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August |
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28 August - San Marco to Xela
14 August - Santiago Atitlan & San Pedro
08 August - Off to Panajachel
28 August - San Marco to Xela
San Marco
We left San Pedro in 14th August and headed over to San Marco. This was a very different place to the others we had visited on the lake. There are lots of meditation and yoga centres, places for raki healing and masages. It is much more expensive here but after wandering about for a while we managed to find a cheap hostel to stay in. A double room with a shared very alfresco bathroom with manual flush! It was in a nice peaceful area, no crazy mashed up people running around and slamming doors at 3 in the morning! It is more of a place for rest and relaxation and there didn´t appear to be a lot to do in the evenings. We found a nice Italian where we had dinner and watched a very bad film.
Santa Cruz
We moved on from here the next morning and headed off to Santa Cruz, another town around the lake which again was vey different. It is really nice as although all the towns are reasonably near to each other they all have very different personalities. We got a room in a hostel called the Iguana, which is renound for its cross dressing parties on a Saturday night! We wern´t there for a Saturday so never experienced it! It was pretty quite whilst we were there. The room here was more expensive Q60 per night for a room with no window and a shared bathroom with no electricity or hot water! We wandered up to the town which I think must be the steepest town I have ever been to. Apart from having to walk up a very steep hill to get there the town streets themself were almost at 180 degree angle! You wouldn´t want to slip over in the rain, you would go whizing down to the bottom of the mountain as if on a slide! There was nothing much to see in the town, it appears to just be a village where the locals live, they were all super friendly and you got a ´buenos dias´ from everyone you walked past. We stopped in a little cantina for lunch and as usual it ended up being with lots of drunken spitting Guatemalans! We always seem to find the places where the drunks go! The food was nice though!
The atmoshere in the hostel in the evening was fantastic, at 6.00pm when the sun goes down the staff light the place up with parafin lanterns, which you get to take back to your room. It was pooring down with rain outside and you are all nice and cosy indoors with the light of the lanterns, everyone eats in a big group, staff and customers alike and it was really nice. The staff were really friendly, it was quite funny as there were about 6 staff and only 4 guests. We got talking to the others who were from Spain so we spent a lot of time trying to talk to them in broken Spanish. Stuart managed to cause a bit of a panic as he lost our room key. Then decided he must have locked it in the room, they didn´t have a spare key so we broke in through the window. Only to find it the next morning in exactly the same spot as Stuart was sitting the night before!! So all that trouble for nothing!
We left there the next day and headed back to Panajachel then caught the bus from there to Chichicastanango, there is a big market there on a Thursday and Sunday which is why we wanted to go.
Click here for Chichicastanango pics
Blimey, if we thought the bus driver we had in Antigua was mad before, it was nothing compared to this nutter! Going up really windy, super steep mountains with hair pin bends at the speed of light!! I´ve never witnessed anything quite like it, it was like a white knuckle ride!! Anyway we finally made it in one piece (Gracias a dios!!) We found a reasonabe hotel room and stayed in Chichi for 2 nights. The market was pretty big and mainly sold stuff for tourists; masks, blankets and the usual stuff. The centre of the market was more traditional and sold veg and stuff for the locals. There were also lots of food stalls, where all the locals and traders ate, the food was soo cheap we ended up eating here most of the time. I´m sure the locals thought we were mad and have a feeling we paid a little bit more than the locals were paying. There was a veg market in a big hall, it wan´t dis-simular from the one they used to have in Maidstone market!! Nothing is ever really that different! We brought a few bits from the market and think we got some pretty good bargains with our bartering. None of the stall holders were happy with us by the time we left them so we must have got a good deal!
One of the nights we were there Guatemala played Panaman in the world cup qualifiers, we watched half of the game but the place we were in clossed before the second half, then we couldn´t find anywhwere else showing it. We soon found out who had won though when hundreds of bangers were let off in the streets, we thought a war had started, they were so loud! It was really nice, every one was cheering and setting off bangers, there was no trouble though, just people enjoying themselves.
