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17th MAY 2009 - A DAY AT THE LAKE!
I woke up at around 6am. Our bus pick up was at 7.15am and we had to be downstairs 15 minutes prior. Once ready, we headed down, picked our pre-made sandwiches up (no substitute for the free breakfast...I mean who wants a ham and cheese sandwich at 6am when they could have had pancakes?!!) and then sat in the bar waiting for the bus. Again, security was paramount and the night watchman kept lookout through his peephole for us until the bus pulled up. It was early...7am and we were on the road.
On the bus, I ate my sandwich and listened to my music for the 3 hour journey to Panajachel - a small town by Lake Atitlan. The town was really busy and consisted on one main street heading all the way down to the lake front. Down either side of the street were market stalls and sellers selling everything from bags to purses to scarves and jewellery. There were lots of women walking about too with big baskets on their heads carrying goods to sell. Some of them are well heavy too and I didn’t envy the neck
strain they must get!! I could tell Nat was going to be in her element however with my depleted bank balance I would have to become an expert in browsing not buying!! Off the bus, the shopping and lake had to wait until we had found a hostel. There didn’t seem to be too much about however we did find one place which was cheap enough. Not really a hostel - more of a guesthouse but ok for what we needed!! We dumped our stuff and set off out for the day.
Our 1st job was to try and book a bus to Honduras for the following day. It turned out that no buses ran direct to Honduras and we would have to go via Antigua (where we had just come from). We were a bit gutted as the lake wasn’t something that we had been desperate to see and now it had been a journey out of the way. Oh well…we couldn’t change it now as we were already there and so booked the bus via Antigua and then set out to explore Panajachel.
We first had a wander down the rod, past the shops and towards
to lake. We had heard some really good things about the lake however it was a bit overcast today and didn’t look the best. It was pretty big and you could tell it would look really beautiful on a sunny day but today it was just grey. The sky and water seemed to merge into one grey blur and it certainly was not a day for swimming in it. We still had a nice stroll along it as far as we could before turning around and strolling back. Nat bought a scarf along the way which brightened her day and I got an ice cream which brightened mine!! No surprises there!!
As it was so grey we decided to head on the net for an hour or so and blog before I headed back to the room to read and chill and Nat went shopping. She was on the hunt for a purse and a bag!! Ten minutes into my book, Nat came back and said she needed help at the bank as it wouldn’t let her get money out. I had got some earlier in the day and so we went together to figure it out. No luck…it
was broken. Not looking good for our tea as we had about £10 between us…looked like dog may be on the menu!!
After the failed bank and shopping mission, we headed back to the room to chill and have a chat. Whilst we were inside the thunder and rain came. Honestly, I couldn’t remember a day when it hadn’t thunder stormed. Every night without fail and sometimes through the day. Amazing!! We put our trusty macs on and headed out to find a cheap tea. Bumped into an American guy who directed us to another bank…hallelujah…we may be able to afford more than bread and water!!
ATM’s weird out her in Central America…all in little booths that lock behind you once you have entered. Sometimes man marked by men with shotguns too but not today. As we were inside the booth, we were just discussing how secure the banks were and how it was good that they locked with mugging being so common out here when a guy pushed the door open. I reacted instantly and pushed it back closed shouting ‘no…don’t come in!!’ Poor guy…I almost knocked him over, I used such force and wasn’t sure what
Shopping Street!!
Love those sellers carrying stuff on their heads!! came over me! Nat just laughed!! Once with cash, we headed out for tea and really pulled out all the stops. We even got a soup starter (came free with the meal) which warmed our cockles nicely when so clod and rainy outside!! Almost like being in England!!
Once eaten we braved the rain and headed back to the room and got all warm under our toasty blankets. No big night out for us…it was a case of read, write journal entry and then sleep!! Rock and roll this travelling business!!!
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