La chica perdida encuentra La Iguana Perdida! (the lost girl finds The Lost Iguana!)

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I was really lucky to be able to spend just over 5 weeks at the beautiful Lake Atitlan volunteering at a hostel, called La Iguana Perdida, in the lovely village of Santa Cruz.

My journey to here from Flores, in Guatemala, was one the most eventful ones that I have ever had. I got an 8 hour night bus leaving at 10pm. I was the only backpacker on my bus which was fine, just got a few stares. I then arrived into Guatemala City alone in the dark at 6am, where there only seemed to be chicos about. They say to avoid the city and I get why. For the first time travelling I felt a bit panicky. I had another bus ticket to the lake, and even though I was asking in Spanish for help or directions to my bus they were all only trying to get me onto their bus. So after no avail I got into the safest seeming minivan with two dudes and some locals. . So we set off in what I hoped was the right direction. I was in this van for about 1 and a half hours flying round the mountians and countryside. Was bit delerius by this point, thinking to myself, 'I have no bloody idea where I'm going, this is brillaint.' Eventually the van stopped and I got told this was my stop, literally a village in the mountains. So I got off here and changed over to a chicken bus (old converted american School bus) and was off again, We stopped in a town about 20 minutes later and I hear 'senorita aqui' and see a dude running with my backpack to another chicken bus. Change of bus again. I was surprisnlgy quite chilled about it all and had faith I would make it there eventually. The views so far were amazing and the culture so different as every woman I saw wore traditional Guatemalan clothing of woven skrits and dresses. I had yet still to see another backpacker. I also had no phone at this point as it had broken.

Finally about 10am I made it to Panajachel (Pana) and the beautiful Lake Atitlan, and it was worth it all. As soon as I saw the lake and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes I instantly loved it. The village I was going to work at is only accessible by boat so I had to get a water taxi to Santa Cruz which was only about 20 minutes. The water taxis are insane. There are loads of villages around the lake and using the boats is the main option. I couldn't go in them when it was windy, one capsized one day! I was going to volunteer at a hostel here which I found through the website Workaway where you tend to volunteer and get food and accommodation provided. I went to volunteer at a brilliant place called La Iguana Perdida (the Lost Iguana)and I am so happy that I chose this place to work at and that they offered me a position. There are usually 5 volunteers at a time, and also it has the only diving school on the lake with two diving instructors, so quite a few of us which was fun and everyone was so lovely. The work was 6 days a week, 5 hours a day and just general hospitality work with check ins and outs, serving food and working behind bar. It didnt even feel like work most of the time. Such a chilled out place and all the guests were in the chill zone too. This is mainly due to the owners being so fantastic. They are a couple, Dave who is American and Deedle who is English, and they have 2 boys who have grown up here all thier lives so are fluent in Spanish and English. Such great kids, sometimes you would find one of them behind the bar with us helping out at the weekend. In exhange for the work we got free accommodation, 3 meals a day which was all freshly made, free yoga, free kayaks, 10% off diving and 50% off drinks. So bloody good. It just means that you hardly spend any money. Such a great way to travel. Accommodation, for the first week I was in a 7 bed dorm which was cool as got to bond with guests more. There was also a cat, called Chicago as she has little white boot feet, who seemed to always be sleeping on my bed; or perhaps I was in her bed. She would nap there all day, wouldnt be there when I went to be but would be there in the morning curled up on top of me. One night she jumped from a top bunk onto me and safe to say I s**t myself! Another night my friend Jack didnt realise I was in the bed and threw her on top of me. Was so funny. After the dorm I moved into one of the staff rooms and shared with a girl called Ibby. Ibby was from London and only 18 years old! You wouldn't have known it though as she would probably the most sensible of us all. Such a hoot though and one of the nicest girls Iv ever met. Above us was our manager Sarah, and next door were three others. Walls were so thin could practically hear everyone breathing. Good for late night chats or if you wanted something.

The weeks here seemed to fly by, and theres so much to say about it all. The food was so good, best I had eaten for months! The local Mayan ladies from the village freshly made the bread, and cooked all the meals, they even handwashed all the towels and sheets from the rooms. Amazing women. Each night we had a set meal and the guests all sat together, and as there was no wifi it meant that everyone socialised with each other. There was always a soup with home made croutouns, then main dishes such as pad thai, moussaka, cowboy hotpot (which cracked us up as a name for a dish), curry (with freshly made garlic naan), shepherds pie,...; then every Friday was taco night, Saturday night was a bbq with bbq chicken, beetroot burgers for the veggies and about 7 different salads. Safe to say food was definitely one of the highlights of my stay here! Espeically as it was free!!!

