffee.  I almost didn't want to drink it! Needless to say the coffee was lovely and Hand Drip Coffee Bar is well worth a visit if you come here.

We checked out of our hotel and caught the boat (25Q) to San Pedro which is the party town on the Lake. Finding Hotel Fe was super easy as you could see it as we approached the dock. We were greeted by an Aussie guy who invited us to play beer pong and to join them later for a bar crawl in the evening. We both decided that this could be a fun place to stay for a few days and negotiated a weekly price of 700Q for a room with our own bathroom.

Roland on the balcony

View from our room

Once settled we explored the town and decided that we should make the most of our time here and learn Spanish. We found Sol Maya Spanish school and sighed ourselves up for 20 hours of lessons for 1300Q. Bargain! Our afternoons were now sorted for the next 5 days.

Can you believe it, we were actually missing tacos, and we were both happy to find a really cheap place which served up 3 tacos for 10Q...that was lunch sorted!

We decided to treat ourselves to a beer and we watched the storm come in over the lake at The Alegre pub - 2 x 1ltr bottle of beer 44Q!! We had quite a few, which then in turn gave us 'dutch courage' to attend the bar crawl..... Hmmmm...not sure if we should have bothered, we both felt like grandparents, and were probably the oldest people there. We left after a few more drinkies.

Wednesday. The breakfast at the hostel was pretty decent and gave us the energy for a good 2 hours in the kayak (10Q). We kayaked over to San Marcus and experienced some great views of the lake.

San Pedro Volcano

You can see our hostel in this picture

We were both a little excited to go to our first Spanish lesson and the 4 hours went really quickly. The teacher gave us a good tip about an Italian restaurant which we went to in the the  evening. The food was lovely and at 220Q was a bargain for the feast we had.

Thursday. We caught a tuc tuc to San Juan for 20Q. 

San Juan is famed for the weaving and artist cooperatives and we were advised that if we were thinking of buying something to take home, then here would be a good place to find something. And we did.... 2 paintings and some lovely woven items. Really beautiful pieces for less than £100.

We brought one of his artworks.

This took 4 weeks to paint, can´t wait to frame it!!

It takes 2 days to weave a simple scarf!

Afternoon was spent learning more Spanish and in the evening we met Laya (from the collective bus) for dinner at The Clover. I was pleased to discover that it was steak night and ordered fillet Mignon with mushroom sauce (80Q). Hmmmm...I would definitely go there again!

Friday. Early start 5:30am to start a mountain trek to the Indian Nose (100Q).  On the way we were shown a coffee bush and what the coffee bean look like when they are ready to be picked ... kinds of looks like a cranberry much to my surprise!

We walked to the tip of the Indian´s Nose

Coffee bean straight from the bush!

Sunrise over San Pedro

This was not an easy trek and when it really started to get going, I was quickly out of breath. After about 1 hour of steep uphill walking, I started to wish I was still in bed. However once we reached the top, all the effort was worth it, as the view was amazing.

We made it!!!

Afternoon ... have a guess ... more Spanish lessons. Our brains were starting to frazzle towards the end so we negotiated a much needed break for Saturday.

There is a really great juice bar in the town, and so far we have been having a delish juice everyday for 15Q. Roland was pleased that finally he was getting nutrients in him, blaming the spots on his nose being caused by lack of fruit and veg...(most likely because he is turning into a dirty traveller and didn't wash for over 2 days this week!!). 

Today I decided to try the 'green juice'. Gross ... spinach, celery, lime, mint and cabbage!  This should be in a soup, not a juice! I did my best to drink it all just so that I wouldn't get 'I told you so'. Even the thought of it makes me want to shiver!

We really fancied pizza today,  and after the trek decided that we had earnt it. So we went back to Al Fredos and ordered the XL Pepperoni. It was massive and much to the chef's surprise we ate it all! Fat Pigs!

Thank god for ear plugs ... the hostel seems to have had a party every night and the brick walls haven't done a good job of blocking out the noise (god, I sound really old!). We were both knackered and at 9pm were snoring our heads off.

Saturday. Yay, horsey day. Booked a 3hr hack for 165Q. Roland stayed in bed! So at 9am I headed out on Cinnamon for a lovely hack around the lake. It was great and I really enjoyed it.

As we had the afternoon off from Spanish lessons, we caught the boat to Santiago (25Q). Hoping to see another pretty town ... really wasn't worth it and we both wished we hadn't bothered. We did make an effort to see Maximon the saint of Santiago.... !

His home

Smoking a cig!

Sunday & Monday. We really didn't do much on both days. We concentrated on revising our Spanish in the mornings, eating at our favourite taco place for lunch, followed by a nice fresh juice and then attending classes in the afternoon. 

15Q each! Full of goodness

Only 18Q and it was yummy!