Xela (Quetzaltenange)
The next day we left and headed of for Xela (Quetzaltenange), the second largest city in Guatemala. Again we had a nutter of a bus driver but you didn´t notice the speed so much due to the 5 people sitting on your lap! I´ve never been on such a busy bus. They are old American school buses with room for 2 people per seat, but here they manage to find room for at least 3 adults and 2 children per seat with about 50 people in the isle. It stayed that way for the whole 3 hour journey. It was really uncomfortable. Its funny as all the locals still manange to sleep, whether they are standing or sitting or hanging out the back! Its no problem for them and the most amazing thing was the conductor! He couldn´t get down the isle as it was too packed, so whilst the bus was whizzing round these crazy mountain roads at 100mph taking corners like Nigel Mansell the conductor climbs out of the side door, clambers up the side of the bus, along the roof, down the back stairs and in the back door of the bus!! Indiana Jones style! It is a very excessive way of collecting the Q5 fare!
We finally made it to Xela, it is a much nicer and safer feeling place than Guatemala city. There is lots of nice architecture and it is not half as busy. You don´t feel worried about walking about on your own and it is the first time I have walked anywhere on my own since we have been out here. We spent the first few days just getting used to the place, we then chose a Spanish School to begin our learning. We have chosed a place called Sakribal. We are paying $145 per week per person, but this includes 25 hours of one on one tuition plus additional activities each day and weekends, plus 7 days living with a family with all your meals included. So we think it is really good value.
Our family is fantastic the lady who is our mama is called Gladys, she also teaches in a number of the Spanish schools in town, her son, daughter and mother also live with us along with Sarah an American who is working over here as a volenteer and Shaun, a Scotish guy also studying Spanish. We couldn´t have hoped to live with a nicer group of people. We get 3 meals cooked for us every day, often which come with deserts which is not helping me lose weight! Often other people turn up and are also invited to stay for dinner or lunch, there is always enough food to feed anyone who turns up. It is really nice and good for us as it means we get to meet and speak to a lot of different people. Its kind of the law that at dinner times we all have to speak Spanish, me and Stuart are the least advanced of everyone but it is good fun trying and is helping us a lot. We are beginning to understand a lot more and our Spanish is slowly getting better. Its quite mad being back at school, but feels good to be doing something constructive. We have home work each night and there is always lots of new vocabulary to be learnt. My teacher is fab, her name is Helen and we always have a good laugh in the lessons. We have one more week to go so we should have a good basic grounding by the time we leave, possibly not fluent though!! I think this may take a few months at school to get that far!
It was Stuart birthday on Friday and his teacher brought him a key ring and let him off of his home work! The whole school sang ´Happy Birthday´to him which he was rather surprised about! Gladys our mama made a huge birthday cake for the occasion and we went out for a few beers with some of the other students from the school. Then me Stuart and Shaun spent all day yesterday drinking rum and playing cards in the house!! Today is back to revision and home work, preparing for back to school on Monday!
14 August - Santiago Atitlan & San Pedro
From Panajachel we moved on to Santiago Atitlan across the other side of the lake, where we were pestered by lots of kids wanting to take us to see Maximon their diety. We also got hasseled into a hotel which was pretty nasty and over priced ´Chi'Nim'Ya´ I wouldn´t particually recomend it. In hindsite we should really only have come here for a day trip as there really wasn´t that much to do. We paid one of the kids Q5 to take us to see Maximon, a crazy god, a life sized carving of a man who sits on a chair with a cigerette constantly lit in his mouth and bottles of rum all round his feet, covered in silk scarves. There was a strange ceromony going on whilst we were there which involved a poor woman having rum spat in her face! We never found out what that was all about! There were no bars and only a couple of places to eat in the town but Maximon proved his godlyness by being the only place you could buy a bottle of rum from! So Stuart was very impressed with Maximom as a god!
We left here the next day and headed off to San Pedro, the next town along. This is a fantastic place, everyone is very friendly and we have a room in the Hotel San Fransisco with 2 double beds a large bay window with a view of the lake and a private bathroom with hot water all for Q40 a night, that´s about £3.50! Fantastic value. There are lots of really nice resturants and bars and lots of places that show free movies each night. There are also hundreds of Spainish schools here, so we may come back at a later date and spend a couple of weeks learning here.
My stomach eventually got better, I brought some evil tablets for ameobas and this seemed to shock my system into getting better without me actually having to take one, which was good news as I think they are quite fierce. You can pretty much buy any drugs you want over the counter here. Stuff that you would definatly need to have a perscription for at home, you can just buy willy nilly here!
