San Pedro

We have are here in San Pedro on Lago Atitlan. We are really liking this town. As usual, the scenery is amazing. The town is big enough to keep us busy yet it is super cheap...probably the cheapest place that we have been so far and our room is the nicest that we have stayed in. We are doing another week of spanish classes which we started today. We really like our teacher and the classes. It is much more conversational and the classes are under a palapa (thatched roof shelter) in a beautiful garden. The whole lake was without power for most of the day today but it turns out it was a planned outage. Other than our lights and TV not working, you really couldnt tell the difference in town.

Guatemalan Transportation

Chicken buses...

A tuktuk

Written 2/7 - Antigua to San Pedro-Lake Atitlan

Here we are in San Pedro at the Gran Sueno Hotel.  Its raining so I will write a good long post.  We've been traveling with Kate from Toronto since El Retiro in Lanquin.  We had met her before that at Finca Ixobel and really enjoyed hanging out with her.  We took seperate pathes through Rio Dulce and arrived at El Retiro within 20 minutes of each other.  Yesterday from Lanquin to Antigua, we took a tourist shuttle that was organized through the hotel.  Its a long, tricky route and we had figured that the direct shuttle would be easier and more comfortable.  It turned out that they crammed us into a van with no leg room at all and we spent all day surrounded by other travelers.  It wasnt interesting or fun in the slightest.

Today, the 3 of us set out for San Pedro which is known as a "party" town on a beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes.  We had already had more than enough of the tourist shuttle and decided to just take local transportation.  I think there are more direct express buses normally to get between Antigua and Lake Atitlan but we knew that on sunday's we would have to change buses and we were up for an adventure.  Rob and I have ridden on all kinds of local transportation...large vans, minibuses all stopping every few minutes to pick someone up or let someone off.  We've had great experiences until now with everyone taking special care to make sure that we get where we want to go.  All of the buses down here have a driver and a conductor.  The conductor collects all the money during the ride, somehow keeping track of who has already paid and how far they are going.  He is the guy that loads our bags onto the roof and tells us when we get to our stop.  Its obvious we have no idea what we are doing and they are generally really helpful.  On the ride from El Estor to Lanquin, they even made sure that we had seats...sorry to digress.  Today we went to the bus station at Antigua and had our first experience with the totally pimped out Chicken buses...although we had already been on a bus with a rabbit in a box earlier and there were no chickens today.  These buses are great!  We knew that we would have to take a bus to Chimaltango and then change to a bus to Panahachel which is the big town on Lake Atitlan.  We got on our bus which was mostly empty.  We were so happy with the amount of leg room and interesting bus decor...patting ourselves on the back for not needing a shuttle (which we honestly will avoid for the rest of the trip).

Within minutes, the bus was completely packed...although still more comfortable than the shuttle yesterday.  These are old American school buses but the Guatemalans will fit 3 adults and as many additional children as possible in a seat.  No big deal, we had plenty of room.  The guidebook said that in Chimaltanango, we would be approached by guys who would help us to the next bus (which has happened for us frequently in the past).  No such luck today.  We were laughing the entire time as we wandered the town trying to find the bus to Panahachel.  One guy pointed kind of down the street and around the corner, when we got there a guy looked very worried when we asked about the bus and told us it was actually a 5 minute walk on the other side of town.  No big deal, we got a confirming second opinion and headed off through the bustling town..past all kinds of goodies for sale and got to a big street.  A guy told us (we think), that there would be a bus coming within half an hour but as we turned around, a guy across the street started yelling "Pana?  Pana?  Pana?"  and we responded "Si, Si Si".  He told us (we think) that there was an express bus in 2 hours but that it would be faster to take his bus and change one more time.  Great!  We happily got on his bus and realized that it was already packed!  We sat with one butt cheek on a seat holding on for dear life as the bus drive accelerated around tight mountain curvy roads and we slid into the guys next to us and tried desperately not to fall on the people across the aisle.  We found it completely entertaining and slowly people would get off and we finally claimed more comfortable seats.

Our next bus switch was much more smooth.  The conductor signalled to us that they were stopping for us, he climbed to the roof and got our packs and walked us to the bus that was waiting to take us to Panahachel.  This bus was pretty empty and we happily rode on, happy that this bus was clearly marked "Panahachel".  Eventually, we turned a corner and although it was cloudy and hazy, we could make out the lake.  From Panahachel, we took a boat ride across the very choppy lake to San Pedro.  We found a hotel that had been recommended in  the guidebook and are so thrilled with our rooms.  They are the nicest that we have stayed in so far for 100Q which is about $12.  We have a TV WITH a remote control.  Nice tile floor.  A big clean nice bathroom with a vanity and hot water.

We were starving and walked away from the main part of town...onto a dirt path and followed signs for a restaurant on the beach.  We found it and had a great lunch.  Kate is hilarious and really clicks with our sense of humor.  Actually she is a TV writer and writes for Degrassi (for those of you Canadians out there).  We finally headed back to the hotel with the intention of exploring the town but as soon as we got back, it started raining and it hasnt stopped.  We hung out on the roof for a couple of hours enjoying the view and its still raining.

