On to Lake Atitlan
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
21
141
Trip End
Ongoing
San Pedro La Laguna,
Guatemala
Monday, January 22, 2007
The Belguim girls we met in Xela (Greit and Tina) recommended San Pedro as a good place to learn Spanish. They said it was half the price of Xela, and much warmer. That was all we needed to hear!
In Guatemala, the first-class buses are called ¨Pullmans¨. Compared to Mexico buses, they are more like the 2nd class buses in Mexico. Large long-haul buses with air conditioning and large comfortable seats. And only slightly more than the cost of a Chicken Bus. From Xela, there are 4 different Pullman companies, each with a different location in a different part of town. We caught a taxi from our hostal to one of 4 bus stations in Xela. From there, we caught a 9:30 Pullman bus (20 Quetzales per person - about $2.60 US) to Los Encuentros, a main transfer junction on the main highway. Two bumpy hours later (they are doing a lot of major construction on the highway to widen it), we arrived in Los Encuentros and immediately transfered to a Chicken Bus across the street, headed to Panajachel (about 5 Quetzales per person). 30 twisty and turny minutes later, we arrived in Panajachel (referred to locally as ¨Pana¨)
Pana is a medium sized village (population 14,000) on the shores of Lake Atitlan (Lago de Atitlan) and is the Gringoland of all Gringolands. Lots of street vendors selling T-shirts and souveniers, lots of resturants and cheap hotels. There are a dozen great little open-air restaurants right on the lake shore. But not much more than that. We immediately walked to the pier to catch a ferrry (called a ¨launcha¨ locally) across the Lake Atitlan to San Pedro La Laguna (San Pedro for short). Normally it is 20 Quetzales per person, but being the newbie tourists who didn´t know any better, the captain overcharged us at 25 Quetzales per person. Launchas are rather interesting... they run frequently speeding across the Lake to various villages. The captains are very flexible and will drop people off on their own personal piers (for those lucky landowners with large private homes right on the lake). The launchas are small and lightweight, and appear to hold about 12 to 15 people in bench seats. But, in true Guatemalan style, the captains try to hold as many passengers are available. On one trip later in the week, we counted over 31 people on our tiny launcha! Even one guy was on the roof! And, in true Guatemalan style, there are usually only 3 or 4 worn out life preservers onboard. Adventure travels!
Arriving in San Pedro La Laguna (San Pedro for short), we were immediately met by a dozen ¨greeters¨, guys who will offer you a hotel, kayak, horse rides, etc. After declining all their offers, they then coyly whisper ¨Weed? Ganja? Marijuana?¨. Oh boy, this should be interesting...
We let one of these greeters walk us around the island to find a hotel. We settled into the Casa Elena, at only 20 Quetzales per person (about $2.60 US!) for a private room with a shared bathroom. Casa Elena is in a great location right on the water, and in the heart of all the action (bars, restaurants, etc). But also quite noisy at night - it seems to be a favorite for the dreadlocked hippies who entertain the complex with their guitars and bongos at 3 am!
San Pedro is also a bit of a Gringoland. A mix of young bohemian hippies, language students, day trippers, and local Mayans. It is located right on the shores of the lake at the base of the San Pedro Volcano, and the town spreads up towards the hill. The center of town with the central market and bank is located at the top of a steep and very exhausting hill. We got to know that hill very well during our stay because of the financial crisis going on in Guatemala (more on that later!).
After arriving, we went to the San Pedro Spanish School to register for Spanish classes that week. Cost: $72 US dollars for both of us for 4 hours for 4 days. 2:1 teaching (1 teacher shared between us).
Later that afternoon, we lunched at a dockside restaurant called Nick´s and met an American traveller named Christina. She had been travelling with a group of American doctors in the highlands, helping the local villages the prior week. But was now at the end of her trip and decided to come to San Pedro to visit a Guatemalan friend, David. In complete coincidence, David ended up being our teacher at the San Pedro Spanish School!
The Financial Crisis in Guatemala: Before we arrived in Guatemala, our friends Jessie "Guacamole" and Steven "El Guapo" from Australia warned us that the ATM´s rarely if ever had any money in them because of some financial crisis. Unfortunately, we didn´t listen closely enough and repeatedly found ourselves close to our own financial crisis! Mistakes so far:
(1) Arriving at the border days ago, we didn´t bother to use the street money changers because we thought we would get a better rate in Xela and assumed that everyone would accept US Dollars. Well, the Chicken Buses don´t! Luckily I still had a few Mexican pesos that the Chicken Bus to Xela would accept.
(2) Arriving in Xela, we only pulled out a small amount from the ATM because we were worried it was not a legitimate one. Later when we wanted to leave Xela, we visited every legit (and non-legit looking!) ATM in town and not one of them had any money! We had enough to pay for our transportation, but no more than that. So we hopped on a bus with our few remaining quetzales and crossed our fingers that San Pedro would have money.
(3) Arriving in San Pedro, we visited the only ATM in town (at the top of a very long steep hill!) every day for an entire week. Never once did it have money. Each day, the teller at the bank said ¨Manana, posible Manana...¨ We exchanged some of our US Dollars for Quetzales. Finally towards the end of the week, we made a special ferry trip across the lake to Pana to pull out money from an ATM. We heard from other travellers that only 1 of the 4 ATM´s in Pana still had money in it. They were right, and everyone else must have heard the same rumor because there was a very long line of nervous, hopeful people waiting for that one ATM! Fortunately it did have money, so us two greedy travellers pulled out a month´s worth of Quetzales to be safe.
Why the Crisis? Who knows! I heard that the owner of one of the major banks, Bancafe, was recently charged with stealing all the money and running away. Other rumors floated that there was a scandal with some drug lords or cartels involved. I read in a paper about a couple Senator-like people being brought up in front of Congress to explain the crisis. Frank recently heard that they just ran out of paper money - that the banks were ordered by the government to retain all the old currency in exchange for crisp new bills -- except the delivery (overseas apparently) of the crisp new bills was delayed! Who knows.... Sounds like a business opportunity for a money printing press in Guatemala, though!
Cheers, Kay
