The Lake

Lago Atitlan is a lake in south-west Guatemala, lined on all sides by a number of volcanos and mountains. This creates a beautiful setting of forrested slopes running down into crystal clear waters. There are a number of little villages around the lakes perimeter which all have their merits and their own attractions. We chose the laid back village of San Pedro for our few days on the lake.



From where the shuttle drops you off, San Pedro is a 40 minute ferry ride across the lake. We, however, decided it was a far more fun option to take a speedboat across, manned by what can really only be described as pirates.


Lago Atitlan

Unfortunately today I was affected by a dreaded case of Delhi-belly and thus at lunch I wasn't quite feeling upto a full meal... instead I ate Veggiemite sandwiches (much to Kate and Mia's delight). For a drink I went for the (some would say) less than sensible option of a nice Sangria (and used it to wash down my Malaria tablets for good measure). Silly silly James.

Sangria time

Boarding the speed boat - a rather wobbly affair

Like I said the chaps we got to take us across the lake looked more than a little sketchy to me. At one point the motor cut out in the middle of the lake and I was a little concerned we were about to tossed overboard and parted from our luggage... in actual fact I shouldn't be so quick to judge people as we had merely run out of diesel. As soon as this was topped up we were on our way again.

Anyone remember the pirates from the 'Life Aquatic'?

Alex enjoying the boat trip

We had pre-booked a hotel for our stay in San Pedro, Hotel Mansion Del Lago, mainly because the lonely planet said it had a hot tub on the roof. Well in fairness they didn't lie, the hotel did have a hot tub on the roof... the dam thing hadn't been in working order for a good few years but they did have one. Anyways it was a nice enough (cheap) hotel, with some very entertaining decor and a nice balcony with views of the lake.

Hotel Mansion Del Lago


Many many steps

The view from the balcony

We decided to eat at the Burrito factory for one of our meals, even including Chipotle this was definitely the biggest Burrito I've ever seen and cost under 2pounds.

Are you seeing this Alfred Wood?


Juices and a beardless face for the first time in weeks

On the Saturday afternoon we hired out kayaks and rowed across the lake to one of its only 'beaches'. Now a beach on Lago Atitlan means a 2 metre deep rocky strip of sand. It was still fun to paddle across and have a little swim. On the way out me and Mia shared a two person kayak and proved ourselves to be a less than coordinated duo.

Kayaks and the lake

You can just see in the distance the 'beach' we rowed to. It was actually quite a row, especially for Seb and Alex who took it in turns to have the butt fronted kayak (which apparently felt like paddling in treacle).

Lots of kayak excerise

Shuttle self portrait (thank you Alex for your artistic input)

Sadly on arrival back in Antigua City it was time for me to part ways with my Aussie friends and move on to meet my Gap group for the Volcano trail tour. As I've said on here previously (I think), whilst traveling you definitely quickly learn which people (and more generally nationalities) you get on with and gravitate to them. I've definitely learnt I get on with Aussies and am now even more looking forwards to my time in Sydney - Thanks Mia, Kate, Seb and Alex... Guatemala's been ALOT of fun.

A fond farewell

The return to Antigua City

So the time had finally come to leave the Playa club, I had quite easily been convinced by the girls to go back to Antigua City with them. The plan was to go there and meet up with their two friends Seb and Alex, then head out to the lake, Lago Atitlan. It was with a great deal of sadness we said goodbye to the Playa Club and headed back to Antigua, fun times.

Playa

It was another 2 hour shuttle back to Antigua City and this time our driver took it up a notch. He was crazy, we were literally millimetres away from an accident on a good couple of occassions and I can't count the number of times Mia screamed. The funniest thing was when we dropped off one young couple he had a go at them because they had complained about him to the taxi firm after their last Journey. It turned out when he had taken them down to Monterrico his vehicle wouldn't leave first gear, so he hammered it up the hills and then free wheeled down them. Chaos.

The Monterrico shuttle - note the slight hint of fear in Mia's eyes

One of the many things I managed to fail to fully organise before my departure was my blog. Despite having over five months to prepare for the trip I was still downloading music to my iPhone at three in the morning the night before I left, and definitely got nowhere near to understanding the blog thing... in step Kate. Kate is blog crazy and we had a day of hanging out in the Bagel Barn, eating delicious bagels, stealing free wifi and teaching James how to get started... and now your reading the fruits of that day. Thank you Kate.

Kate teaching me the art of blogging

The main reason for heading back to Antigua City was to meet up with more Aussie chums, Seb and Alex. Seb and Alex were friends of Kate and Mia's from Sydney, in actual fact they were more friends of friends prior to the trip, everyone got on like a house on fire as the group grew, top boys.

Seb and Alex

With new additions and clear blue skys we couldn't resist another visit to the cross overlooking Antigua, this time with cloudless views over to the volcano.

Australian friends

Not a cloud in the sky (well ok one, but at least its not infront of the Volcano)

During our trip to the cross we did begin to get a little concerned about the ever increasing frequency of loud bangs and what sounded like gun fire, and made possibly one or two too many jokes about a military Coo (especially with what would happen in Honduras a couple of weeks later). It turned out it was just a religious festival taking place in the central plaza. The central plaza very much forms the focal point for the town and has some amazing old buildings lining its perimeter, including the cathedral (which as I mentioned before is actually purely a facade).

The Cathedral (and the central square)

Another amazing building lining the square

The fountain within the square (and two Australians)

Myself and Alex on market day

Coupled with the religious celebrations was a market within the central square. There were many traditional goods on sale, as well as a multitude of fruits and vegetables... and that old Australian favourite... the barbie. Mia, Kate, Seb and Alex dived straight in... unfortunately due to my English upbringing (thanks Kate) I couldn't cope with the idea of food in the heat and so had to stick to snow cones for the afternoon. Dam cold england, it looked delicious.

Pop another shrimp on the barbie mate

I've quickly learnt Australians love their food, and quite rightfully so... this makes me know I'll fit in perfectly down under.

Sooooo much food

Just to end this little installment I've got a couple of photo's for different peoples attention. Firstly anyone from the Building Surveying proffession (Mike Jack, Neil and Josh). Take a look at the steelwork/concrete combo on show in the supermarket, in places there seemed to be very little holding up the roof in all honesty, ah well it seemed to work for them.

Can we get Chappers to take a look at this please

And secondly the below photo is for Mum, Dad, Nick, Gran and Gramps (and anyone else with a love of the Malta Bus). This is very much Guatemala's version, the colourations are far more random and outlandish, some buses even seemed to have tassles?!?

Guatemala Bus

And so ends our time in Antigua City (again), the next adventure would be the lake...