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Published: June 20th 2011
Suzanne here...
The promised Pullman coach to Panajachel turned out to be the usual decrepit, over-crowded chicken bus, but that's nothing we're not used to by now. The journey took about three hours so we arrived at 10am, early enough to stop for breakfast before finding our hotel. The hotel we chose was Larry's Place. Decent sized room and a terrace to sit on. A bit pricy we thought at Q150, but the guy looked at us blankly when we tried to haggle. Ok, not the done thing for rooms in Guatemala then...
To be honest, Pana was a bit too full-on and touristy for us. Every few steps we were accosted by someone trying to sell us scarfs, bracelets, purses, drugs.... it got very tiresome. We tried to look around the market but the hard selling just put me off. I'm thinking of getting a t-shirt printed saying 'just leave me to browse and I may well buy something'. We hastily retreated to the quiet of our terrace. That night we avoided the main street, knowing full well that eating in peace without being constantly bothered by hawkers was just not going to happen. Yes, Iknow they are
only trying to earn a living, but it's still not conducive to an enjoyable meal. We ended up an a typical family-run back street comedor, cheap and tasty.
The reason for coming to Pana was Lake Atitlan, often called the world's most beautiful lake. The two volcanoes that tower above it are certainly very impressive. We took a boat tour that visited three lakeside villages. The first, San Pedro, was delightful. Much more relaxed than Pana and would make a great base. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The second, Santiago, was worth a visit. Not quite as pretty and a bit 'touty' but a nice enough town. The third, San Antonio, was a bit random. There was nothing there. I mean nothing. We couldn't even fill an hour. A drunk man with his face entirely covered in a hessian sack staggered up to David and insisted he buy some drugs. David politely declined and we beat a retreat to the lakeside to wait for our boat. David thought looked like one of the characters from Resident Evil 4, I thought he looked like Scarecrow from Batman Begins. Either way, very creepy. Still, all in all a good day, the highlight being
...and the Beast
Who allowed the sky rises to be built?just tootling around on the lake.
That night we tried to eat at one of the lakeside restaurants, but the restaurant touts just got too much. One guy shoved his menu in our face, which we were not keen on but still we were considering his place. Then we walked behind his restaurant a couple of minutes later whilst chatting about it and he literally ran at us full-pelt waving the menu and shouting. We ducked around the corner and gave up, going to another cheap and cheerful backstreet comedor.
There was supposed to be a direct bus to Chichicastenango at 9am the next morning but when we arrived at the main road someone told us it wasn't until 11am. Not wanting to wait we got a chicken bus to the next town where they were supposed to be more regular. Still no buses due so we got one to another town where we finally caught one bound for Chi-chi. We got there and wandered around looking for a hotel getting more and more depressed. I'm not saying it's a bad place, but it really wasn't what we were looking for. We wanted peace and beauty, not another
dusty town. In a remarkably decisive move for us we decided to cut our losses and we jumped on a bus back the way we had come bound for Guatemala City.
As always, it was a hot and crowded journey, but at least it was behind us and we were well placed for our planned journey to Coban. However as it was getting late we decided to stay in Guatemala City for the night. It's huge, and supposedly not particularly safe, so we took a taxi to our chosen hotel right next to the Coban bound bus station. Once checked in we had a look around and randomly visited the railway museum.... it was cheap and near our hotel, ok?
Due to the city's reputation we decided to stay out to eat so we could return to our hotel in daylight. A fine plan. Until we walked past not one but two heavy metal bars on the way back to our hotel. We resisted and went back anyway. We didn't want to be out after dark and anyway we'd planned a week off the booze. Back at our hotel we cracked within half an hour. We've sought metal
bars all over the world, and not had as much success as we'd have liked on this trip. Plus when else were we going to be here? The guy on reception assured us that the surrounding streets were safe enough. It was the right decision. the first bar (sadly we don't know the name) was really heavy, which we enjoyed. The second bar (Ruta 666 - great name) had stuff like Iron Maiden that we could sing along to. A great way to bond with the locals. For the first time in ages we didn't feel like tourists. We sang along and shook hands with our new friends and generally had a marvelous time.
In the morning we strolled next door and hopped on a Coban bus. The coach wasn't for another 45 minutes so we took the economico which was smaller but cheaper. We never intended to stay in Guatemala City but I'm very glad we did.
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De Leon
non-member comment
I FEEL SORRY FOR YOUALL
I¨'m sorry you didn´t enjoy Pana, is the town where I grew up, but I guess it was due to the lack of knowledge of the town itsel, there are a lot of streets on the sides of the town, that are not crowded, and have nice views of gardens, beautiful houses, and nice sights of hotels and the lake in itself.