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We left Antigua at 8am on Friday to head for Lake Atitlan. the journey took about 3 hours over some pretty interesting roads and even over a small stream at one stage.
We arrived at Panajachel, the largest of the towns around the lake and after eventually finding our hostel (Sotz), dropped our stuff off and went exploring. We walked up and down the main road lookng for a place to eat lunch and to book a boat tour for the next day. We finally found a place with a deal for lunch and paid Q50 ($6) for soup, prawns, rice guacamole, tortillas and a delicious smoothie. Later in the afternoon we sat down at a cafe that had internet access (Mitch's computer didn't like the WiFi in the hostel). We paid for a couple of Latte's and surfed the web at leisure. As we left, I heard a shout from behind us. The lady that runs the cafe was standing at the door gesticulating. We returned and she told us that we hadn't paid for our drinks. Mitch and I distinctly remembered her giving us change for a Q100 note but she seemed to have forgotten. I repeated the same Spanish phrase over and over and she eventually gave up and accepted that we had paid. We wouldn't be going back there any time soon! Next we headed to the Sunset Cafe and watched a stunning sunset over Atitlan. It wasn't on the same level as the sunrise in Tikal but it was an amazing sight nonetheless, made even better by the Moza beer we had with it. We'd bumped into Gladys during the day, an American girl we met in Belize, who was staying in Atitlan with her cousin, Patricia, who was working in Panajachel. We met the two of them after dinner and headed out for some drinks. It was an interesting evening, with Mitch and I trying to dance Salsa and failing miserably, whilst being laughed at by locals in the club!
We got back late and had to be up early, so getting up the next morning wasn't fun. We had some pretty terrible, lukewarm coffee with our breakfast and headed to the Lakeshore to get some early morning photos. It was really beautiful - a view that you could never get bored of.
We got on our boat and headed to four different destinations around the lake. First we stopped at San Marcos. This is a big time hippy town. We strolled for 45 minutes or so but there wasn't much to do or see here. Next we headed to San Juan. This town was very interesting. It is full of art galleries selling the work of local artists. Mitch bought a pretty cool painting here. Next we headed to San Pedro. This is where we would be returning later. We pretty much just had lunch and went into a few souvenir stores here. The final stop was Santiago. This was probably my favourite stop for one reason - we went into an art gallery where we met the artist. He talked us through some of his pieces. I've never really been one for the art, but it was so interesting to hear his perspective and inspiration behind the pieces. Unfortunately his work was out of my price range, but if I had been on holiday amd not travelling with a huge backpack, I would definitely have bought some of his work.
We got back to Pana and picked up our stuff from Sotz and headed back to the lakeshore to catch a water taxi. After dropping our bags into the boat we were told that it would first take a couple on a private tour for 30 minutes before coming back for us. I wasn't about to leave my rucksack on a boat that was disappearing for 30 minutes, so we picked up our bags and after meeting a really nice Guatemalan couple hopped onto another boat to San Pedro.
As we arrived in San Pedro, I saw Mike (one of the Americans from Semuc) sitting on the pier. Small world. We had a chat as we were guided to our hostel, where we bumped into Natalia and Camilla who had booked a room for us in Pinocchio Hostel. After a quick shower we headed out for food at Jakuu. This place was unbelievable. I had chicken fajita, fries, rice, guac, salad and tortillas for about $6. The amount of food on my plate was ridiculous, and it was delicious too!
We went to a hostel which had a decent bar - it was an interesting place. The seating area consisted totally of matresses and there was a pool overlooking the lake. We enjoyed a few dirt cheap Cuba Libres there and looked out onto a stunning night sky - I hadn't seen that many stars for as long as I could remember. I stood in silence for about 20 minutes taking it all in. Amazing. Finally we headed to a bar called Buddha where we met a couple of other people we had bumped into in Antigua.
The next day was all about travel. It was a sad day as Mitch and I were parting ways. We had gotten along so well from the outset. Despite being complete strangers to begin with, after just two weeks I had made a close friend. It was certainly a strange feeling knowing that I would be going back to travelling alone from that point on.
Mitch was headed to Quetzaltenango (Xela) to do two weeks of Spanish school and a homestay, whilst I was on my way to Nicaragua. I headed back to Antigua to lay my head down for a few hours before starting my journey to Managua, Nicaragua.
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