There were also themed nights such as open mike on a Wednesday where the owner Dave would play, sing (some songs his own) and make us howl with his jokes. The manager Flo was a lovely singer aswell. Then anyone else who wanted to sing or tell a joke got a free tequilla shot. Fridays were trivia night where one of us guys would create the quiz. I had my time on my 4th week and since I was the only Scottish person in the village I created my quiz on Scottishness. Although the day before the quiz, the second Scottish person that I had met on my time away since September checked in for the weekend. Couldnt believe it! Had to throw in a few tricky ones. I did 10 questions on general knowledge about things such as whisy, haggis and irn bru; 10 questions on Scottish slang naming the round 'wits that wee lassie saying?'; 10 pictures of Scottish celebrities (surprinsgly a lot out there) and then an audio round with movie clips of Scottish characters or actors such as Shrek, Fat Bastard, James Bond..... I had a couple of vinos aswell whilst doing it, so it meant that the slang round was very difficult for most! The winners got a free shot of tequilla for everyone in the team. Then Saturday nights were the main fiesta. We had the bbq and a huge closet with dress up clothes so if people came in fancy dress they got a free tequilla shot. Would be a shame if you didnt like tequila and were staying here. I came up with a theory most nights that if I only drank tequilla I wouldnt get a hangover the next day, which worked for the most part but it meant I had about 12 shots a night and was steaming! Most people always were upfor dressing up which was fun. My costumes were; a scottish farmer, a geisha, a purple crayola crayon, a flamenco dancer and a smurf. The nights were fun and also when you were steaming you didnt have to walk far to bed. There were no pubs or clubs in Santa Cruz, which was probably a blessing!

Santa Cruz is such a lovely place on the lake, so peacful, there isn't even an ATM. As we had no wifi at hostel, for our fix we would walk along to a cafe called Isla Verde which was very tranquil with hammocks and beanbags on a sun terrace over looking the lake. The walk to here was a bit sketchy as it was across board walks which did not feel secure. Or it was nice to walk up the hill into the village, which always ensured me of how unfit I am. There was literally a church, some houses, a fried chicken stall and the CECAP community centre. CECAP had a cafe/restaurant and employed local people from the village and helped them with apprenticeships etc. On the first friday of the month they have a pizza night which I went to for March and was really good - pesto, goats cheese or mozarella flavors! Then eating or having a coffee here you overlook the whole lake from big glass windows!

Panajachel is probably the best part of the lake to go to buy souvenirs and local things. There is a great cafe called Cafe Loco where you can get vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso, or I had a coffee called The Dark Knight which came in a big jug and had dark chocolate in it! Both things only cost £1.50! Going to get a shock when I go back to the UK to buy coffee. Near Pana there are natural hot springs by the side of the lake which you can go to for free. We had a boat party one afternoon there for one of the girls birthdays and we sailed over to the hot springs. They were very intereting. Basically big mud baths. This day we also sailed over to Santiago which was mainly all locals with markets and local shops.

The village of San Juan was one of my favourites. You can go here to see how the weaving is done or do a weaving class yourself. A few of us went and I made a scarf. It was backstrap weaving which is so difficult and these ladies make so much by doing this, truelly amazing. We only made about 20% of the scarfs and they did the rest. I kept getting all tangled, Home Economics at school wasnt one of my best classes. Love my scarf though! Then here there is a cheese and wine restaurant which is infamous and you need to book at least a week in advance so never went here. However we did go to a place to eat called Alma De Colores which is a social inclusion work project for youth with disabilites. Really lovely place. We had a delish menu del dia ( menu of the day ) for £3! Definitely worth a visit.

Then from San Juan you can tuk tuk it over to San Pedro. I made a few visits over to here. The first time, myself and Ibby spent a night in San Pedro staying in a hostel which had a hot tub overlooking the lake. We had a night with the yoga teacher from the hostel, a Brazilian chico called Alejandro, to the one of the main bar/clubs called Sublime. Fun place with ping pong table, pool tables and a bit to sit at which is like a beach. At night it gets pretty wild with a few characters. The night we went there were 2 guys from Berlin dj'ing which was brilliant. Danced away until closing. I'm glad though that I wasnt staying in San Pedro as it is very touristy and I would be out having a wild time every night which wasnt my main reason for being here. You could be anywhere when here, didn't feel like Guatemala. Although it was fun to pop over to now and then. One afternoon me, my friend Jack (another volunteer) and a girl who was staying at our hostel all went over to San Pedro for couple of hours to wander around the shops and came back on the last boat at 5pm to Santa Cruz pissed as farts!! So hilarious, I hardly recal serving dinner when we were back. Fun night, and shows how dangerous San Pedro can be even for an afternoon jaunt.

