San Marcos continued

Matt and I have extended our stay in San Marcos, as we have enjoyed it here immensely. The Spanish lessons we took were fantastic and we now  have a basic ability to communicate with locals, which is great. By staying 2 weeks here, we have really gotten to know the city and its people and we´re going to have a hard time leaving!


However, we are definitely starting to miss home! Although Guatemala is supposed to produce some of the World´s best coffee, they don´t seem to have any of it in San Marcos!! (the theory being that they export all the best coffee beans, and the locals get the rest). Also, we feel as if we discover a new terrifying species of bug in our room (on our pillows.. in the shower..) almost every day.. which we definitely won´t miss!

But overall we have absolutely loved it here. The weather can´t be beat, and  the views everywhere are spectacular, there is great hiking and kayaking and fantastic food. We´ve found the people in Guatemala to be absolutely lovely and incredibly kind. They move at their own pace here and nobody is in a rush to do anything (we waited about 2 hours for our dinner last night.. which is a surprisingly normal occurrence!! and a great lesson in patience)

So, we will be heading to Antigua this weekend, and then back to Guatemala City on Monday for a very brief stay before hopping on the plane for Tuesday morning. Looking forward to seeing everyone!!

San Marcos

Today we arrived in San Marcos, which is considered to be the "hippie" town on the lake and it is so peaceful here. After struggling to communicate with locals, which has proven to be more difficult than in Peru, we´ve decided to do a week of Spanish lessons in order to get some of the basics down. We´ll be starting lessons on Monday, and until then we are so pleased to be in a town of more than a few hundred, so that we can walk to the village to buy necessities (rather than having to take a boat ride across the lake.. which I think I may avoid for a little while!!).

San Pedro

 Tonight is our last night in Jaibalito (Casa Del Mundo) and so today we had to venture out to San Pedro to get cash. Paying for items with credit/debit cards is a luxury we greatly miss, as most places on the lake (including hotels) only accept cash, and there are only a handful of ATM machines located in the two major cities at opposite ends of the lake; Panajachel and San Pedro.

We left this morning for San Pedro around 9am, and the lake was beautifully calm. Upon arriving we began our hunt for the restaurant, Cafe La Puerta, which boasts the best breakfast in town. This proved to be more difficult than expected, and after about 45 minutes, consulting with numerous locals, and 10 minutes at an internet cafe, we were finally able to find it... if we were on the amazing race we definitely would have come in last! But it was worth the effort; the coffee and the bacon were both fantastic.

As we sat on the terrace overlooking the lake, we felt the wind suddenly pick up dramatically. After about 5 or 10 minutes, white caps dominated the lake and I decided we´d better head home before the conditions worsened. Typically the waves don´t pick up until about 2pm, so at 11am we were quite surprised to such such rough waters.

Upon arrival at the launching dock, Matt and I scanned the waters and debated whether to wait until the waves calmed (usually around 5pm), but convinced ourselves the ride would be fine and hopped the nearest boat. After about 5 minutes after our departure, I quickly began to regret the decision. As San Pedro is located in a cove, as soon as we left that cove that waves had increased dramatically, and I began to get a bit nervous. I was seated next to an expat who had been living in San Pedro for a few years, and she looked at me somberly and said "these are bad waves... we are going to get soaked". Oh, how I wish I had stayed on the dock!! At this point we were bouncing higher and higher with each wave, and sinking lower into the water with each landing. The Captain´s helper put a tarp over the front of the boat to try and protect those of us sitting right at the front, but this did little to protect against the waves and the high winds. The waves continued to own our small boat, and the point I got the most nervous was when the captain turned off the engine in the middle of the lake (as the waves were so dominating). The swells were so high that I was fairly convinced at this point that we were going to take on water.Finally, he turned on the engine again and slowly drove towards San Marcos, a trip that should have taken 5 minutes took 20, and felt like an hour. Although this was not our stop, the expat highly recommended that we get out anyway, she said she hadn´t seen conditions so bad before. I didn´t have to think twice about this advice and as the boat was slamming against the dock, we scrambled out onto land. I looked behind me and noticed that every other passenger, including the locals, got out as well... I guess everyone had had enough of the bumpy ride! So, we spent the day in San Marcos, periodically checking on the waves, finally when the last boat was to leave the dock, and the waves had subsided somewhat, we made our way back to the hotel, where we are very grateful and relieved to be back!

