Lago Atitlan still

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Today Lucy and I took ourselves on a tour of the lake, stopping in at three different villages. The first, San Pedro, we loved. It's nestled at the foot of Volcan San Pedro, with steep cobbled streets. We only had one hour there, but the first place we stumbled across was a coffee shop, which was complete heaven. Although there is lots of coffee grown here, most of the good stuff is exported, and after one sip I took to the tea. Lucy is still drinking it, but describes it as "hot and wet" rather than coffee. This place however was really great, easily amongst the best coffee I've ever had, with a friendly local manning the shop. So that took up quite a bit of time, but it was a happy half hour! It's a very hippy kind of town, as evidenced by one of the signs advertising "trippy munchies"! When we were waiting to rejoin the boat we met a British guy who is cycling from Alaska to Argentina for charity. He's been on the road for 8 months so far. What a journey.

The next town was Santiago, which we though was a dusty little place. The streets were lined with stalls selling brightly coloured clothes and bags made from Guatemalan weaving. Quite a sight. Santiago is a very old town, it was on the Mayan trading route. Apparantly both San Pedro and Santiago suffered heavily in the civil war, according to one of our guidebooks.

The next stop was San Antonio, which was absolutely gorgeous. With very narrow, cobbled streets it was perched precariously on the side of the hill. It seemed to be filled with women weavers, and also a fabulous shop selling colourful ceramics. A really cute town. At the top was a large church, which was carefully maintained and beautifully decorated in ornate Christmas decorations, including an elaborate nativity scene. The rest of the town didn't look to have fared as well, it was very poor. The houses were simple affairs, with corrugated rooves and mostly made from simple mud bricks. Unfortunately it was easy to imagine it all tumbling down the hill in an earthquake, which Guatemala gets plenty of.

The other tourists here are nearly as interesting as the locals! We have come across mainly Americans, but also English, French, German and a trio of girls on the boat who may or may not have been Danish. There are also several aging hippies who appear to have arrived in the 70s and never left.

We are still at the lake, and likely to be here for a few more days. We only have one more night of luxury at Hotel Atitlan, however we think we'll stay at one of the other villages for a few days. We've sent Jack ahead to check it out! So hopefully the next update will be from the little village of San Marcos.

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Photos

San Pedro again
This time selling ceramics

San Antonio
The little village of San Antonio

San Antonio´s church
This church was beautifully maintained, and quite lovely inside.

Nativity scene
In the church at San Antonio, a nativity scene. These are common everywhere in Guatemala. Very intricate and elaborate.