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Published: July 25th 2008
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One of the most beautiful sights in Guatemala is the Volcano ringed lake of Atitlan, and so at the weekend,
Myself, Ella and Beth from the project set off to discover both the lake and the renowned sunday market of Chichicastenango.
We thought we'd be able to save some cash if we went through a tour group and Antigua has so many on every street corner it's ridiculous! We caught a shuttle bus that would take us on the 2 and a half hour journey to Lago Atitilan and the lakeside town of Panajachel. I say we caught the bus, I was meeting it at a different place to everyone else and should have left at 8am. In Guatemala though, things rarely run so smoothly! By the time it was 9am, and the bus still hadn't arrived, I started to think that the bus wasn't running on "
hora chapina" - the Latin American equivilant of a timetable! Luckily, I was meeting it outside the agency where we'd booked the tour so when they opened, I explained the situation to them and they rang up the bus, had a massive go at them down the phone and I quote:
The people have names! They are not only numbers! %!&(MISSING)$#!!!!
Anyway,
Cloudy Atitlan
Shame that we could'get a boat across to the villages beneath the volcanoes, on of which you can see in the photo once the rant had finished, they sent another shuttle bus for me to meet with the first one, and I finnally met up with the rest of the group.
The journey was pretty grand. We passed through really heavy jungle and negotiated VERY tight hairpin bends at speed - that's an experiance and a half whn you're halfway along a mountain road! We also passed some mines that were dug straight into the cliff face and huge rollng valleys where fields were being cultivated at almost 45 degree angles! I was kind of preoccupied with the fact that we had a very large machete on tehe dashboard and asked the driver if it was in case of thieves, but he assured me that it was there only in case of emergencies, such as if we crashed and had to break the glass of the windscreen.
Our first view of the lake was pretty breathtaking. The entire thing used to be a caldera - a huge underground pocket of lava, but then 3 volcanoes that surrounded it exploded, causing the caldera to empty and the whole ground fell into the crater, forming the lake. Lago Atitlan has a spooky tendency also
of having the waterlevel drop significantly for no apparant reason and no-one really knows how deep it is either. In the mornings, the lake is nice and calm but in the afternoons, a wind blows through the valleys and the tranquil surface becomes much rougher - local Mayan legends say that it is the spirit of the lake stirring to claim a drowned soul - fair do's really. Lots of boats can ferry you around the lake to visit nearby villages and apparantly, there is a section with a hot spring that you can swim in.
Unfortunatly for us, we arrived about 1 in the afternoon and, after getting our bearings, it was too late in the day to hire a boat. Also the weather had closed in so, although we got some nice pictures of clouds rolling down the volcano, the lake was pretty much out of the question. Instead we wandered around the town and went to the Inguat tourist info office to find something to do. The chap there recommended a nature reserve nearby that used to be a coffee plantation, but now houses waterfalls, monkeys and zipwires! We headed over there and for 175Q, you hike
up into the reserve with two guides and use a network of zipwires to get back to the start.
Absolulty AWESOME! It had begun to drizzle so we were pretty much the only people in the place and flying through the canopy in the rain is so much fun! At the otherside, one of the guides (that crosses first) waves a red flag to tell you when to slow down and your brakes are your own strength by pulling down on the wire with a glove that has a thick piece of leather on the palm. Whilst we were moving from one to the next, we saw a whole troop of Howler Monkeys swinging through the trees, which was quite something, and also passed straight over some coffee plants.
In the evening, the focal point of entertainment was the "
Teleton", a national charity appeal that raises money for various causes in Guatemala. That night was the last night and Panajachel had a stage set up in the street where people were performing various acts. Watching for a bit is fine, but if you stay still too long, you're constantly hassled by people shaking tins in your chest - I'm
so tall here my face can't be reached by these tin shakers!
Afterwards, we found a restraunt recommended in the guide book that we decided to check out. Called "The Last Resort" (optimistic name isn't it?), it's run by a Guatemalan family who have set the whole thing out like a traditional english pub with all the trimmings, including stone fireplace, pub dog and the drunk in the corner (we're not sure if he was sleeping or dead - seriously, he didn't move the entire time we were there!) Awesome meal though and not too expensive. Before leaving, I got a picture of the Painted-on wooden beams over the bar.
We woke early next morning to watch the sunrise over the lake, only to discover that it was already light and so went back to sleep. Finally got out of bed about 6 ish and wandered down to the lake to get some pictures - stunning site that early. We also picked up two stray dogs that followed us down to the lake front! Grabbed a really good breakfast in a local restraunt and then went back to the hotel to catch the bus to the market at Chichicastenango. We
definatly needed more time there, but that's the way the tortilla crumbles. Oh well, that means I have an excuse to go back!
You know when you're nearing the town, firstly because the number of tourist buses increases dramitically, as does the amount of chaos on the road! The market was a labyrinth of colours, both on the stalls and in the clothes that people were wearing, with people selling everything from Chickens to rugs and vitamins to toothpaste. We'd been told that there had recently been a number of cases where tourists have had things stolen, so we were very wary of our cameras and because of that, I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked.
Despite this, we had a great time. Part of the fun is getting lost in the stalls, along with serious haggling - I was in my element and generally got a good price on things, with the traders looking happy as well - though there were a few that I think we pushed too far and they looked glad to see the back of us! We stopped for a breather in a cafe and bought hot chocolates, made with fresh
cocoa beans, so much so you could taste pieces of the been in the drink! Gorgeous with gthe marshmellows too!
After that, we browsed for a bit longer, saw the biggest butterfly in the world and then caught the bus back to Antigua.
Brilliant time and would recommend it to anyone although more time was definatly needed at Lago Atitlan!
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Megan
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Presents
Hey buddy! Lovely lookin place ur in! Just a quick question about what you bought me from Chichicastenango market? There looked like there was some cracking stuff and i'm secretly hoping that you bought me a pair of those snazzy trooosers. Take care petal lots of love (from greece) xxx (btw bought u a really good present from Romania)