The story of lake atilan continued . . .
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2004
1
8
27
Trip End
Jul 30, 2006
Santa lucia,
Guatemala
Monday, August 23, 2004
but anywho, back to the adventure i like to call "the weekend of randomness."
so what a small world, running into haven, the boy that knows my cousin from waterbury vermont. also too bad he had a girlfriend . . . hehehe.
the rest of the night was interesting to say the least. the drinks were plentiful, the music was flowing and we were "dancing like no one was watching." it was a fantastic time and exactly what we needed after a hectic day of shopping and travelling.
The next day, sunday, was relaxing. after we woke up we went to the lake to swim and bath since none of us wanted to take our chances with the nasty shower in our hotel. the water felt great and reminded me of home because the water was fresh and a little on the chilly side. after a dip and some washing of grimy feet and hair, we decided to check out the market in san pedro since it was the big market day. i thought it was really interesting because it was solely a market for the indigenous people of san pedro and not for tourists. There was no shouting at us to come see their stuff and little children wanting us to buy pens that had a cover with our names embroidered on them. just people selling their food or textiles or other commodities.
Lunch is what happened next. and lunch was not good. this is what i had pictured in my mind, and now i realize just how high my expectations were. A chicken sandwich. Just a regular chicken sandwich, on a roll maybe, with some veggies on it, no mustard or mayonnaise because im not a fan of either, french fries and thats it. in actuality what i got was quite different. a sandwich on bread, which is fine. a roll to bread isnt so bad. at least it didnt have bites taken out of it. but the first strange thing i noticed was that there was three pieces of bread. one on top and two on the bottom. okay, maybe they through an extra one in for good measure. The entire thing was smothered in some kind of mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard mix, that i had specifically asked that none of that was there. the chicken was quite sad looking. just some pieces laid out there, with some cartilage in there for good measure. as for the french fries, lets just say that they werent good. that whole meal gets a big sad face from me. i guess the only redeeming thing was that it only cost me $1.50.
the last leg of our trip was the chicken bus ride home. which was quite successful because one it acutally came and got us, we made it back the same day (we pictured possiblt getting stranded somewhere because we didnt really know what we were doing) , and we didnt get anything stolen or loss. but there were things that could have made it unsuccessful. one was climbing the ginormously steep mountain from the valley of lake atilan. another is that before we left, the bus needed some freshening up, and by that i mean some men pouring water on the hot hood to cool it down before the trip up. that maybe signified that our bus wasnt the best bus for the job at hand. the road from san pedro is very steep and curvey, making z turns up the hill back and forth. at each turn, it was so sharp that the bus, a regular school bus mind you, carrying around 65 people, would stop, reverse and roll back down the hill just enough so it could take the corner. the three of us felt very comfortable as we looked out the back window, since at the point we were standing because the bus was full, saw the lake come closer to us as we backed up, and were picturing ourselves careening off the side of the mountain. but it was okay, because it only happened like a hundred times it felt. another reason why the trip could have been unsuccessful was when we got off the bus because we thought it was the right one, got our bags from the top of the bus and were looking around to ask someone where the bus for antigua was, and as the bus was getting ready to pull away, realized that it was in fact the wrong stop and we needed to get back on. if we didnt we could have potentially been stuck in the random town until the next day.
but nothing bad happened, and we made it back to our houses in time for dinner. which for me was a satisfying meal of beans and rice and tortillas. and of course we have many great stories to tell.
thanks for reading. im sure there will be more. theres talk of hand gliding this weekend . . .
