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...

The Mangroves

One of the main (and infact only) tours or activities to do whilst in Monterrico is to take a boat tour of the nearby mangrove swamps. This tour is best taken in the early morning with a guide by rowing boat. Me and Conny decided to take the tour early on the Monday morning. Very early, at about 5am infact.

The taxi rank


The mangroves


Our guide was a local chap who was recommended to us by Toby. Unfortunately he only spoke spanish so alot (infact all) of what he said was pretty much lost on me. It was a very relaxing tour, though I wouldn't say i learnt alot about the area.

Tranquil waters


Beautiful views onto the mountains behind


A sleeping Heron, I was jealous


To say the area is a nature reserve, it seems there were very few rules about where the tour could and couldn't go. We pushed our way through the reeds, which was very beautiful but couldn't have been too good for the conservation of the reserve (I'm all about that kind of thing nowadays you know).

Off the beaten track


The main wildlife of the day was herons and various other birds. I had maybe hoped for turtles or crocodiles but everything was a little more tranquil than that. Infact I spent alot of the tour trying to work out whether 'if I fell asleep, would I fall in?' the answer I think would have been yes.

Bird life


Again despite the fact the area was a protected reserve, local water taxi's passed us quite regularly. I can imagine its quite difficult to tell local people, who have very little, that they should drive round the area in cars, rather than travel the much shorter distance across it in old diesel driven boats.

A local water taxi

CPR, Parties & Broken Toes

Toby had told us that Saturday night would be doubly busy as during the day a marathon would be taking place with the finish line directly on the beach. A marathon in the afternoon heat of Monterrico seemed a little silly to me, surely no one in their right mind would want to be doing that kind of thing. Well we were wrong about that, alot of people entered despite the crazy heat. It was a very official affair with sponsorship from Gaterade and a giant inflatable finish line.


The inflatable finish line... and the chaos is just beginning to unfold


As I say it was a very official affair however the only thing no one seemed to have thought about was some form of medical assistance should anything go wrong... but why would anything go wrong, its not like we're nearly on the equator and you could pass out just walking to the pool... oh wait...

So as we watched the runners cross the line the chap who came in third didn't look too good. Infact he ended up having to be helped across the line and almost immediately collapsed. He was spark out on the floor in front of us with a number of people around him, one of whome appeared to be taking control of the situation. They layed him out on the flat of his back and the guys are rubbing ice all over his body. Now the little I know about first aid tells me he shouldn't be on his back. Mia is a nurse and is watching on getting more and more agitated by what they are doing. Also the guys condition seems to be deteriorating quickly now, his eyes have rolled back in his head and he's not responding at all. Mia later explained that because they were icing him down his body was thinking he was cold and was speeding up his heart still further, which then sent him into shock.

After a couple of minutes Mia couldn't watch any longer and had to step in. With the help of a spanish speaking American they tried to explain the first aider (who turned out to be a life guard with no form of training) was quickly killing the guy. To begin with they completely ignored them, two western girls telling a local male he was doing things all wrong didn't go down too well. Eventually after things got pretty heated Mia was finally able to take control and with Kate's help they got him into the recovery position (where he was immediately sick) and got some sugary fluids onto his tongue. Within minutes he began to come round but he wasn't out of the woods yet. He was taken to the local pharmacy, in the back of a gas wagon that happened to be passing, where he was hooked up to an out of date drip.

The guy was from the US, down in Guatemala studying, and just hadn't got enough fluids in him whilst he was running. We later heard he was in hospital for a couple of days and quickly made a full recovery. I'm pretty sure he'll never know how close he came to not making it or that it was infact two Australian girls who saved him. Good work ladies.

After the chaos we were more than ready to party and forget the stresses of the afternoon, as such some cheap rum was purchased and we got the party kick started.

Stop playing with your beard



Rum time chills



After the chaos of the afternoon we went back to the hotel and I was pleased to see some beach football was just getting started. I wandered down and got involved, to say it was tiring was an understatement to say the least. Mia and Kate came pretty close to having to perform their second life saving of the day, after 10mins I was dying... and we played for a good 40 mins or more (I subbed myself off in the end). The sand was like running in treacle and the ball never did anything you wanted, this coupled with the fact most of the locals play like Robinho made for an entertaining afternoon. In the evening all the locals from the game were out and partying too which was alot of fun.

Me, our goalkeeper and the opposition attacker


Haha


Below is a photo of another one of our Guatemalan friends from Saturday night. Worryingly he was a medical student from Guatemala City. The photo shows him attempting to breath under water by putting his head in a big black plastic bag, I'm scared for the medical system in this country.

Like scuba diving but different


The football of Saturday was repeated again on the Sunday and Monday evenings as well. Each time I felt my fitness got a little better (stop laughing Mia and Kate) until finally disaster struck. Now at this point I could claim it was a huge Guatemalan defender who took me down, or I could just admit it was a 50 50 with a 14 yr old... either way it broke my toe.

The field of dreams


After Monday's game, I do not look good

War wounds


A fat purple foot

One week in and already a potentially broken bone, I've made an executive decision not to good to the hospital. Instead at about 3 in the morning after too many drinks I got Mia to strap it up, five minutes later I removed the bandage after realising it was so tight it was cutting off the blood supply haha. A couple of weeks of limping and it'll be fine, they can't do anything for broken toes anyway.

Monterrico

Having spent a (fun) few days in Antigua City it had come to the point where I needed to decide what to do next. Colum and Lucy had already headed off to Lake Atitlan a day earlier, and I was in two minds as to whether to follow them until I heard a little more about the beach town of Monterrico, in all honesty I was sold on the idea as soon as I heard about the place we planned to stay... Johnny's Place.

Johnny's Place

Johnny's Place is a sort of backpacker beach resort. It has a nice little restaurant, two bars, a number of bungalows and a dorm... but most importantly it has a pool (or three) and is slap bang on the beach. When Conny mentioned a pool I was immediately sold and so booked to go with her and another girl we met on the volcano tour - Tara. On arrival I was also pleased to see a beach soccer pitch and a volleyball court out on the sands, and also to hear Saturday night at Johnny's Place is a renownd party night for the area and they were expecting a big one this weekend.

The dorm

The view from the dorm looking onto the bars and the beach

Monterrico is also well known for its beach, firstly because its amazingly picturesque, however secondly because of how dangerous it can be if your not careful. The slope of the beach is a very steep gradient which means huge waves crash directly onto it which then creates a dangerous rip-tide.

The waves were huge and again the photo's don't really do it justice

I've also quickly become friends with some Australian girls, Kate and Mia. They've been staying in Monterrico studying Spanish and battling against the stressful life of living on a beach. I've very quickly learnt the English and Australians have a lot in common, not least a little partying...

Kate, me and Mia


A 'street' in Monterrico

Johnny's Place is run by a German chap called Toby, he had visited Guatemala a couple of years previously and last year decided he wasn't happy with life in Germany and upped sticks to Monterrico where he runs Johnny's Place and also has his fingers in a few real estate pies. He's a really nice guy and bent over backwards to make sure we had a bed sorted for Saturday night (party night) as they were technically fully booked.

Toby telling an unwanted guest to leave