¿Pan de bananas?

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So another week has passed, and I figure that I´m in the swing of things now. I´ve spent the last week at San Pedro La Laguna on Lake Atilan, and am bussing out tomorrow. But we´ll get to that later. You want to know how I got on at the volcano yes?

Volcan Pacaya

A day never gets off to a good start when your alarm goes off at 5:30 am. Another sign of a bad day to come is when you manage to drag yourself out of bed, get yourself ready for the 6am bus, and it doesn´t show up until 6:30. Meanwhile, the buses from other tour companies going to the volcano were successfully arriving. When me and Casey (an American girl I met in the hostel, and agreed to do the volcano climb with) were the last ones sat on the pavement we started to get a bit worried, but eventually the bus appeared.

The third sign of a bad day to come was when you´re going to be climbing an active volcano, which is quite dangerous in itself, and it starts peeing down with rain. Great stuff. But I needn´t have worried, the rain abated when we got there, and we were able to climb in the dry. After coming out of the woods, onto the volcano, our guide told us that the rocks we were walking on were 6 months old. As we continued up, that time got less and less, and by the time we reached our highest point, we were talking in minutes. I´m fairly certain that in most countries, getting within touching distance of lava on dubious footing would be a pretty firm no no, but here its fine. As you can guess, as I am writing this, I didn´t fall in.

Lago de Atitlan

Upon returning from the volcano, Casey and I had decided to leave Antigua for Panajachel on Lake Atitlan in the afternoon. Our bus was scheduled to pick us up at 4, and as it was with the same company as earlier, I happily set off at 3:30 to get something to eat. Of course, when I ambled back to the hostel at 4, there was a bus there angrily waving at me to hurry up. Sods law isn´t it?

After a bit to eat in Panajachel, it was time for bed. Another early start beckoned the next day. Waking at a leisurely 6:30, we went to the market at Chichicastenago. It´s pretty famous in these parts, and attracts a fair amount of tourists. Most get there on tourist shuttles, but we took the local bus. I´m pretty sure that scores some tourist points. Anyway, after a bit of a meander, we got back on the bus and headed back.

San Pedro la Laguna

Panajachel isn´t the nicest of towns, so when we got back from the market, we got on a ferry to San Pedro la Laguna, one of the other villages around Lake Atitlan. And this is where I´ve been for the past week. I´ve been living with a Guatemalan family here, which has been really helpful for practising Spanish. There´s also an Israeli guy, Amir, and Australian girl, Emma, here, which is less helpful for the Spanish. But they´re good folk so I´ll let them off.

So my days here have been generally waking early, wandering around San Pedro in the morning, and having Spanish lessons in the afternoon (when it usually rains quite a lot). Although I didn´t think the lessons were that useful when I was doing them, my Spanish is a lot better now, so I guess they were worth it.

You´re probably still reeling from the shock of me saying I´ve been waking early. So I´ll just add in a quote from Amir (and I promise I´m not making this up) '"Stewart, you´ll obviously be the first up tomorrow".

San Pedro itself is a great town. But then again, its hard not to like a place when its on a beautiful lake, overlooked by a volcano (with 2 more not far away). I´ve even been going for early morning swims (the water is slightly warmer than the North Sea, although Amir and Emma still deem it too cold for swimming).
We´ve been kayaking on the lake, went for a walk to the Indio´s Nose (a local viewing point). Unfortunately it was cloudy the day we went, so we didn´t get all the way up. We probably reached the nostril.

Evenings have usually involved going to watch ripped off films at a local bar. Although the real entertainment comes from the Guatemalan ladies that come round during the film selling pan de bananas (banana bread for the stupider amongst you ), and other snacks about halfway through. They get everywhere in the town, even in restaurants when people are eating. The bread is actually really nice though.

Tomorrow I´m leaving here, and heading north with Emma and Amir (even in Guatemala, there´s something reassuringly homely about heading north). We´ve decided that the tourist buses cost too much, so will get a chicken bus to Guatemala City, and carry on to Coban from there. For those of you that don´t know, chicken buses are the local buses, repainted US school buses that are often crammed full of people. Anyway, its a little bit more involved than just jumping on the tourist shuttle, but I´m sure it will be an adventure.

You ever heard the one about the Israeli, the Aussie and the Englishman who got the chicken bus to Guatemala City? I´ll tell you it next time!

Stewart

P.S There will be photos I promise. It´s just the internet is mucho slow here and I´m struggling to upload them.

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Photos

Chicken bus and locals
Santiago

My Guatemalan family
Guess which three aren't from round here?

Myself, Emma, Amir
At Nariz del Indio