Now we are watching the Super Bowl in Spanish, hoping that it will stop raining eventually so that we can go get some dinner and get our bearings.  I have a feeling that this a place where we could have found a number of bars showing the game but the rain has us staying in our room.  It turns out that when you watch the super bowl outside of the US, you dont get to see the good commercials...just the normal local commercials.  Kate mentioned that in Canada, they never get to see the commercials so I guess its not that strange...we had never even thought about it before.

We've paid our hotel up for a week and tomorrow we will check out spanish schools and sign up for another week of classes which we can hopefully start on Tuesday.  As we had hoped, this will be a good place to spend sometime and keep working on our Spanish.  The plan is to stay here until the 17th and then spend another night in Antigua when we will meet mom and dad and the house in Antigua on the 18th.

Antigua

We had a very long day on a shuttle from Lanquin to Antigua.  It was around 7 hours in a van full of other travelers.  There was very little leg room and we are happy to have only a 2.5 hour ride tomorrow.  We will stay here tonight and then head to Lago Atitlan until the 18th when we will meet mom and dad back here in Antigua.  This will be quick because I only have 13 more minutes of internet time.  Antigua is really beautiful.  I understand why people say it is not the real Guatemala.   There is no poverty at all, no kids selling you stuff, its clean and the architecture is completely different.  There are all kinds of restaurants...we ate crepes for dinner.

Please dont think that we are forgetting to do the spot locations on the GPS.  We try almost every day but sometimes it just doesnt take and because we have such limited internet access, we cant tell if it worked or not.  Im dissappointed that it didnt work in Lanquin and I didnt even try this evening from Antigua because it was so cloudy we couldnt even see the 3 volcanoes surrounding the city.

Semuc Champey

Here is the spot where the river splits and goes underground. We were told at least 3 times not to swim under there...it really didnt look very inviting..look at that white water.

Here is a very flattering picture of me so I posted it. Dont let the picture decieve you, the budget traveling life is fattening. Cheap food is generally fried and the places with good healthy food give you so much it basically nullifies the healthiness. We spend a lot of time sitting around on buses or just hanging out. Most of the time when we are walking around a town, the place is so small that we walk very very slowly to keep ourselves busy.

This internet here is really slow but free but also being shared by everyone here so I will be waiting to post all my pictures to Picassa until we get somewhere with better internet.

Life on the Rio Dulce

I think that these pics, reflect what we saw on the Rio Dulce. If you look closely, this was a family that was fishing for their dinner.

The river forms a lake that is connected to the Caribbean and is a safe harbor for boats during the hurricane season. Its not the hurricane season but there were TONS of sailboats all along the lake and in the marinas just outside of Rio Dulce town.

This is the castillo that we saw on the boat trip to Livingston. Apparently the british pirates caused big problems for the Spaniards so the Spaniards built this castle and ran a chain across the river to keep the British out.

Here were some little girls canoing along the river. This is their only mode of transportation so they may have been going to the store or something. Rob and I took out a canoe like this at our hotel on the water and it was not easy at all! The canoe is very shallow and very long and the little wooden paddles were not as helpful as we had hoped. Its pretty easy to go straight but turning was very difficult.

Livingston Dinner

Here is what was left of our dinner when I remembered to take some pictures. Below is the red snapper with the Flado.

Here is the tapado...or what was left of it...Rob totally devoured it.

This is the youngest son of the chef....he was so cute...a mile a minute. He practiced counting in spanish with us and generally goofed off and entertained us. They also had him trained to restart the CD when it would finish.

Lanquin

I'm checking in from Lanquin.  We had a very interesting day today.  We left El Estor and headed to Lanquin by what the guidebook called a "backdoor".  It was an amazing bus ride.  We began going through some small Mayan towns.  We were really off the beaten path and the road was not paved at all the entire trip.  It was a nice way to see how people really live here.  Then we spent the rest of the day on switchbacks through some of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen.  There were both pine trees and palm trees which is such a change from mountains in the states.  We finally arrived here in Lanquin about an hour ago and are staying at El Retiro a popular campy kind of place.  We already ran into a friend from Finca Ixobel in the first 10 minutes that we were here.  The place is on a hill with a river running right through it.  I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them tomorrow evening.

The real draw for this place is called Semuc Champay.  The river here runs underneath a natural limestone bridge  so you can walk around on what seems like solid stone but hear the river running below it.  I'll know more tomorrow...just wanted to check in because its been a few days.

Written 2/2 - El Estor

We thoroughly enjoyed Livingston.  We stayed at a nice hotel in a nice town.  Yesterday, after talking to Paolo and reserving our dinner for later that evening, we walked down to the beach for a dip.  Its certainly not the prettiest or cleanest beach but the water was Caribbean warm.  Later, we wandered towards Marie's for dinner with plans to stop for a coco-frio (thats just a cold coconut with a straw).  We ran into a couple that we'd seen at the beach who seemed up for an adventure and invited them to come with us.  When we arrived at Maries, there was another couple already there and we were all excited for some true Garifuna, off-the-beaten-path food.  The excitement was well worth it because dinner was amazing.  We ordered a portion of Tapado and another dish called Flado which was fried green banana fritters with a huge red snapper.  Both were amazing and as we finished eating, I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture so please enjoy these pictures of our already devoured dinner (sorry, internet is slow so I will post pictures later when I have more time).  It was a lovely evening with interesting conversation and amazing food.

