Grand Hotel Panajachel

... friendly, welcoming and very apologetic for the state of the lake which drawers it's visitors. San Pedro also seems like the poorest of villages around the lake (this is my assumption not fact, due to the very cheap accommodation) and the people here really need to have the visitors keep coming. This didn't affect our stay too much as we walked to San Pedro's beach which is a 40 min walk away and the water was totally clear here so I ventured in, so far, I haven't grown any ...

... the organization, and the women and children of the three cooperatives around Lake Atitlan. The test is balancing all the work, prioritizing the needs, and staying productive in this environment-- similar nonprofits around the lake and Guatemala are requesting grants for similar projects; there is competition for selling the products to the correct buying niche (also a challenge with the poor economy); projects are time consuming and sometimes dependent ...

... family) went to some hot tubs before having a farewell dinner for Juan and Derk, our fabulous Dutch boys who had kept us entertained for so long with their stories, their humour and Derk’s eccentricities. There are too many fabulous memories to list here, but thankfully many plus numerous quotes from the group are immortalised in Juan/ Wouter’s now infamous book. But just for prosperity here are some of the best quotes or maybe you had to be there to ...

... organised our tour, found a good place for breakfast, had an awesome dinner (and resolved to come back to the same place for lunch tomorrow!) and then found wifi at ‘Pana Rock’ Panajachel’s answer to hard rock café (they even have knock off Tshirts – if you want one let me know!) All in all a pretty good way to round off a tiring day’s travel! The bizarre thing is realising that the majority of our travel is now complete and ...

... the deepest in the world and is surrounded by numerous volcanoes. I think the lake itself used to be a massive volcano that exploded some time ago. On arrival we checked into our hotel and then headed straight out on a boat trip, to a little indigenous village on the opposite side of the water. It was a bit of an odd excursion, to be honest. The crossing was rough-ish, we were in a small boat, and the village wasn´t all that. An unspectacular church, lots of ...

In the past few days I have:<br>Had two Spanish lessons with Rosario,<br>Ate gado-gado style veggies and brown rice,<br>Tried a brilliant purple-fleshed fruit called patilla,<br>Taken a very cold shower to wash my hair (because that's all there is),<br>Been able to play with Pancho, the pet dog that looks like marshmallow fluff, without him yapping at me,<br>Laughed at the kids in my ...

... was pretty funny and luckily nothing got damaged or too wet. <br><br>All safely on land we walked to the bus station and after about 5 minutes our bus rocked up. It was so hot on-board - like a sauna... phew. The driver also was a total maniac - he was in a hurry, overtaking on blind corners and crests. was pretty freaky when you are sitting in a seat where you can see whats coming! There were so many trucks on the road too. We pretty much vegged for the 4hr trip ...

... of birds in the morning. Plus the view... amazing, of the Volcan de Agua, a Volcano that got it´s name because the crater took on so much water that it broke and flooded Old Antigua (I think in the 1500´s). Next to Volcan de Agua is Volcan de Fuego, which is active and which we felt erupt. We both thought it was an earthquake and all we could do was look at eachother and ...

... volcanos in 3 days it was well deserved. The springs are up in the mountians in a pristine area( it is hard to say anything is pristine when garbage is everywhere) the springs are 4 pools of verying degrees of hot water wiht none of the usual sulpher smells associated with hot springs. The water is clean and warm just what the muscles needed. We decided to stay the night there were 7 cabins at the sprins andd only 2 ...

... that Mika was actually a man. The last time I took a boat trip across a lake in Latin America - Lake Titicaca - the crossing was incredibly rough. This time it was fine, despite it being a much smaller boat. We got off the boat at the village of San Pedro, on the edge of Lago de Atitilan (a big lake). San Pedro is a nicely set village, at the foot of a volcano and the edge of a lake, but it´s very touristy. There ...