Bambu Santiago Atitlan

This morning we took a boat ride over to Santiago Atitlan for the Day of the Dead. We walked up to the big cathedral on the hill....through a very busy, crowded market place. Lots of colorful clothing typical of the place. Men wear striped pants with embroidered birds and animals around the bottoms and women wear striped huipils also embroidered with flowers and birds, woven ikat patterned skirts and colorful belts. Inside the cathedral there is a very old altar and all the saints ...

... and numerous near misses. The billed 2 hour journey turned out to be 3 hours and the driver would not budge on allowing us to have an extra hour at the markets, which in retrospect was a good thing because on arrival it was very obvious these markets were purely for tourists. Stores and stores were selling brightly coloured cloths, bags, blankets and tack that was all factory made and not particularly 'authentic’. Most of us were disappointed and didn ...

... t and I really had things to do so I stayed and finished - telling the rest of the group to look out ! <br><br>Its a bit cooler here in Antigua as we are 1500m above sea level - its almost refreshing! I met up with the others at Reilly's for a drink and a chat then I went back and had my first hot shower in about 2 weeks.... bliss. I gathered up all my things, was tired and fell asleep immediately. It did feel strange sleeping under a blanket though... has been a while.

We went to the southern dock in San Pedro to get a boat to Santiago. For about 10 quetazales is possible to buy a two-way ticket, and you'll be saving a couple of quetzales. The trip takes about 30 minutes and it surrounds the shores of Volcan San Pedro. Once we got to Santiago we were able to see the other side of the volcano, as well we the Toliman volcano, too bad it was still cloudy. <br><br>Differently from San Pedro, the first thing that the visitor sees in Santiago is ...

On se lève tranquillement pas pressées, à 7h. On visite la ville sans le marché. Puis on file à la gare pour attraper un bus local. La famille d'Ana ne voulait pas qu'on prenne ces bus à cause de la dangerosité, des chauffeurs de bus sont parfois abattus afin de protester contre la mauvaise gestion des transports ou les passagers sont ...

... buy bottles of rum to sh*re r*ther th*n drink beer. This is definitely better v*lue. And more t*sty. We visited some loc*l hotsprings set high in the mount*ins *nd surrounded by lush greenery, we got t*ken to * children's w*ter p*rk, which w*s excellent *nd incredibly childish d*y out r*cing e*ch other on the w*ter slides, we went to the loc*l footb*ll g*me with the f*mily *nd shouted 'burro' * lot. The st*dium is just * little bit different to Engl ...

... such a touristy town is that you can't easily find nice local restaurants. We ended up at an English style pub, with a Scottish barman. When we asked him for his recommendation on the beer he said: "Any of them - they're all the same. All rubbish." I think his bar might not stay open that long if he gives recommendations like that. The worst thing about the hostel was it´s location. It was apparently at the end of a ...

... public boat with one other passenger to the largest town on the lake, Santiago de Atitlan. It was very choppy as the wind was up, and it made for a bumpy ride. Despite the fact that recently an overloaded boat capsized and three souls were lost, there were no life jackets on board the public boat we hired. Santiago sits on the shore of an estuary between the volcanoes. It is a pretty setting, and is much less windy than the Panajachel. We choose to stay at the ...

... with him and decided just in time for it to start pouring.  This is rainy season in Guatemala and it's the reason we have the hotels, restaurants, and towns to ourselves.  It poured for the next 2 hours or so as we learned an Austrian card game and spoke of his travels.  During the conversation Erin came out with such jewels as: ''Lutherans are like Anglicans, except German" and "I want to know a lot of things, so I think other people do too and I talk a ...