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This weekend a bunch of us went away to Lake Atitlan for the weekend. It is about 2half hours from Antigua. It is similar to Lake Taupo in that it is a crater filled with water. It is surrounded by volcano's and it is absolutely beautiful!
On Friday afternoon 4 of us left and headed to Panajechel which is the main town on the lake. We arrived about 7ish and found a hotel of sorts and headed out for dinner and drinks. Dinner was rather entertaining. A highly descriptive menu....wish I had got a photo, and when I ordered my papa fritas (basically french fries) the waiter and half the restaurant started cheering or getting excited for some reason! All the way through dinner we had the locals trying to sell us all sorts of arts and crafts. They are very persistent to say the least, but very friendly! Although it does make me a little sad to see small kids out selling their stuff late at night...shouldn't they be in bed! After dinner we went to Pana Rock ...I think it was their version of hard Rock Cafe where there was a live band. We got to dance with some of the locals who of course love any forgein women!
We did not have a late night but at about 3am in the morning we were woken by what sounded like a canon going off. This went on ALL morning until we woke up. Honestly it sounded like it was outside our window. Apparently there is some celebration going on in another town for the next week...although we never did quite find out what the canon sound actually was. I can hardly believe it was a town away and each time it went off you nearly jumped out of your skin.
Anyway, on Saturday we caught a boat to one of the other towns on the lake ...San Pedro. Much smaller than Panajechel. It appear to have quite a few hippies and foreigners who have been there way too long and smoked way too many drugs! After finding a cheap hotel...very cheap! We decided to look for a spot to swim! Following the locals directions to the so called "beach"we walked through pig sty's, cornfields...you name it...but could only find what resembled a swamp (see photos) but apparently this was the beach! Anyway after heading back to town, we found another path to a pier where we were able to swim amoungst the kids and locals having their weekly bath! Te water was beautiful.
Had a yummy lunch overlooking the lake and waited for the rest of the bunch to arrive. 4 of us had come on Friday and we met an Hungarian guy Peter who joined us. 3 others from our school arrived on Saturday afternoon along with an American girl they had met along the way.
We spent the evening at a restaurant / bar overlooking the lake drinking cocktails! The happy hour (2 for 1) lasted about 6 hours so we we very happy. I am not sure how happy the barman was having to make about 20 mojitos every half hour!
Sunday was relaxing with a walk through the market and breakfast. The market was small but great - all the mayan women selling and buying their veges...all in their traditional gear etc. After breakfast we headed back to Panajechel and wandered through the markets for a couple of hours, had lunch and headed home at about 4.
All in all a great weekend! Would love to have spent more time at the lake exploring some of the other villages, but back to school it is. I have a few more days of school left and then on Monday I head to Tikal and then Rio Dulce where I will spend a couple of week working in an orphanage.
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