Blogs from Panajachel, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean

We were happy with our choice of taking an Uber from Guatemala City to Panajachel on Lake Atitlán. It was pretty speedy - a little too speedy at times - and got us to our hotel at check-in time with military precision! The url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/gt/posada-gutierrez.en-gb.html?aid=1769628&sid=ef6f4c27fb07edaed3e690c1da73a6edHotel Posada Gutierrez was a short walk out of town which we preferred as we had read that the bars could get quite lively. It was a bit expensive for what it was but we were generally satisfied with the place. Breakfast was good and there was always access to filtered water for our bottles. Walking down Calle Santander can be a bit hectic. That's where the loud bars are, and believe me they are loud! There are also some great restaurants there, offering pretty good value for decent quality meals. The street ... read more

Our Arrival The bus stops opposite the tourist information office on Calle Principal in the town. You can walk to your accomodation from there. Where We Stayed Hospedaje Zulema - on Calle Rancho Grande near Calle 14 De Febrero opposite Hotel Jere. Q100 for a double room with shared bathroom. Good wifi and a bit of a balcony. What We Did The weather was very overcast whilst we were here with limited views of the volcano on the lake. Therefore we didn't do any boat trips just walked around town and did a bit of shopping. Where We Ate At the lake end of Calle Rancho Grande are food stalls with your usual chicken and tortillas etc for Q12. At night food stalls set up down Calle Santander. We had ate in the market for Q16 ... read more

This morning I woke up before my alarm and even though I wanted to go back to sleep for a few more hours I managed to drag my butt out of bed to take a shower, which ended up being my first cold shower here in Guatemala. I was definitely awake after that shower! I headed down early to eat breakfast and soon after we headed to our very last clinic day! I can’t believe it’s almost over! I was very surprised but we actually didn’t have a lot of patients today so we got to hang out with the kids most of the day. One of the volunteer’s was not feeling good so I spent most of my free time with her, one of the little girls I met yesterday remembered me so she came ... read more

This morning we started a little later than usual… well I was supposed to. I had my alarm set for 7 o’clock because we were leaving by 9:30am but I woke up at my usual 6:30am. After shaving my legs and trying to find a bathing suit I headed downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast was the usual beans, eggs, tortillas, tea and fruit; it was nice to be able to eat normally as my stomach was feeling much better this morning. After breakfast one of my roommates and I went for a quick walk around the street before heading back to the hotel to meet with everyone else. As per usual, we didn’t leave at exactly 9:30, c’mon now, we’re all running on Guatemalan time. We eventually made our way down to the lake and were lead ... read more

Today we were at San Jorge la Laguna and it was one of our busiest clinic days we’ve had so far! Today was also the first day that we needed two translators, one translator to go from kakchiquel to Spanish, and another to go from Spanish to English. It was so cool to hear kakchiquel spoken, and by the end of the day I was able to pick up on a couple of words. The clinic was a short walk from the water which only made me want to head to the lake that much more! My stomach was a little better today but I still didn’t want to chance it so at lunch I decided to not eat the meat and instead just eat rice, tortillas, vegetables and Jamaica juice. We didn’t have any notable ... read more