We both have really enjoyed learning something new and the lessons were often filled with laughter and jokes (in Spanish), leading to 'el maestro' commenting that we were a funny couple - not really sure if this was a compliment?!

Hmmmmmmm

On Sunday evening we went to El Barrio for a feast of garlic bread and chicken wings, washed down with 3ltrs of beer (140Q). We sat in front of the fire (yes a fire - it got quite cold here in the evenings). During dinner it absolutely poured down and we tried to time it so that we left the restaurant in between the downpours ... we didn't quite manage it and got completely soaked much to the locals amusement!

Week 5

Tuesday. 6:30am ... yawn ... "Are you sure our bus is at 7:30?" ...
"I think so"
With doubt in our minds we rushed to get out of the hostel to catch the bus to Antigua just in case it left at 7:00am ... the bus didn't turn up until 8:00am. Typical! At least we had time for a much needed coffee!

I was sad to leave Lake Atitlan - such a beautiful place. I was pleased that we had decided to stay here for a few days.

Roland admiring the view....

We had the collective all to ourselves

On the way to Antigua we climbed up very steep mountain passes.  At times I thought the engine would burn out and we would start rolling backwards ... I shut my eyes!

4 hours later we arrived in Antigua.  A beautiful colonial city which is surrounded by 3 volcanoes and easily explorable by foot. Many earthquakes have occurred here over the years, which in turn has given this city quite a unique character. Cobbled streets are lined with cute little bars and restaurants, with the odd boutique hotel thrown in.  You can easily forget that you are in Central America! It would be fair to say that Antigua is geared up for tourism.

Booby fountain

After a lot of walking we were both hungry! Following our noses we discovered a 'hole in the wall' type of place, and the food smelled delicious! For 50Q we had 2 mains and 2 drinks - bargain!!!

Wednesday. Another early morning, this time it was a 6am start to make our way to Pacaya - an active volcano which last erupted in 2010.  With pictures of lava advertising this trip, we were exited!

The drive to Pacaya took 1.5 hours and then we had to trek up the volcano for another 1.5 hours before we got to the lava field. Alas, we didn't see flowing lava, but we did toast marshmallows from the heat emitted from the surrounding lava rock. It was really quite amazing to be this close to an active volcano, and we were both happy to have made the trip.

Clouds are hiding the volcano! Its there, I promise!

Apparently......

Nature's sauna - it was hot in there!

They were yummy!

Clouds roll in as we left the volcano.

Thursday. Today we were leaving Antigua in the evening so we spent the day wondering around areas we hadn't seen yet. We also made the walk up to the viewpoint which had amazing views of the city.

We found a great little restaurant which was where all the locals seem to congregate for lunch. We had BBQ chicken with an extra portion of sausages on the side (60Q). Now this is something I didn't expect Guatemala to produce...amazing sausages!

A first class ticket to Flores cost 280Q. The journey was 12 hours long, leaving Antigua in a collective bus and changing over to a 'luxury' bus in Guatemala City. During the changeover we chatted to a very friendly guy from Belize who convinced us that we should visit Belize.

Friday.  We arrived in Flores at 6:30am. Before we even had a chance to check into our hostel, Café Arqueológico Yaxha, we had agreed to join an organised trip to visit Tikal, leaving at 7:30am. With a quick shower and a bite to eat it was back on the collective bus for another 1.5 hours to Tikal (100Q).

This time we paid for a guide (80Q) and joined a Guatemalan family and a young English/Bulgarian couple who were currently living in Mexico. The guide was a good choice as we learnt a lot about the Mayan culture and importance of the Tikal ruins. He also knew the surrounding jungle very well and took us on 'short cuts', pointing out wildlife along the way.

From 1950's!

He, however, did not spot the massive tarantula resting on a tree. Roland spotted it - 'Oh My God, look at the size of that gross thing'. Of course the guide thought it would be a good idea to pick it up.  He nominated me to be his 'assistant' and placed it on my hand. Never in a million years did I think I would hold a tarantula, considering that I'm  completely scared of spiders!

The ruins themselves were different to all the Mayan ruins we had seen so far and were really impressive, especially when you considered how old they were!

Saturday. It was hot hot hot! We woke early to go and grab breakkie at Cool Beans - the pancakes were amazing!  Roland was distressed that he kept being bitten so we left as soon as we scoffed them down.

Flores is tiny! We explored the whole area in a couple of hours. Definitely a nice place to stay for a day or two. We organised our trip to visit Belize and booked our tickets for the 5am collective bus (125Q each) leaving the following day.

While updating Facebook we discovered Lauren and Doug were also in Flores - what a coincidence! We arranged to meet up in the evening at their hostel Los Amigos for a few drinkies and something to eat.  Again, we all had a great time.  A couple of Americans (with interesting opinions) also joined our group.  With 2 for 1 cocktails costing 15Q we were all well lubricated by the end of the evening.