Our days on the lake

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  Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala
Friday, September 21, 2007

I was all for the 7am local bus to Panajachel but Erin wouldn't get up, so we did things the relaxing way and took advantage of the hotel's breakfast. We signed up for a tourist shuttle later in the day. The 12:30 bus ended up turning into a 2:00 bus, but we were finally off and climbing through the lush highlands.

We were dropped off on Main Street with our new friend Christian from Austria, finishing up an 11 month trip around the world. We split a room 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 lot"

We finally ventured out for a dinner of various combinations of rice, beans, meat, guac, and good tortillas

Christian the Austrian and Erin

. Kids came in to sell us various crafts, our favorite was the guy who listlessly held out the goods while his eyes glazed over watching the TV. It was a hard sell. Later, Erin taught Christian the card game spit (it's pretty energetic) and much fun was had by all. It never really stopped raining.

The next morning we had breakfast in a restaurant with Christian. A girl got him to purchase a woven bracelet for 5 quetzals (she started at 15). It was funny because we found a lady a little while later offering the same thing for one quetzal. A little kid asked for our packets of ketchup and sugar for him to eat. We hiked down to the docks to see the amazing panoramic view of Lago Atitlan and the two volcanoes ringing the water. We inquired about ferries to San Pedro on the other side of the lake. They insisted we hurry to catch the 10:30 ferry because there wouldn't be another one until 1 or later. So after we hurried back for our bags we were shown down to an empty boat and had to wait for some more customers to head out. Time schedules are approximations and the boat/bus/tuk tuk won't leave without a bunch of people. They finally hooked some Israelis and we jetted across the lake in the sunshine to peaceful San Pedro.

San Pedro is a hippie hangout (the whole lake is really) and it was readily apparent

local method of carrying thingss

. We took a hotel with wonderful views of the lake and hammocks out front. All the restaurants have wonderful views of lake and we ate a pizza at "Nick's Place." The town is built on the side of the old Volcan San Pedro and the town is up the hill. We relaxed during the afternoon in the hammocks. It is beautiful weather until about 5 in the afternoon at which point it pours for the rest of the evening. For dinner we went to a more upscale place down by the dock. For the first time we were in a crowded place. The vast majority were Israelis. It appears that Guatemala is a tourist destination for Israelis during these two months with all of the Jewish holidays. Strange. We had dinner and were treated to a big screen showing of Nacho Libre.

Today we continued hopping around the lake to Santiago, the biggest town on the lake. On the ferry Erin gave some gum to a little girl, Ana, and she brought her little brother Tomas over for one too. At the docks we were hounded by quite a lot of people trying to sell us various things. My favorite was the old man who, when we wouldn't give him the time of day, walked ahead of us farther up the hill and tried to flag us into various hotels. Erin does not like these situations. We settled on a room and ventured out to see Maximon.

Maximon is an ancient Mayan deity who is still worshiped around these parts

Travis in San Pedro

. He's pretty evil apparently and you can ask him to bless you or curse someone else. He resides in someone's house for a year at a time and then he changes locations. It is a great honor. He is taken to bed upstairs every night and then brought downstairs during the day. People give him offerings of cigars and whiskey (as well as money of course). He wears two hats and has several changes of clothes nearby. Even more interesting is the fact that, right next to him and sleeping in a coffin, is Jesus. They're friends apparently. We were guided here by the local shaman.

It was market day and we wandered through the colorful stalls and the women with their multicolor clothing. We stopped for a pretty good meal (chicken is very popular here) in time for a surprise shower that turned the road into a river. Eventually it slowed down and we headed back to the hotel.

Travis

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view from the hotel 1	view from the hotel 2	view from the hotel 3	washing by the river
Erin takes a break in San Pedro	lake in the morning	the two volcanoes	it doesn't get much better
volcanoes ring the lake	Lago Atitlan	the dock to Santiago	friends on the ferry
Baskets of chickens!	Maximon

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