San Pedro was to be my home for 2-3 weeks. A little town on the side of HUGE Lake Atitlan, a windy 3 hour drive from Antigua. The last hour of the journey was down a road with hairpin curves every 10m. The lake is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes and is insanely pretty.
Upon arrival I found Casa Atitlan, a hostel with a view over the lake from my bed and only 3 beds in the room, perfect! (Sidenote – I had the place to myself for a few nights before Holly, moved in…then Heidi – three H’s in the one room!)
(Our room on the terrace)
(View from our terrace)
(Holly and Heidi enjoying dinner)
(Our terrace)
San Pedro itself is a cute town with small roads and winding lanes set on the side of a hill on the lake. When it rained (which was nearly every day) the alleys turned muddy and you had to avoid the puddles. While there were a lot of travellers in town, many were staying longer to study Spanish, rather than just passing through. As such it was relatively easy to find a group of friends who would be there for awhile.
(Holly and I trying to avoid the rain)
The restaurants and bars in town were geared up so that most nights there was something happening. Movies, trivia, BBQ, or any number of different dinner specials. And there was a great variety of food – I even had sushi. There was a fresh food market in the centre of town every morning if you were up for the huge walk up the hill. Every time I headed into town I would be accosted by ladies selling banana bread, chocolate cake or some other breaded sweet they had made. They wandered the town balancing the goodies on their head. My favourite lady would come to the pub carting a massive chocolate cake on a plate and you could just cut off a piece. Amazing!
The locals still wear their traditional dress, long thick skirts weaved with tremendous amounts of colour. Several other towns were scattered around the lake, each with their own predominant colour in their dress. Many different dialects of Mayan are still spoken, confusing those of us who are still struggling with Spanish!
(Chicken bus parking)
(My amazing new shoes with soles made from recycled tyres!)
As a heavily religious country, there are certain things a visitor must get used to. One of the most bizarre are the firework bombs. In order to celebrate a Saints Day (and given there are so many Saints, this is happens almost daily) the locals set off fireworks that sound like a bomb or shot gun going off. It can happen anytime of the day or night and can scare the crap out of you, sounding even louder when it bounces of the surrounding mountains.
And of course, there were the nights out. We even found a wine & cheese restaurant!
(View on the way to wine & cheese)
(Wine afternoon – thanks for the photo Anna!)
I have seriously loved my time here and am a little nervous about leaving and returning to ‘regular’ traveling. But my time here was not flawless – I caught a nasty (but common) parasite called Giardia and got a cold. I had to resort to visiting the doc for the parasite, where he held a stethoscope to my tummy and proclaimed that I had a Guatemalan party happening in there! After a round of hard core drugs I am almost back to my usual self.
(Kayaking on the lake)