We went horse riding into the surrounding countryside which was really nice, and I think quite brave of me to get back on a horse after breaking my collar bone the last time I went. It managed to rain all the time we were out and was doubly scary as they didn´t supply helmets, after having asked on 2 seperate occasions if they did and being assured that they did! We didn´t notice until we had set off so it was too late to turn back. So I had a constant mantra going through my head the whole time ´please don´t let me fall off´!! Anyway after I relaxed a little I really enjoyed it and it was very tranquillo, no going fast which was good!
The next day we climbed up ´The Indian Nose´mountain. Oh my god this was such hard work I didn´t think I would make it to the top. It goes to show what 5 months of no excersise will do to you. I don´t think we normally would have found it that difficult. Stuart was even quite sick on the way up from over exerting himself!. We made it to the top though and it was a fantastic view. The top also looks very high and impressive from the ground. We were planning to climb the volcano San Pedro, but think we will give that a miss for the time being!! I can bearly move my legs today!
Well we are planning to head off tomorrow to see a few more of the towns around the lake and possible stop off at Santa Cruz for a few nights before going to Chichicastanango for market day. (I can get Stuart shopping again then!)
We maybe off for a Sunday roast tonight in a very English pub! Its funny I didn´t think we would be having Sunday dinners in Guatemala! You can even get pints of Guiness for an expensive Q45, baked beans on toast or a full English breakfast! Oh dear it is a bit of a little England here but its well worth the visit.
08 August - Off to Panajachel
The boat has now been moved to the Xalaja Marina so we can leave it securely whilst we go on our travels, it is a lot cheaper than Tijax, so at least we can save a bit of money.
We have had some mad moments with Mano over the last week or so but he is now back with Ron an Ariean, who will be looking after him whilst we are away, I´m sure he will have lots of fun being back with his brothers and sisters. It was sad to see him go.
Before we left we had some pretty bad weather with lots of rain and thunder storms. A couple of our friends boats got struck by lightning, one of the guys was on deck when it happened and got thrown into the water. Luckily he was completely unhurt. It was quite scary as out boat was only a couple of meters away from his so it could have been us. He seems to have had a rather unlucky week, his boat was boarded a couple of days later by a porcupine which proved quite troublesome to remove! I didn´t even know you got porcupines out here!
So the boat is now in Xalaja where the cat made some new friends with the Guardians children, they saw me trying to fish one night to feed the cat, as I had had rather a successful catch whilst we were out at anchor the night before. This time to no avail, the kids all watched and asked what the fish were for, so in my best Spanish I tried to explain that they were for ´Mano´. All the locals fish off the ends of the docks with bits of fishing line and always catch lots of fish, so the next day the little boy came along with a fish for the cat. Mano was very happy with this and they saw him eat it, then brought him another and another, he was pretty sick of fish by this time and gave up eating them! The next day we brought the kids some sweets to say thank you from the cat, which was a bad move as it only encouraged them and we had fish coming left right and centre! Good job we left or we would have had a boat full of rotting fish!
Anyway we have eventually made it away from the boat and going via bus to Guatemala City we spent the night in Antigua. We then headed of the next day on another series of busses to Panajachel. The final bus dropped us of in ´Soloia´ and we were told to get off the bus here. For the entire journey the bus conductors had been fantastic telling us here to get off and which bus to get on, without us even asking, so when we were told to get off here for Panajachel we assumed that it would be just be a short walk down the road. So we set off only to realise that it was a very long mountains windy road that would take us about 2 hours to get to the bottom of! We should have picked up another bus from the last town. Luckily a nice family pulled up in their pick up truck and offered us a lift to the town in the back, which was much appreciated.
Panajachel is really nice and feels like a right little holiday town with lots of bars and restaurants and market stalls lining the roads, selling all sorts of tradition Guatemalan goodies. Nice bags and clothes. I have even managed to get Stuart to come shopping with me, it's a bit of a chore but I will have him trained up before long. We have found a really reasonable Hostel to stay in ´Hospedaje Dona Olivier´ Q40 per night, that's around £3.50, its just a room with a bed in it and has shared bathroom, but would recommend anyone to stay there that is on a budget.
I have been a bit poorly with a bad stomach since we have been here, but hopefully this will clear up soon. Its funny we have been in the country for nearly 5 months you would think that my stomach would be used to the food by now. So on account of this we have stayed here a few days longer that we would have other wise but we are hoping to head off tomorrow to ´Santiago Atitlan´ and maybe do a bit of volcano climbing! We´ll see.