Lake Atilan / San Pedro

Day 1 – Travel Day/Lake

Waking up early we packed our things once again and grabbed a quick cup of coffee.  We then waited outside the hostel for our bus or should I say mini-van which picked us up promptly at 8am.

We headed out of Antiqua through the bumpy cobbled streets picking up more people along the way until we were a very full van.  Out of town the ride became a bit more comfortable on normal roads and the journey took around 2 ½ before we were deposited on the shores of Lake Atilan.

 

Lake Atilan, the largest lake in Guatemala, was formed by volcano’s which surround the lake and is extremely picturesque.  Soon we were boarding a smallish passenger speedboat that was to take us across the lake to the village we  had booked our next hostel at, San Pedro.

The lake crossing took around 30 minutes and it was very pleasant as we passed through the lake marvelling at the lush vegetation and volcano’s surrounding us.  Soon we were arriving in San Pedro which is in the shadow of a large volcano of the same name, we weren’t in danger though as this particular volcano was extinct.

 

Once off the boat we were immediately jumped on by a tour operator who took us to his office and talked us about the various trips on offer there.  We liked the look of the lake tour visiting the various individual villages but thought we would check some other prices before booking with him.

We left the office and the tour operator showed us to a tuk-tuk who then drove us down some narrow alleyways until we reached our hostel.  Our hostel was slightly out of town but it had a prime location right on the lakes edge with fantastic views over it and of the volcano.

 

The hostel looked pretty good but we were early so unable to check in, so we left our bags at reception and headed to the rooftop restaurant.  We ordered some welcome to San Pedro beers and sat there and enjoyed the view, although it was bloody hot on the open terrace.

A short while later to kill some time we decided to have an early lunch and ordered ourselves a paella for two, which took some time to come as it was freshly prepared.  Whilst we sat there we got  talking to the 2^nd manager of the hotel who told us that he would soon be moving to London with his girlfriend who was a lawyer.  We also sounded him out about the price of the lake trip which he told us we had a fair price.

An hour later and our food arrived and it was a decent paella which we liked as it was something different for a change.  We washed it down with another beer whilst we waited for our room to be ready.

It still wasn’t check-in time so we headed downstairs to the sun terrace at the back of the hostel and took to some sun loungers.  Shell took the chance to have a read and a doze whilst I made use of the pool table there, I ended up having a few games of 9 ball with a Canadian guy  named Cody.  Although the table wasn’t bad the pool cues were little more than sticks with plastic bits on the end, my excuse for losing anyway!!

Finally we were able to check-in and although the room was nice enough it was at the back of the hotell so no lake view for us (that’s what happens when you go cheap!).  We also asked the receptionist to book the lake trip for us, after a bit of confusion about what trip we wanted to book the tour guide came round to the hotel and we booked the trip with him and he said he would pick us up at 9 the next morning. Once we unpacked we headed back to the sun terrace for a bit more R&R.

 

Whilst sitting there I noticed I had a message from Daryll reminding us that Boomtown tickets were on sale.  After deliberating for a bit Shell and I decided we wanted to go to this brilliant festival again so we took some time booking tickets and some accommodation (didn’t really need this expense, but what the hell).

 When the sun went down we walked through the narrow alleyways which had plenty of bars and restaurants along the way until we reached the town centre.  After looking around for a bit we found a bar where we went upstairs and found a balcony seat that overlooked the harbour and had a few beers there.

 The bar wasn’t exactly lively so we thought we would wander down the street a bit and we noticed a Rasta bar with lots of painting of Bob Marley in it, although it wasn’t busy it was playing some decent tune so we thought we would grab a beer here.

 The bar was pretty cool and we had a few beers and got chatting to the barmaid (really nice girl that Shell did a bit of personal coaching on) and a couple of the locals.  We were then offered a shot of their local hooch, which was in a Rasta coloured bottle and was a distilled drink made up of herbs, branches and a touch of cannabis.  We knocked these back and I can’t say we’ll be having another one any time soon, even though it was supposed to be good for your digestion.

 A few more beers were had and I was starting to wobble, not sure if it was the effect of the shot, but most probably too many beers.  So we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hostel for the night.