Photos

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/45532992@N03/

The Past Week

We spent the last 6 nights at Isla Verde, which is a beautiful Eco Lodge situated on Lake Atitlan, howver it had limited Internet, so I will give you a recap of the week. Sunday We have arrived at the lake. The hotel is beautiful, gardens are stunning and couldn't be more relaxing to sit in...also found a scorpion in the shower! Monday Spent the day reading around the lake. The food is absolutely fantastic, and each night there is a 3 course dinner served on the deck overlooking the lake. Tuesday The day we ventured to Panajachel. After being bombarded by street vendors selling their wares, and having a terribly diffiult time finding a working ATM, we decided we'd had enough of the "big city". Returning to the launching docks, we hopped into an empty boat headed for Santa Cruz. We were told the boat would leave once it had about 12 people, but soon the boat was packed to the gills, and we started to get a bit concerned. Just as we were about to launch, Av very heavyset tourist ran down the dock, apparently having decided that she absoltely must take this ( clearly over filled ) boat. As she squeezed in, the boat sunk uncomfortably further into the water. We were sitting in the center of a packed boat with a low roof and just as I was thinking I might want to take another boat, the engine started and we were off. We had been cautioned about the strong afternoon winds and were now experiencing them. The swells were high, and the forming white caps proceeded to rock the boat back and forth, sending in bigger and bigger sprays, soaking all patrons sitting in the front. The water felt dangerously close to the upper edge of the boat, but I felt some relief due to the lifecoats strapped to the roof (and a bit less relief when I realized that they were soaking wet!) As we began to turn I looked up, hopeful to see our landing dock, but to my dismay we were headed to pick up more people. There was no room in the boat, and I couldn't imagine how they were going to try and fit... but they didn't try, they just sat on the roof! At this point I just closed my eyes, and after several more minutes of nail biting swells, and a boat rocking heavilly back and forth, we arrived at our destination, and I thankfully put my feet on solid ground. Wednesday After our trip to town yesterday, Matt and I have been strugling with upset stomachs. We order yet another Canada Dry, and they inform us they are out! we've finished the supply! Thursday Tried the hotels famous Hand made pasta. it actually hangs to dry behind the kitchen... very delicious! Friday Spent the morning kayaking on a pristine lake. This lake has risen over 13 feet in the last few years, and we saw balconies under water which was kind of eerie. Saturday Took arts and crafts and made dreamcatchers. Sunday Left Santa Cruz and have arrived in Jabilito to stay at Casa Del Mundo.

Biking Antigua

Today we went on an amazing..ly difficult bike ride around the city of Antigua. It was 30km, which Matt thought we could handle just fine, but we didn't account for the hot humid weather, and the fact that when we weren't going up a steep hill we were going down precarious and treacherous slopes with lots of loose rocks and thick sand! Not only did we find the ride challenging, but we had invited David (our new friend from Guatemala) and his girlfriend to join us. They ended up calling it quits halfway through and got a pickup truck to pick them up!! They told us to call them when we're back in Antigua...but that next time we'll just go for dinner;)

We've Arrived

What a day! After traveling for over 14 hours we are exhausted and very happy to have a roof over our head, even of it isn't the roof we expected! Of course traveling never goes exactly as planned;) I had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up at 5pm, when our flight landed. We were told the driver would be waiting with a sign with our names..perfect:) Well, we walked out of the airport to see about 20 drivers with signs, but none for us. I figured he was just running late, nothing to worry about. 10, 15, 20 minutes went by, but no sign of the driver. I decided to ask a fellow standing by us if he knew where we could find a phone. He graciously lends us his and calls the lodge on our behalf. " The driver is running late" he tells us "but he'll be here soon". We thank him and he leaves, while we continue to wait another 15, 20 minutes...and we're starting to worry. After all, it's getting dark and we were told that traveling after dark in Guatemala city is not a good situation for a tourist to be in. Just as we're discussing our precarious situation, David ( the gentleman who lent us his phone) runs up to us and says " the shuttle's not coming, the driver can't make it before dark so he's turned around". Now we're feeling some panic. David says "you do not want to be in Guatemala city for any amount of time, so you're gonna need to get to Antigua tonight. Luckily David spoke perfect English and Spanish and was able to get a taxi driver to drive us to Antigua, he then called our lodge and told them to meet us at a cafe in Antigua. (And if you're wondering why David was still at the airport to be able to communicate this pertinent information to us it's because he was having car trouble (so lucky for us!!) ). He wished us well, gave us his phone number and asked us to call him when we arrived to ensure we reached our destination safely. So we embarked on our almost 2 hour taxi ride, where we sat in complete silence just praying that this driver would bring us to where we expected ( I think we'd read too many traveling horror stories!) but, as promised, the driver brought us to the cafe in Antigua and we were thanking God for getting us there safely. We look around the cafe for the driver who was arranged to bring us to the lodge, but there are only two people in the cafe.. and no driver. This time we wait for about half an hour, get some much needed food, and decide that we should just find a hostel in the city of Antigua as we are clearly not going to make it to the lodge tonight. So we are safe in Antigua and will be heading to the lodge tomorrow:) Ps. David called the lodge to check on us when he hadn't heard back from us! It was amazing to meet such a caring and considerate person right at the start! Such a blessing!!