Although every weekend at the hostel we would get steaming. Too easy, especially when your working on the bar you have a few and it was about 50p a drink for us. My tab when I left had about 45 tequillas, 40 red wines and smoothies! Liquid diet. There were some really hilarious nights, mainly involving myself doing something. Most of the time it would just be us staff partying. We had spotify so could create playlists or play our own music. We loved having our own little dance parties. One night that was the best dance party was when myself, my friend Jack and three other guests went back to their room after the bar shut and danced to funky donna summer, tina turner tunes from one of the guys phones. Song of the evening, and the rest of my time here was Chaka Kan 'Aint nobody'. We had it on repeat dancing round this tiny cabin in a circle for about 2 hours! Whenever it came on again, usually Jack playing it from spotify in the bar, we couldnt help but boogy!

When not working, eating or partying there were many walks (or hikes as the Americans would call them) to go on. A nice one that I liked was the 40 minute walk to the village next to us called Jaibilito. Would do this quite often. One time the hostel dog Balto, who is like a big bear and the laziest dog I have ever come across, came with us on the 'hike'. My heart was in my mouth the whole time that he would fall off the mountain but he did better at it than me. Jaibilito had even less happening than Santa Cruz, however there is a hotel called Ven Aca which has an inifinity pool, and also a restuarant owned by a German guy called Hans which is so cheap that we wonder how he makes any money!

If you continued on with this walk it goes onto the next village. This part of the walk was bit dodgy as few people for approached for their money. On one occassion a guy and girl from our hostel got approached by guys with machettes and they pulled the girl to the ground. On each occassion I heard about they didnt get anything because the people would scream and if you scream they run off. This was my advise to anyone in the hostel asking about hikes and my advise was met with faces of sheer panic! Needed to warn them though. And then continuing on this walk gets you to the village of San Marcos. So from Santa Cruz to here is a 3 hour walk, and I decided to do it on a day after a wild night before. Thought I was going to pass out, almost crawling at parts of it but I made it. Defeated the hangover! San Marcos is an interesting one. There are nice cafes and shops however it is becoming over run by tourist hippies. The mayor even shut off the water to the hostels and places here but no one seems to mind. My friend one day commented to a guy living here how beautfiul his puupy was and the guy responded saying,' Im raising him on a strictly vegan diet.' No words, honestly dont get some people!

Another popular thing to do when at Lake Atitlan is it to visit the markets at Chichicastenango (chi chi for short). The best days to go are a Sunday and Thursday. The roads to here are definielty the best part. We went for the cheap chicken bus option, and on the way back we didnt have seats so we had to hold onto what we could without falling over everyone. It was honestly like being on a rollercoaster! The driver kept looking at us in his mirror, catching our eye and smiling. 'Eyes on the road please pal!' The markets are manic but worth a visit. Can buy pretty much anything here. I love all the backpacks that are woven! Food section is a bit scary though with all sorts of animal parts for sale. I don't like shopping, especially when so crowded like here so we were quite happy just wandering around it for an hour then headed back to the lake.

There are so many more stories and things to tell from my time here. The best part was definitely the people that I met. We just had so much fun at work, every day was such a laugh. There were some guests that I made great friends with also and had bumped into some since leaving there, or they have met other people that I now when travelling elsewhere. It was such a lovely chilled time doing yoga by the lake most mornings, working back in hospitality was fun and all hanging out together at night with no wifi and distractions. The owners Deedle and Dave have made it such a homely place, and them being so chilled and lovely creates a smilar atmosphere in the place. The 20th anniversary of the hostel was during my time here and we had a huge party with about 200 people, mostly all their friends and family. There was a band playing, and I was steaming (surprise surprise) and decided to sit on one of the guys knees who was about 70 years old and playing harmonica. Wasn't until breakfast the next morning I realised he had a walking frame, felt so bad but he and everyone else loved it! Felt lovely to be part of this celebration. My travelling bestie Nikki, whom I had spent 5 months living with in Mexico and we set off travelling Central togteher came to visit on this weekend too and got along so well with everyone which I knew she would. She was only going to stay two nights, and it ended up being over a week. This happened with most people. One guy stayed for 8 weeks!!! We all said we should have our own reunions here for the 30th, 40th .....aniversary parties.

I will definitely try to go back there one day. Such a happy time.

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