Lake Atitlan

hello everyone!!! im back! So where did I leave off....

Thursday: so we decided to hit up happy hour. 2 for 1 drinks at tacotendo right by us, and me abbey and natalie had alot of fun there! After we got back us girls and matt and clark decided to walk to a bar called cien puertas where we had some Gallo (the local beer) and met some cool people from minnesota and canada who were filming a documentary about Canadian oil companies exploiting the Guatemalan people. Then we went back towards the house and stopped at taco and tequila to check it out, the owner is friends with Juan Carlos who works here. So thursday night was alot of fun and it was nice to go out and relax some.

Friday: At work on friday there was a birthday party at the school I work at! The parents brought in Pinatas and tres leches cake (my favorite) and pizza and ice cream. It took the kids forever to break the pinata because they're only like 4 years old though so that was pretty funny to watch and one strange thing was that they sung "happy birthday" to the kind in english??? it was weird to hear that but I guess thats not uncommon there. After work we came back to the house and we had to pack like crazy because the drivers showed up early. so we all finally got loaded up and set off on the 3 hour drive to Lake Atitlan. The drive was really pretty but I couldnt take alot of pictures because they just werent turning out the way I wanted them to when I was driving. When we got to the town we had to stop and talk to and pay the guy (a travel agent) who set up the ride for us. He turned out to be a huge jerk and thought we were just stupid americans who he was going to rip off. BUT we kept our heads up and ended up getting a fair price that we had originally agreed on for the ride and we saved a lot of money by booking our hotel and tour by ourselves since he was trying to seriously overcharge us. So me abbey and natalie stayed in Panajachel (a town on the Lake) at the Hotel Primavera, which was really nice! We had a badass shower thank goodness, and nice beds, and it was right in the middle of the town. After we settled in we went to eat at Pana Rock which was a restaurant that basically looked exactly like a Hard Rock and it was pretty good! We met the owner (an American lady) and she had an adorable little pug puppy that was running all over the restaurant with a pink rhinestone collar and a little black hoodie. Then we decided to walk up to this rooftop bar we had seen that was blasting some party music. Well when we got up there, expecting a good time it turned out we were the only people in the bar and they were just playing their music ridiculously loud and giving themselves a light show...a little disappointing so we decided to keep moving. Finally we found La Palapa; this was a bar/restaurant attached to a hostel about a block away from us (by the way if you ask a local, everything is 2 blocks away, no matter how far it may actually be). This place was awesome. It was owned by a lady from Arizona and she thought we were pretty awesome too. We met people from all over the place here, hostels are seriously so cool. We met people from Arizona, Canada, Michigan, Florida, Holland, England and Australia, as well as some really cool locals. There was a house band there playing American dance music in Spanish so that was sooo much fun and we spent the rest of the night there having a great time. Me and Abbey are definitely going to be staying in a hostel on our next trip.

Saturday: We got up bright and early for our boat tour. Our hotel was on Calle Santander which was a road straight down to the lake that was just lined completely with shops and street vendors so on our way to the lake we did a bit of shopping and met a tour guide named Santiago who we ended up renting a private boat ride from to 4 different Mayan villages around the lake. The boat ride to the first town was beautiful and I took a bunch of pictures, you can see we were completely surrounded by mountains and 3 volcanoes and all the little towns (including Panajachel) were just on the side of mountains. We also saw a few really huge houses that were obviously built by retirees who came to Lake Atitlan to live. The first town we stopped in was San Marcos. San Marcos was probably the most touristy of all the ones we stopped in. It was definitely a hippie town full of old white people. There were signs for meditation, yoga, crystal readings and henna everywhere so that was pretty funny. We wandered around the town fro a bit and stumbled on to this hostel there that was so pretty, it had a huge back porch area with bean bags that was right on the water, I would really love to stay there if we get another chance. Then we took the boat to the next town, San Juan. As soon as we got off the boat we realized that the entire town is uphill, like straight uphill, so that was rough but we walked around. This town was very focused on art and there were galleries everywhere, we walked into a few and from what we saw there were some very talented people there. Abbey and Natalie got some ice cream there and I got a COKE, which is a big deal because pretty much all you can find here is Pepsi and Super Cola. This town was a bit sketchier than San Marcos and we ended up walking back to the boat a bit early to head to San Pedro. San Pedro was my favorite town. They had a market area which was fun and then we kept walking further and we found a lookout over the water where people were washing their clothes in the lake and there were a few spanish schools there because most of the people dont even speak Spanish, just a Mayan language. I bought some peanuts from a peanut farmer there and they're pretty awesome. After shopping a bit we went to eat a rooftop restaurant called Allegre that had an amazing view of the lake. It was a restaurant/bar owned by a guy from Scotland and it was really cool. They had pool tables there and they showed movies every night on a projector! The food took forever to get though so we had to get it to go so we could get back to the boat. San Pedro was a good mix of original Mayan culture and touristy areas. Then we headed to Santiago. Santiago was pretty sketchy. From the minute our boat pulled in we were getting rude stares from everyone. This town was definitely the least touristy of them all and they did not like gringas. There was a larger market there though so we ate and shopped a bit before we decided it was time to go. The boat ride back was rough. The water had gotten ridiculously choppy by the time we left and I'm pretty sure we're all pretty sore today from it. I could use a massage. Also me and abbey were dumb and didnt wear sunscreen so we're really burned. haha. Saturday night we went to dinner at a place called Solomon's Porch. It was a restaurant owned by a couple from Florida and husbands was in a band that was playing while we ate. They donate a large portion of their profits from the restaurant to building houses for locals in Panajachel and for scholarships for kids there. They were such nice people and the food was awesome, and so was the Sangria. Then we decided to go back to La Palapa cuz we had promised the owner the night before and it turned out the band of the owner of Solomon's Porch was playing there too! So we hung out there for a bit and headed back earlier than Friday.

Sunday: Today we again got up early to pack everything up and caught our ride back home. We first had him stop in Chichicastenango, which is the biggest marketplace in Guatemala. When we first got out of the car I only saw one street of shops and I was like, "oh this isnt that big", boy was I wrong. It was insanely huge and we only got through maybe a quarter of it. There were tons and tons of people there and it was a bit overwhelming cuz people were yelling at us to buy stuff from everywhere and were coming up to you or sending their kids up to you to get you to buy all kinds of random things. I did end up buying a couple things, and it was a lot of fun to haggle with those people, they really enjoy it actually, its a but strange. In the middle of the market there was a church where people were sitting on the steps selling flowers and burning incense, I guess because it was Sunday. After a while we all got back to the car and finished the drive home. Now we're just chillin back here waiting for dinner (i think it might be pizza!! yay!) and to meet the new people. An insight group of 8 people got here last night and they're only staying a week, but they went to Antigua for the day so we gotta wait for them to get back!

here's some pics but theres more on facebook!

san pedro

tuk tuk