Doing the Lakeside thing

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I dont think I have complained that much about the cold here but, dam it's cold here! Xela sits at a little over 7000 ft in elevation. Thats right yours truely, whom as you all know hates the cold; chose to study in one of the coldest regions of Guatemala. I had heard that it can get cold here, but I thought there's cold and then there is Central American cold. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! In the mornings it dips well below freezing! Luckily its warms up by 10 ish but classes start at 8 and are outside! Again, y'all know I dont like cold but I paid for 8 weeks of classes in advance, so here I am! So last weekend myself and 2 other students decided to go to the Lago de Atitlan for the weekend. The lake is still in the highlands but at a much lower elevation and there for much warmer! We were all in need of a bit of "fun in the sun" so away we went. We left Sat. morning around 7:30 ish where we cought a mini bus to the bus station. No for those of you who have traveled in 3rd world countries you can apreiciate the chaos of finding the right bus at the local station. For those of you who have yet to experience this, it is something like finding a.... well there is nothing quite like it. So you look at the busses and hope that one has your destnaition painted on it. Then you have to make sure that it still goes to that destination ( just because it went there last week doesnt mean it will today and it might another day so mo need to change the signage!) Then you have to ask if it is direct and how much it costs. Always good to ask a local before getting to the station about the price because again as it is not posted anywhere they can tell you what ever they want. So now you have found the bus, and you know the price, but is it direct or do you have to transfer 6000 times? You never realy know because the driver may tell you its direct and then drop you in the middle of nowhere and tell you you need to take another bus from said place in the middle of nowhere. THis is what happened to us Sat morning. The driver told us yes, this is direct bus to San Pedro, Awesome! Lakeside time here we come. Well about an hour later the driver tells us we need to get off the bus and catch another to San Pedro!!!! I asked him "why when you said this was direct!!!" He just smiles and pretends like he doesnt understand. Great! So now we wait for a mini bus that will take us to town called Santa Clara where supossovly we can take another bus to another town where we can then take a took-took ( I will explain that later on) to San Pedro! So much for direct! Well the mini bus was jammed way past capacity as we hurled down a crazy windy road. We finaly reach Santa Clara where a very nice man who I had been chatting with on the way down found a took-took that would take us all the way to San Pedro! Now a took-took is knd of like a motorized pedi cab that can sit 2 or 3 people in the back. We had 5 plus the driver ( 2 in front with the driver, us 3 in back)!! I dont tink the driver was more than 13 years old! It was a beautiful ride down the hill. you see so much more in a took-took than in a bus or car ( much as you would on a bike), I was suddenly gratefull for the mix up with the busses, I would not have had such breath taking views in the bus. At first it just seemed like any old curvey mountain road passing between mountains and volcanoes. Then we rounded this one corner and we all gasped with excitement. Like Briggadoon the lake appeared before our eyes. It took our breath away. Our driver stoppped a little bit up so we could take pics. WOW!!! After a beautiful ride we make it to San Pedro!!!! THe sun is shining and the streets are full of people and our tummys empty. AS soon as we set foot in San Pedro we knew it was different from Xela in many ways. First and formost it is way more touristy. People on the streets are agresivly trying to sell you thier wares. In Xela they may ask you once or twice but after that they leave you alone. Here they follow you. Also there way more gringos here than in Xela. In Xela we have a fair amount but 99% are here to study Spanish. Xela is a big party town so you have tons of traveling kids either passing through or living there for months at a time. It seems as though everyone speaks english here. From the women and kids vending in the streets to the bar and restuarent owners, where as in Xela it os mainly the students studying spanish who speak english. We wanted something different than Xela and we were not disappointed at all. We decide to find a a palce to eat before looking for a hotel. We found a beatifully terraced restaurant overlooking the lake. So many yummy choice and all cheaply priced!!!! I deiced on the falafal, and man was it good. Chatted with some other travelers for a bit and then decided to find a place to sleep for the night. We found a hotel/hostel a bit off the main road but across the streat from a music venue!!!! Perfect!!! We settled in to our room (after some tough negotiation on price) and took a walk around town. Lots of cool art and textiles. We walked to the this church that had this huge spiral staircase on the roof so we climbed it! Man what a view! We walked back to the lake and had a drink while ooohing and ahhhhing over the view! Then it was back to the hotel for a little siesta. Woke up feeling peppy and refreshed, then it was off in search of a yummy dinner! Again, we were not dissapointed. After dinner we checked out the muisc accross the street from the hotel. An awesome band played gypsy music. The band was great! I posted a video on FB and will try to post it on here as well. I realy liked San Pedro. I spent about 24 hours there and ran into many of the same people everywhere I went. I will deffinetly go back. After Xela I would like to spend about a week visiting the different lakeside towns. Anywho the next morning we took a 20 minutes boat ride accross the river to Santiago (for those of you who are geographicly challanged, Santiago is another lakesode town, not the big city in Chili) to check out the big market day. Eh, not very exciting except for the giant Xmas tree made from palm fronds. Then we were off for another boat ride to Panajachel, a much larger town on the other side of the the lake. Panajachel was even more touristly but in a different kind of way. San Pedro is filled with broke traveling hippies and artists so most things are dirth cheap. Panajachel is filled more with families on vacation as well as older tourists so it was a bit more expensive ( we payed about $11 for a room in San Pedro and about $18 in Panajachel!) We had a hard time finding a hotel within out budget but eventually we found a nice one just a bit off the main road. After setteling in we walked back down to the lake for dinner where once again we were treated to amazing views. Then back to the hotel where we sat around sharing music ( My 2 friends Kim and Maud are from Holland and Belguim) We ended up having a very early night falling asleep to Ella Fitzgerald. The next morning it was another multi bus trip home to cold, cold Xela! hat a great weekend!

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Photos

Lago Atitlan
the took took driver pulled over so we could take these photos

Lago Atitlan
the took took driver pulled over so we could take these photos

Lago Atitlan
the took took driver pulled over so we could take these photos

Lago Atitlan
the took took driver pulled over so we could take these photos