Last week we were talking with some friends at school during the midmorning break and they mentioned the were planning on going to Lago Atitlan the coming weekend... so Leslie and I invited ourselves along:D Apparently the girl we were talking to, Erica who is also at our same homestay had done a similar thing and invited her and Sarah her roommate along when Jon had talked about it earlier to her. So we all ended up inviting ourselves along on Jon's weekend plans! We talked a little about what we all had in mind. We ended up leaving it pretty open and just planned to meet up Saturday morning and head off to Panajachel or 'Pana', as the locals refer to it, we planned to find a place to stay when we got there.
We met up Saturday morning wandered into town and caught our bus. We just took the 'chicken busses' which are cheap and always interesting to ride on. We got on the bus and there in the front seat were Dave and Michelle! Dave is also studying at Juan Sisay and they're a really cool couple. They highly recommended La Casa del Mundo on Lago Atitlan as a place to stay. Several other poeple had recommended La Casa del Mundo as well and after arriving in Pana we decided to follow the recommendations and check it out. La Casa del Mundo is a resort that we knew would be a little more expensive than any of the five of us usually stay, but we figured we'd try to cram into one room or something, it was only going to be for one night. We took the public water taxi through rolling waves for about 45 min from Pana. As we got close we were all admiring this beautiful villa or resort on the hillside and commenting on what a beautiful place it was when the boat pulled up to the dock and we were told this was La Casa del Mundo... this was OUR stop?! We wandered up the meandering stairways past hammocks hung in the shade and tiers of patios nestled into the foliage with chairs and tables. It was a beautiful place! We got up to the office, 100' above the lake with a gorgeous view across at two volcanos rising out of Lago Atitlan, and a young man asked us what name our reservation was under...
"uhhh... we don't have a reservation..."
The young man got a slightly pained expression on his face and told us they were completely booked! (that's what we get for showing up in the middle of a weekend) My next thought was, "the boat just left us here... I wonder when the next one comes?" Then the guy asked us to wait just a moment. We walked down one level to a covered porch with hammocks and deck chairs and in a few minutes he came down to let us know they had two rooms in an annex at the little village just 5 or 10 min walk away. We could stay there for 75Q/person (less than $10) and still have use of the rest of the resort, all the patios, decks, hammocks and the like. Were we interested? Sure, sounded good to us! He was very apologetic that we would have to wait for maybe a half hour while they prepared the rooms... no worries, sitting here in this hammock overlooking this lake, while sounding difficult was something I thought I could manage for the next 30min! We ordered some snacks, nachos and tostadas and relaxed. Later the guy came down to explain about dinner if we wanted to have it there. It would be 85Q (just over $10) for a four course dinner, unfortunately, and again he seemed pained to tell us this, unfortunately they serve dinner "family style" and push all the tables together, but they only have seating capacity for 36 in the dining room and we were numbers 37-41. If we wanted to eat dinner there we would have to sit down on the patio below (where we were currently lounging) where they would set up a table and candles for light and would serve us there if we wanted. We thought, "well, if we must have our own private candlelight dinner over looking the lake I guess we'll have to make do."
We got our room and spent the rest of the afternoon, relaxing. Laying in hammocks, reading, writing, talking, exploring the place... whatever we felt like. Dinner was scrumptous; soup, salad, even a tasty veggie option for the entré, and then finished off with dessert!
Sunday morning we got up late, meandered and lounged our way to breakfast. Had wonderful fresh fruit on pancakes with yogurt and an omlette and potatoes. We found out that the lake taxis come by about every 20-30 min so we packed up and hung out by the water. It was a beautiful day, calm and warm. Sarah and I swam, the others hung out in the hammocks or deck chairs on shore! What a great way to pass a day!
We spent a couple hours in Pana checking out the markets before we caught the bus back to Xela. Now it took us three busses to get to Pana (two and a half really) but on the return we ended up taking 5 different busses! Our second, or maybe it was third bus Leslie and I ended up near the back of the bus and as it filled up we realized we were surrounded by VERY drunk men! One managed to nearly get kicked off the bus for arguing with the guy taking fares! Just before we got off that bus, Leslie told me to watch my feet. I looked down and saw there was liquid running forward under my feet! I didn't check close, but it didn't smell like urine and I'm gonna stick with the belief that the guys behind hand just spilled whatever was remaining of their liquor. The next bus, we're waiting on the side of the road when the bus pulls up. A kid jumps out yelling "Xela, Xela, Xela!" and hurries us towards the bus. The five of us scramble up the steps and are met with 100 Guatemalan faces staring at us... the bus is PACKED! I couldn't even tell where the aisle was.
--a sidenote: the 'chicken busses' in Guatemala are all retired American school busses, usually painted some bright and colorful designs and decked out with chrome if possible. These busses have roughly 30 seats, 15 on each side, but the busses won't leave until there's 3 people seated on each seat! So that makes 90 passengers sitting (not counting children on laps) and then they pack people into the aisle standing!--
We slowly worked our way back to "seats". I was sitting in the aisle on the edges of the seats on both sides. I then noticed that on this bus they had replaced the seats on one side with wider seats and the aisle literally ranged from 8-12" between the seats! Poor Erica, who is taller than Leslie, ended up in the very front seat eventually and any time someone got on or off the bus she had to get up to let then through. So you can imagine the surprise to some little Guatemalan who jumps on the bus and is greeted by a nearly 6' gringa standing up to let them pass!
We made it back for supper and were regaled with stories from Terry's weekend adventures! What a great weekend! Back to classes tomorrow...
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