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Published: March 8th 2007
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On December 13, Megan came to visit. I left Xela for Antigua to pass the night there before heading to Guatemala City to get her at the airport. Not much exciting happened in Antigua, I actually went to sleep very early because I had gotten up at 4 am the day I left Xela.
I got a ride to Antigua with the school. A man from Oregon has been fundraising for the past few years to get money for the La Pedrera Project (to visit our site, which has a history and information on the project, go here: http://www.casaxelaju.com/pedrera/) through Casa Xelajú (for those who don´t know, this is where I work). He donated 15 computers and about 7 laptops for the kids. Now that the school has wireless, the signal will give them internet on the outskirts of Xela. But I regress...
So I went with the school to pick up the computers and take pictures and they left me in Antigua. The following day I went to Guatemala City airport to meet up with Kriss´s aunt who was going to drive Megan and I to the bus station. Megan was supposed to arrive at 2 pm but
didn´t end up coming until about 4 pm. I am really glad that her aunt met up with me cause I would have been extremely bored waiting for over 3 hours (I got there early). So while waiting we went and got lunch.
Megan finally got to the airport and our plan was to take a bus to Los Encuentros (just bare with me, I´ll explain - also remember for the following blog) and from there to Panajachel for the night. Los Encuentros is about mid-way between Guatemala City and Xela and the last point before going down the mountains to the towns on Lake Atitlan. However, there was tons of traffic leaving Guate and we didn´t pass Los Encuentros until about 9 at night, and it isn´t the safest place to be after dark. We decided just to continue on the bus til Xela and leave the following morning. So returning to Xela at 11 pm, no food in the house (which was left a disaster) we finally make it to my place. When I get in there are candles lit, the floor is clean, things are arranged neatly, ALL the dishes are done and there is plenty
of food in the fridge! Apparently Kriss came in and played fairy for the past few days that I was gone. It was great, I have never seen my apartament that clean (didn´t stay clean too long though). We ate some sandwiches and then went to sleep.
Getting up the next morning bright and early to go to San Pedro La Laguna for the night. We took our buses and slowly climbed down the mountains by way of the back of pick-up trucks, best way to see it!! When we got to San Juan La Laguna, we decided just to walk from there to San Pedro, which is a nice calm and beautiful walk.
We didn´t do much that night and actually went to bed ridiculously early, but we got to go to San Marcos La Laguna the following morning for some swimming and rock jumping before heading back to Xela for the evening.
We returned because I decided to work on Saturday and Sunday. (Two pluses: I could take her to different places that she wanted to go to, the school paying me for it & also I could use my free weekend for New Year´s).
We went to Aguas Amargas (local hot springs) on Saturday and on Sunday we went to the Chichicastenango market. Saturday night Kriss came over and we cooked some dinner and hung out.
Taking it easy Sunday night, we got up early on Monday morning and went for a day trip to Champerico which is a black sand beach. It was nice, but Guatemala is definitely not known for its beaches. We made it back to Xela that night so we could stay in my apartment for the night and Megan packed her stuff up. The next morning we took a chicken bus to Kilometer 148 and from there we took pick-ups down until we got to San Juan La Laguna. From there we took a quick boat to San Pedro La Laguna and yet another to San Marcos La Laguna.
That night we had an adventure. We realized that we didn´t have much money (I left my debit card in my apartment) and seeing that San Marcos doesn´t have an ATM we needed cash. Well at about 5 pm we decide we´ll just take a boat to San Pedro and go to the ATM there. Good thought, bad
idea. Half way to San Pedro I ask when the last boat back to San Marcos is, "You´re on it," he said. Well ok, we´ll just get a pick-up after we take out money from the ATM. The ¡pinche! ATM doesn´t have money!!! so we have to take a pick-up back with no money. An expensive trip to San Pedro to say the least. It was getting close to dusk and we thought, we could easily get robbed on the way back, at least we didn´t have any money! However, the ride back was absolutely beautiful and we got to see the perimeters of the lake in a pick-up (just to ourselves I might add) while the sun was setting around the lake. It was worth it!
The following day we chilled on the rocky shores and swam before making our way to Panajachel. We decided to stay there for our last night on the lake so that we could (well first get money) and so that Meg could do some last minute shopping. It was a slightly uneventful evening, though Megan was kinda ticked at me cause I didn´t have any money (sorry). After lazily getting up, we
then took a bus to Antigua.
Antigua was beautiful but not great. We were tired, also knowing we had to get up early the next morning. We checked out the park which was pretty at night because it was loaded with X-mas lights and went for some high-class Italian crap. Bad service, moldy bread and ok italian grub at snobby prices. We got up at 4 am and waited for our late shuttle to arrive and take up to the airport in Guatemala City (a 45 minute ride). Then Megan left Guatemala forever.
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