Blogs from San Pedro La Laguna, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 13

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Buenas Dias Todos! I am writing to you from Lago Atitlan, one of the world´s most beautiful lakes. I have taken many photos, but the pictures do not do justice for the scenery. I completed my final week at PLQ on July 7th, and I have been traveling for the last 10 days with Alfonso. I have much to update you all on my travel blog- after the mountain school I took a week off and did a 6 day trek through the Cuchumatanes Mountains (north of Xela in the Ixil Triangle). The trek was one of the most physically demanding challenges that I have faced. We were walking through regions that literally had no roads, and only the trails that we were walking on were the passages through the local towns. When I was in ... read more


it is so nice to be back in san pedro. of all the places i've been so far, i still find san pedro the most beautiful. i arrived wednesday, found a hotel, had dinner and enrolled in spanish school. thursday i moved in with my family. the house is great...my room is large and has a nice, comfy bed with TWO pillows. there is a terrace with a great view of the lake...where i can either sit in a hammock and read or at a desk and study. i have my own clean bathroom with hot water. ahhhhhhhhh.... so nice. for the first time in over a month, i unpacked my backpack and am settling down for a while. again....ahhhhhhh...... so nice. tim: the weather is different here now....it hasn't rained, except for a few random ... read more


We spent two nights in Panajachel...it's hard to remember what i managed in the last post...sorry for any repeat info. In Panajachel from a small place on the lake we ate dinner and were able to watch the sun go down behind some volcanoes while locals bathed in the lake below. The walk back to the hotel, along the beach, included the slow lighting of the smaller cities across the lake. We were able to stop and watch fas they each came glittering to life for the evening. It was beautiful to say the least. Yesterday, sunday, we managed to jump on one chicken bus to Sololá, where we caught the second to Los Encuentros where we finally caught the third to Chichicastenango. In Chichi we found a maze of market filling the streets at every ... read more


After saying goodbye to Erin and missing the other students leaving for the city (apparently it was a national holiday on Friday and Monday), I was introduced to two new medical students from Espana who had just arrived. Suddenly I became the most knowledgable extranjero (foriegner) and it became my job to explain the ins and outs of the centro de salud (health centre), basic needs such as where to buy food and anti-diarrheals and Guatemalan culture in my poor Spanish.... read more
Vosotros
Comedor
Lago Atitlan


Went to visit lake Atitlan with the kids from the home (hogar) a couple of weeks ago. We all piled on a chicken bus with the kids literally swinging off the rafters!Stayed at the house of the ´mum´of the hogar and got up at 4.30am to see the sunrise over possibly one of the most amazing looking lakes in the world, surrounded by cone peaks of volcanoes.Great for swimming too, although had to fish out a couple of the kids who have no idea how to swim but none-the-less launched themselves off the jetty! ... read more
Dawn at the Lake
Local Acrobats
Las Chicas del Hogar


6/19/06 A few facts about Lago de Atitlan that I didn´t have time to mention: The lake is very calm in the morning, almost like glass and then in the afternoons is very rough. According to my guide book, the Mayans believe that their god (or one of their gods) is accepting a drowned soul into the lake, hence the roughness every afternoon. Very interesting! The lake is an old volcanic crater that is enormous! The views are spectacular. And it is still hard to wrap my mind around the poverty that surrounds such a beautiful natural phenomena. After walking around San Pedro La Laguna, we took a boat to Panajachel, bought bus tickets for the ride back (got a little queasy on both ways of the trip for about 20 minutes, urgh! but all went ... read more


I call it a black hole because San Pedro is the type of place that pulls you in and keeps you, for longer than you intended. I can feel the pull of S.P. getting stronger by the day. The hostel I am staying in here is quite nice. It´s the kind of place where you could sit around all day and just hang out with whoever happens to be there at the time and it never seems strange. There is a pleasant outside open area where everyone just chills out all the time. It really is quite nice to relax for a few days. I simply can´t get over how beautiful it is here on Lago de Atitlan. Everyday I walk on the road near the lake and everyday I am just floored by the beautiful ... read more
Lake View 1
Lake View 2
Lake View 3


hola from san pedro. so far this is my favorite place. san pedro is the second largest village settled along lago atitlan. very tranquil... the lake is amazing!!!!! blue...surrounded by volcanoes and mountains....villagers floating by in their small boats. i left antigua on tuesday via bus. it is a 2 hour bus ride from antigua to panajachel, lago atitlan. i arrived in panajachel on tuesday evening and spent the night there before taking a bus across the lake to san pedro on wednesday morning. i settled into a room with an amazing lakeview and a PRIVATE bathroom at hotel sak' cari. to get to the hotel you have to walk down narrow dirt "streets"...it is like a big maze...i've never seen anything like it. the days here are great...sunny, warm. the evenings bring thunder & lightning ... read more
me and a lil´doggie
boy in boat
view of the lake from my room


So I signed up for Spanish school today. At San Pedro Spanish School, which seems to be the one that everyone goes to here. It's funny, when I began this trip, I never thought that I would ever sign up for Spanish school, but now that I'm down here, I am pretty enthusiastic about it. The nice thing about independent travel, though, is that your plans can change at a whim, and your vacation can take a shape by the end that you never thought it would have at the beginning. Before this trip, the only experience I'd had with the Spanish language was a few years spent in high school where I learned little to nothing. I spent a few weeks before I came here studying Spanish independently, and I have been trying to exercise ... read more


It's been a little while since I've posted on the blog here. I've arrived in San Pedro La Laguna, where I'll most likely be staying for a a few days, and maybe even up to a week. I am considering taking some Spanish classes here for a week or so, in order to hopefully increase my knowledge of Spanish to the point that I will be able to communicate with the locals effectively. I also think think that knowledge of Spanish might be important in the US in the future with the increase of Hispanic immigrants. Another reason is that I've found the act of learning the language so far to be quite enjoyable and I'm coming to think that knowledge of other languages is an important skill. I'm somewhat conflicted about it though, because devoting ... read more
A fountain inside La Merced
La Recoleccion
La Recoleccion interior




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