Day 2 – Lake Trip

We woke up early to get ready for our lake trip and made ourselves a coffee in the kitchen next to our room.  We then headed down to reception to meet our guide, suddenly I was wide awake as I rounded the corner and was confronted by some local women with their nellies out washing in the lake just over the balcony.  Averting my eyes (they were not oil paintings in any case!) we quickly headed to the reception.

The guide was waiting for us and we followed him down the road to a nearby jetty where our boat was waiting for us, apparently it was his brother who was the skipper and was going to take us on the tour.

 

 It was a bit tricky getting on the boat as it was quite low in the water compared to the jetty, but once on board we sat and waiting for the tour to start.  In fact the tour did not start for some 45 minutes later whilst the skipper and mate did some running repairs on the motor that wasn’t working.  We do seem to have very bad luck with our boat transportation, this is about the 5^th time a boat motor has failed on us.

 Finally we were on our way across the lake (although it was a bit concerning when the skipper kept on asking us which villages we were visiting!), once again savouring the views as we passed through a passage surrounded by three of the largest volcano on the lake.  Our destination was the village of Santiago, which apparently had a market today.

 

About ½ hour later and we were pulling into another rickety jetty where we got off and the skipper enquired how long we wanted to be here.  We told him we would be an hour and a half and we headed along the jetty and walked in the direction vaguely pointed out by him.

We walked up a hill where there were plenty of shops selling tourist tat and plenty of the vendors were trying to entice us in.  Continuing up the hill we found the market which was very colourful and vibrant, ladies all walking around in traditional dress.

 Walking around the market for a bit we then headed up into the main square which had a quite imposing church overlooking it, but not much else apart from kids playing football.

 

 After we had explored the streets we then headed back down the hill and found a cafe to have breakfast in.  Breakfast was a traditional Guatemalan affair of eggs, black fried/mashed beans, Plantain and Corn Tortilla’s, which is very filling and very tasty.

 We then returned to the quay where we waited for the skipper to return to the boat and then we set off for the next village of Santa Cruz.  It was another ½ boat ride where we saw one guy kite surfing on the lake and pretty soon we were arriving at another small quay and we told the skipper we would be here for an hour.

 For some reason the locals decided to build Santa Cruz halfway up a mountain so the walk up to it was very tiring, especially as it was also very hot.  When we did reach the village, it was not much to talk about (although we did not explore it that well), a small square with a church and no sign of a bar with a decent view over the lake!!

 

 As it was hot we decided to go back down the hill again and find a bar.  The restaurant/bar we found was attached to a hostel on the lakes edge and offered lake dives, something we may have been interested in if we were staying at Lake Atilan longer.  We had a beer each before heading back to the quay to board the boat to the next destination.

 

 The wind had picked up a bit and the lake was getting a bit wavy which resulted in a bumpy journey as we crashed across it on the speedboat.  Thankfully the village of San Marco was just around the corner and only a 15 minute ride.

 Jumping off at another small key we told the skipper that we would have a look around for about an hour. We had a wander through some lanes that were very hippyish, with lots of Yoga and spiritual retreats (Paula Hart would love it!) it was quite pretty but nothing of real note to see.

 

 Being as I’m not into omming or finding myself,  after a quick wander around, sticking our head in at the local church we made our way back to the lakes edge where we found another bar/restaurant to  get a cold drink.

 We enjoyed our drinks over a lovely view of the lakes and volcano’s for about ½ hour before returning to our boat.  Another quick trip across the increasingly bumpy lake and we were finishing the trip where we started in San Pedro.  Although the trip was OK and it was nice to get onto the lake we felt it was a little overpriced for what it was.

 

 It was now mid-afternoon and feeling we had done our activity for the day we headed back to the hostel and relaxed on the sun terrace and caught up with the blogging.  However, you still had to be careful looking over the side as the local gal’s were still getting their bap’s out for a lakeside bath!!

 

When the sun went down we decided to get a bite to eat and as we walked through the small back roads near our hostel we came across a Indian Restaurant, which was good a Shell had previously declared she fancied an Indian (although why the place was in an Irish pub I have no idea!).

 The food was pretty good and we washed it down with a couple of beers.  After the food we were a bit tired so we decided against going for some more drinks and instead went back to the hostel for a bit of reading and an early night.