If any of you ever go to Guatemala definitely make time for
Lake Atitlan, it’s beauty is surreal.
(I give this advice first in case you don’t have time to get
through the rest of this post).
So Friday after work, I got a ride up to Coatepeque, where I
was left on the side of the road at the meeting point for a ride I had arranged
in advance with a kind-of-friend of one of the Guatemalan doctors here. I was
early and worried for awhile that I would not be picked up especially since he
showed up late. He was a super nice middle aged man who was driving another
female to Xela and I hopped in. We drove on the twisted roads as the sun set
past the point I had turned off for Laguna Chikabal. We got to Xela around 8
and were trying to follow his GPS to my hostel, anddd it wasn’t there. We drove
in circles a few times until my ride said he had somewhere to be and dropped me
off on the side of the road in the dark saying I should just take a taxi and
they would know where to go. Fortunately it didn’t take me too too long alone in the
dark to find it.
The hostel was quirky and crunchy but fun and cheap. I
wandered out into Xela’s town square that night and saw a bunch of bustling bars and
restaurants but was way too tired to partake.
In the morning, I walked to the
main bus terminal which was really just a bunch of chicken buses lining the
street, exhaust, vendors, and people shouting at you asking where you want to go. Some
bus people ushered me on a bus that they assured me would go to San Pedro.
After over an hour of tightly winding roads and rolling hills, they said if I
wanted to go to San Pedro this was my stop. Since the buses barely slow down, I
had to get off quick and I was left standing on the side of the road at an
intersection in the middle of nowhere which was definitely not San Pedro.
I realized this happened because everyone asking where you
are going is invested in getting you onto their bus to make more money, so even
though their bus wasn’t going where I wanted, as long as it was somewhat in the
general direction of your destination, they will say their route is the best for you.
A nice man who, after asking if I was married of course,
offered to help and had me go on the next microbus that passed by. I reached a
town called Solola, bought a mango (they’re in season now!), and found another
chicken bus in the park to take me to Panajachel and from there found my way to
the water to take a water taxi to San Pedro. At least the water taxi was an
awesome experience--packed in against many travelers we sped through the late
day, choppy water past huge mountains and volcanos--until I FINALLY arrived at San
Pedro many hours after I left the clinic.
You get off the water taxi into this super cute touristy
town with tons of shops, more gringos than I’d seen, restaurants, hostels, etc.
I asked around at different hostels until I came to the Jarachik which was
lovely and was run by a really sweet family that I really enjoyed spending time
with, had big rooms, not to mention a delicious served to order breakfast every
morning! I walked around and explored the market before getting some tacos with
a lake view. A stray dog hung out under my table hoping for scraps. Later that night I headed to bar Sublime where there was a fun
live band, and because I was riding solo sought to make some friends.
The next morning as I headed down to the lake to kayak, I
bumped into some of the people I had met the night before, the town is quite
small. Then I rented a kayak that was made of a plaster-like material and
painted bright blue and pushed off into the lake. I got to kayak past nearby
towns and people swimming, washing clothes, and bathing in the lake, along with
some local men fishing in small wooden boats. The guy at the landing wanted me to pay him instead of the person I rented through so I convinced him to walk to the rental agency with me so that I could pay the correct person.
On my way back to the hotel, I
weaved through a busy farmers market and found a vendor with so many different
types of mangos. I asked him which was the sweetest and ended up with 4 bulbous
bright yellow mangos. Needless to say, I demolished them and they were by far
the best mangoes of the trip and probably of my life.
I finished the day by getting a massive plate of nachos with
plentiful guacamole at a hotel overlooking the whole lake with a nice view of a
volcano and the sun setting.
I booked a guide by paying in cash at a small travel shop for
a hike up the massive Volcan San Pedro, though I was hesitant to since it was
relatively pricey and the internet assured me it was unnecessary. The next day,
I was up bright and early for the hike and even though the shop hadn't opened,
waited out front expectantly for my guide. No one showed up for a long time,
but eventually a nice middle aged Guatemalan man showed up in jeans and a
baseball cap. We waited around for another hiker (from Spain) and took a tuk
tuk to the ecological park entrance (this volcano has been dormant for 1000s of
years).
We paid the entrance fee and started walking, UP. We passed
through coffee, avocado, and mango plants on the steep trail with thin dust
billowing up on every step. My guide, though middle aged, was booking it and
the 2 of us were hustling to keep up. After 45 minutes going straight up, we had a beautiful
viewpoint of the lake. At which point I was informed that it was another 1-2
hours and more straight up than it had been. We were basically doing a stair
master and my male counterparts were going very quickly, and it turns out that
a few weeks at sea level ruins any altitude training I had left from living in
Denver. My guide also found it amusing to repeatedly tell me to hurry up, c’mon, etc which
was not helping my morale.
The flora changed to rainforest as we got higher, there were
cool flowers that looked like chicken feet, and then finally we were at the top
above the crater.
We beat the cloud coverage of the view but when it rolled in,
we were above it. We booked it down in record time.
I went back to the hotel by
the water and was there so long the concierge guy asked me when I would be
checking out which turned a little awkward since I was staying at a different hotel.
That night I met up with my local friends at an open mic
night. It was at an irish pub—they’re literally everywhere!—and it was filled
with tobacco smoke, but it was fun and nice to recognize people.
The next morning I wandered through the market while waiting
for the chicken bus to Xela. Again they ushered me on the wrong bus saying it
would be faster to take theirs and switch and I fell for it temporarily. Soon after,
we got stuck behind a barricade for an hour because a road decided to randomly
shut down and I saw the direct bus behind us and ran off the wrong bus with all my
luggage while my bus driver watched from the street while holding his melting ice cream bar. This second bus hit 3 separate shut down roads totaling over 2 hours in
waiting time, not to mention that everytime we stalled roaches would crawl out of the light
fixtures, and one even fell on my lap. Ew! On top of that, the bus broke down
4-5 times en route and each time the driver and the guy who collects money and crawls on
top while the bus is in motion for luggage would flip up the massive hood and fix
it enough to get a little farther.
At Xela bus terminal again a few hours later, I didn’t have time for a bathroom break and switched quickly to a bus to Coatepeque. No major revelations there. But then I spent the night at one of the head doctor’s home in Coatepeque. The house itself is huge at 3 stories, but much more modest than I expected. He has a lovely wife that teaches, and 2 well behaved, smart, athletic, and cute kids. We helped his younger daughter with her English homework and then their maid cooked us dinner of stuffed peppers, avocado toast, wine, and ripe mangos. We took the dog for a walk in the dark around the park near there house and I was surprised to see many people out and about. The next morning we drove into clinic, the car filled with nurses and doctors.
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