We woke this morning and packed up to head to El Estor, a town on the southern end of the lake and part of the way to our next destination (Lanquin and Semuc Champay).  Our plan was to head to El Estor and stay for 2 nights, visiting these super-hot waterfalls that everyone has been raving about.  Well, we got here and realized that there is very little to do in El Estor.  We found an ok and very cheap hotel room and decided to go ahead and move on tomorrow.  This town is not really a tourist destination and now we know why...its just a town...probably more of the "real" Guatemala that we havent really seen in Flores and Livingston.  Its a nice peaceful place but we are ready to move on so we will skip the waterfalls.  Its a shame but I know that Semuc Champey is supposed to be spectacular.

There are some 14 or 15 year old boys outside playing futbol (soccer) in the street.  They are having such a good time.  One of them has this great laugh...a totally uninhibited laugh of a kid that is not at all self conscious and that is truly enjoying himself.  Its making me smile listening to them.

Oh yeah, the toilet in our room doesnt have a toilet seat.  Its a real workout.  We decided a few days ago that we actually prefer hotels with a shared bathroom because sometimes its just better not to have a 3rd world bathroom in your room...for some reason, since we agreed on that, all of our hotels only have bathrooms in the room.

Written 2/1 - Livingston

We are so happy to be back in the Caribbean for a few days.  After leaving our hotel on Lake Izabel near Rio Dulce, we took a boat ride down the Rio Dulce river to Livingston.  It was everything that we'd heard it would be.  A nice long ride on a boat.  The first leg was through  a very, very wide part of the lake.  We saw boats of all sizes, from wooden dugout canoes to huge motor yachts.  We stopped at a sulpherous hot spring for a little break.  After the hot spring, the river closes in with lush, green canyon walls...this part was truly beautiful.  Then, the canyons opened up and we could see the Caribbean and Livinston town.

We walked the town, checking out a few hotels...on our comfort/price scale, we were looking for a little more comfort than we've been having.  The caribbean always feels like a vacation and we want to really enjoy our time here with a comfortable, quiet room.

Livingston is a quiet town that is only accessible by boat.  It has the wonderful Garifuna culture and Guatemalan refugees from the civil war.  Rob and I love the friendly, laid back Garifuna - Caribbean vibe.  We love the reggae music, the way they talk, the outgoing friendliness.  Livingston is surrounded by water...not really a beach town but it has the feeling of the Caribbean.

I've been looking forward to eating some Garifuna food so last night we went for Tapado, which the guidebooks claims is the real Garifuna food.  Dinner was amazing.  Its been a long time since a meal has given me the kind of happiness that last night's had.  Before I get into the Tapado, I will mention that we also ordered some fish ceviche which was some of the best that either of us had ever had.  Then, they brought out a huge bowl of seafood stew.  Oh man, just thinking about it makes me happy...a whole fish, crab, shrimp, plantain, coconut milk and coriander.  It was amazing.  They served it with some coco bread.  The bread has such a subtle coconut flavor until we dipped it in the broth from the Tapado and BAM it took the flavors to another level.

After dinner, we were walking the street and found 4 new friends from our boat ride into Livington.  They invited us for a drink so we joined them.  The other thing that I've been wanting to try here was a Coco Loco and it was everything I'd dreamed of...they take a coconut, chop off a hole in the top...pour in some run and put in a straw.  It was beautiful and tasty.  We enjoyed each other's company until the restaurant closed (which really wasnt too late) and walked around a little more before heading to bed.

This morning, as we were eating our breakfast, Paulo, a local Garifuna guy, joined us and we shot the breeze for awhile.  I asked him, where in town I could find the best Tapado and he immediately educated me.  He pointed out how the main street of the town, all of the shops and restaurants are run by Latins.  He said that they serve "Garifuna" food but it is not real Garifuna.  As a matter of fact, what they call Tapado, is actually called Tapa-o (or something like that).  He took us for a walk around the Garifuna neighborhoods and took us to meet Marie who will be cooking us a real Tapao tonight.  He told us to also order something else...maybe Fatillo?  Which he described as a green banana, grated and then fried.  We will definately take his advice and our camera so that we can show this to you.  I'd love to get a recipe for Tapado when we get home, I've never eaten that combination of flavors and I just cant get enough of it.

For those of you who are meeting us in Honduras...the Garifuna people here, originally came from Roatan.  One night, we need to hunt down a real Garifuna Tapado...it is a little pricy with all the fresh seafood but it will blow your mind.  We will also be buying a bottle of rum and a pile of coconuts to make our own Coco Locos.  Please dont let me forget.