Blogs from San Pedro La Laguna, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean

After the first few days of pissing around and getting drunk we began to get serious in San Pedro and find ourselves a Spanish school. Following in the footsteps of some of our best friends we sort out the Language hub, signing up for a week we moved into their rooms. Although a fun experience with great people, I smuggled to learn in that environment, there didn't seem to be a structure, planning, end game. Grammar was throw at me left right and centre and after every 4 hour session I would feel exhausted and angry with myself, on top of this I would dread sleeping in our room which smelt of damp and was filled with bugs. All in all it was time to move on. So we found a new school moved into a ... read more

Lake Atitlan is a beautiful lake around 3 hours from Antigua, it is surrounded by both hills, volcanoes and little villages. We arrived on the chicken bus from Antigua into the largest (Panachanel (Pana)) but stayed in San Pedro la Laguna which is about half an hour boat ride from Pana. This is the social spot on the lake and has lots of bars and hostels and is right next to the inactive San Pedro volcano (3020m). This was a good hike for which we started at 5.30am and wondered up through avocado and coffee plantations until we got to forest and then made the final ascent to the top. Unfortunately, it. Was cloudy so there wasn't much to see other than the fact we were above and being engulfed by the cloud. Either way it ... read more

We found food in San Pedro to be very reasonably priced. There are definitely a full range of prices to be had but we were very satisfied with the fare in the 30GTQ to 60GTQ price range, less for the street vendors. A couple of our favourite places were 'Idea Connections' (on the way to the Santiago dock) near our Spanish school where Ashley ate drool inducing pan au chocolates everyday during the school break, and 'd'Juice Girls' which made a huge variety of licuados, smoothies, and juices for on the cheap (and they were the size of a fishbowl). Friday nights we hit up Hostel Fe for quiz nights and for the week that we were in school we would partake in 'Conversation Club' at our school in the evenings for 45min. Spanish School was ... read more

Dear San Pedro La Laguna, In two days' we will be leaving you for a short time to visit Mexico. We will embark on this journey via Chicken Bus and will most likely be on a series of buses, facing certain dangers and more than likely, some very disgusting and/or disturbing images as we go. While we truly enjoy eating fresh coconuts and papas fritas from tiny brown bags sold on the buses by vendors for 5 Q's, we really don't enjoy seeing people with missing limbs or eyeballs. Also, we can do without many of the smells we smell on the bus. But we will enjoy the on-board movies, music videos in Spanish and English and the crazy conversations we sometimes have with the Indigenous people. We will leave behind our most prized possessions for ... read more

'Paradise' is such a fleeting concept, no? Five days ago, we arrived in San Pedro and considered never leaving. Tomorrow morning, we leave at sunrise. A lot can happen in five days, I'll try to recount the highlights and explain our change of heart. Let's start with the positives - we've had a great time in San Pedro, met a couple interesting folk, and enjoyed our beautiful apartment (including the hammock I am currently sitting on as I type, see photo). Sara really enjoyed her Spanish classes and learned a lot in just a week. Muchas gracias a la maestra se llama Cecilia en La Cooperativa (Much thanks to the teacher named Cecilia in La Cooperativa, the cooperatively run spanish language school that we highly recommend). We've enjoyed the view of the lake although have not ... read more