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Published: January 13th 2012
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Friday 6th Jan - Panajachel to Jailbalito (Casa Del Mundo).
It was sad to check out of the Japanese Hotel El Sol after only 2 nights but pleasing to know we'd booked a further 3 after 1 night on the lake. On arriving at the makeshift ferry port in Pana by tuc tuc we were acosted by about 4 different launch capitans. After settling on the public boat we set off in search of hotel Casa Del Mundo on the lake, a much lauded place for it's amazing views and hospitality.
It certainly was an amazing place but our room was not, quite the opposite. What a shame to arrive in such a place only to be so disappointed about the room you've got that you feel like going back where you've just come from. Am I too spoiled, maybe a little. Room 9 though was a shocker, a kind of pokey back room with barely a side view of the lake and a nice clear view of the hotel soil pipes climbing the hill. Most galling of all was knowing that the 2 rooms next door had an amazing view of the lake and were the same price. We'd been robbed and the owners are a disgrace and I'd enjoy telling them.
Saturday 7th Jan - Jailbalito to Pana.
Today was one of the more eventful so far on the trip and yes I certainly did enjoy telling them! The trusty American owner Bill was not available in the morning to hear our desperate story in his dodgy ecofriendly hotel so I had to make do with his Guatemalan manager. He listened intently for a few precious moments and did indeed manage to show a little empathy for our predicament. He felt it worthy enough of an offer of Q50 discount and complimentary drinks which I politely proceeded to decline. He asked how much we felt we should pay to which I replied Q100 under the bill of Q558. He scurried off for a couple of minutes before returning to inform me that Bill didn't like this and a Q50 discount was the best they could do. Anyway I bunged him the Q460 I'd already prepared and told him that was his lot, hasta la vista.
Conveniently, as we walked down the steps to the jetty, a ferry was about to depart to whom the captain I retorted, "Oiga, Pana por favor". "No problemo", said the captain in reply. We jumped in and just as El Capitan was about to cast off senor manager rocked up on the jetty with his mobile telling me angry Bill wanted a quick word. "Are you the guy who owes me 100 quetzales?", he said shortly after a bit of mobile fuzz in a dodgy John Wayne accent. To which I replied, "Sorry old chap but the captain's about to cast off so we'll have to leave it there" and then graciously passed the phone back to senor manager. To which he shouted as we headed out in to open water, " I'ma gona calla the policia on ya and they'da be a waiting for ya when ya getara back!".
What followed was an extremely pleasant boat trip across the beautiful Lake Atitlan congering up delightful images in my head of getting a good kicking in a dirty, slimey guatemalan jail whilst pleading to urgently speak with the British Consulate.
There were no police waiting at Pana port as it turned out so either the yankee doodle doesn't have much sway with the local Sheriff or he figured it wasn't worth the agro for a fiver. Never the less we spent the rest of the day in disguise, avoiding the hastily built Pana road blocks.
Perhaps the funniest thing to happen all day was see the 2 girls from the room next to us at the Casa Mong, rock up at our Japanese Hostel an hour after us to share the dorm we were now staying in. Needless to say they were a right old pair of geeky muppets who'd been privileged enough to listen to the whole show we'd put on at the hotel and had appeared none too impressed with our displeasure. I guess if you're tucked up in bed at 6pm on a Saturday night in one of the party capitals of Guatemala and in the region of 21 years old you'd probably have done better to stay at home reading comic books!
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MikeH
non-member comment
Ground well Stood!
Good to see that you stuck to your guns on the hotel price and didn't cave in when told Q100 discount was too much, after all Q50 was less than 10% reduction, not much for such a crap room. I bet it made you sweat a bit when the guy chased you to the boat though, especially not knowing how the local policia would treat the incident. Quite a bit of excitement for a fiver!