La Iguana Perdida and Lovely Lake Atitlan

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Just got back to Xela.... Never thought I'd say it, but it feels like home. I visited Lake Atitlan for the weekend and it was awesome. It's a huge lake surrounded by volcanos and tiny villages. We visited three of the villages and of course, the necessary, touristy part too. That part is called Panajachel and it's the main hub, from which boats leave to take you to the other towns around the lake. The streets of Pana, as people call it, are filled with stall after stall of Guatemaltecos selling similar and some beautiful things. We stayed one night in Pana, in a little place called "Mario's Rooms." Of course we had to visit the local bars, where we ran into the funniest Guatemalan woman with THE BEST laugh on the planet. She insisted on dragging us to a local disco, where she knew all the bartenders, despite being old enough to be a grandmother. And she is, as she proudly told us. Inside the club, she took off her business-like suit coat to reveal a black bra and this barely there embroidered top... This woman was such a trip!

On Saturday, our first boat dropped us off at San Pedro, which is known as the party place with lots of happy hippies who visited once and liked it so much they stayed. It was cool, but not my favorite scene. Next we visited San Marcos, which is this incredibly beautiful, peaceful and untouched village with several places for yoga, massage therapy, etc. I could have gotten lost there for days for sure. Lastly, we visited Santa Cruz, which is somewhere in between the party-scene of San Pedro and the peacefulness of San Marcos. We stayed at the well-known and for good reason, La Iguana Perdida (the Lost Iguana). There's no electricity or hot water, everything is lit by candlelight and lanterns. There was a huge barbeque and party complete with live music, awesome and tons of food and an honor-system bar. We were lounging around on cushions, me, my friend from school Heidi, Alex from France, Joe from England or maybe New Zealand...Evelyn from Germany and Sondra from Holland. Our own mini UN, it was very cool! 😊

We were going to stay another night but decided against it and hopped the chicken bus back to Xela. We had to stand for a good part of the ride because there was no room on the bus. They pile these old school buses 3 and 4 people deep per seat... Ist's amazing the things even move, much less uphill. I found out today that a lot of the roads throughout the country are blocked today by people protesting CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a hot topic here. I guess it's a good thing we came back last night! That's all for now... Love to all!!

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