Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2010
We left Flores happy that we'd visited, but pleased that we were heading on to a new adventure. The journey to Guatemala City didn't disappoint. The driver was, in my mind, unhinged. He was driving as if he was in a tiny Peugeot 205 and even then that would have been conservative. With it being a night journey, leaving at 11pm and due to arrive in the city at 6am, we didn't see much of the countryside, instead we tried to sleep. At one point the bus, which must have been topping 65mph had to do an emergency stop, narrowly missing a cow in the middle of the highway (a bit like our single A roads). All of the passengers flew out of their seats from their sleep imagining the worst, most people just had a little prayer and went back to sleep. I had a little nervous chuckle and considered offering my services as driver.
Guatemala City is a sprawling maze of double storey concrete buildings. The place was alive and some of the roads already jammed at 5.45, but due to our fabulous driver and his questionable driving skills we made it to our connection. Steve and I
were so tired we then fell straight to sleep again and woke up in the beautiful town of Antigua. Compared to G City, it's chilled and clean, reminding me of a small French town and it's central plaza. We had missed our connection by 30mins so had 3.5hrs to kill. I was somewhat grumpy about this as we'd been without a bed since 10am the day before. However, a couple of excellent coffees and a bit of people watching in the central park turned out to be exactly what we wanted.
The last leg of the journey was through the mountains to Panajachel (Pana to the locals). The views were breathtaking. During the journey south we noticed a greater number of Mayan people. The women wear brightly coloured tops with a type of colourful fabric belt and long skirts. They're about a foot or two shorter than me and are wonderfully friendly.
We stopped off in Pana for the night in Mario's Rooms, a quiet oasis compared to the hustle and bustle of the town. This morning we had a chat to the guy next door who is on a sponsored walk up a volcano with his nephew
for a school back in Scotland. Pana is set on the side of Lake Atitlan and is surrounded by the most fantastic views; volcanoes in the distance with small puffs of smoke(?!), rolling clouds and the lake itself.
We had read about and had a glowing reference for a Spanish school in San Pedro, across in the lake. San Pedro is also much cheaper than anywhere on our trip so far, so we thought we'd head there for a spot of Spanish schooling. We hopped on a boat and arrived 30mins later.
San Pedro is smaller and quieter than Pana with a lovely atmosphere. We’ve found a room with our own bathroom, views across the lake and an outside kitchen all for the price of £2 each! It's our first encounter with a crazy Guatemalan shower though. They rig up the electric wires to the shower head which heats the water! Needless to say you don’t touch the wires or the shower head. Luckily our shower is plastic, but even so I think I'll keep to cold water showers thank you very much.
We've also signed up to two weeks at the San Pedro Spanish School. Four
hours per day, one on one tuition. We're going to stay in our hotel for the first week and then stay with a Guatemalan family the second. I'm so excited about this leg of the trip.
San Pedro, so far, all 4 hours of it, is stunning. It's set on a steep hill off the lake with tiny little roads (about the size of the back entries in Reddish!) housing bars, restaurants, shops, language schools, internet cafes... you name it. What is really making us smile is the price of a rum and coke - 6Q which is around 40p.
Thinking of you all.
Love
S&S
xxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0658s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
John
non-member comment
Coffee?
Did you try the coffee in Antigua? One of my favourite brands is made from beans grown there. What does it taste like in its native habitat? Madly envious xx/xx