Guatemala-Antigua, San Ramon, Xela, Lake Atitlan

1/11/11  -  1/18/11

Our first week of traveling has gotten off to a great start!  We landed in Guatemala just after noon on Tuesday the 11th and hopped a 45 minute taxi ride to the sweet little town of Antigua.  Antigua is a beautiful and historic town with plenty of Mayan ruins , cobblestone streets and breathtaking views of 3 volcanoes. We checked into our splurge of a hotel (Meson Panza Verde). Panza Verde is laid out like a palace with 8 HUGE and beautiful rooms complete with private garden, huge fireplace, antique sculptures sitting on thick stone shelves. It has a very medieval feel to it (minus the modern lap pool that runs through the outdoor restaurant).

Our fancy hotel with private garden!

The center of town is the Plaza Mayor where locals and tourists come to sit by the giant fountain and eat fresh fruit and ice-cream from the street vendors or have their shoes shined while reading the daily paper. On the outskirts of the Plaza are streets with big markets, restaurants with delicious and foreign foods, and chuchos (homeless scraggly dogs) hopping you may throw them a scrap.

Volcano behind the market

streets of Antigua

fresh fruits and veggies

ruins in Antigua

Our second day in town we hiked up to la cruz (the cross) that overlooks the city and did some more exploring of the ruins during the afternoon before cold Guatemalan beers on our hotel's rooftop terrace.  Met up with a good friend Anne that evening and headed out to hear a local band playing salsa music. Before leaving town on Thursday we did some more hiking and ate the most delicious tacos (called Gringas) stuffed with local fresh veggies and amazing flavors before we headed to Anne's town.

from la cruz

The buses here are insane.  We thought we were goners at least ten times as our bus swerved at unheard of speeds on mountain cliff roads barely missing passing vehicles. There's nothing like the local bus system (old U.S school buses) that sardine a dangerous amount of people into such a small space.  Perhaps the most frightening part was the large "chunks" missing out of the mountain roads.  Anne explained this was due to tremendous rain and hurricane Agatha.  Whole hunks of the mountain had fallen off and eroded devastating the area.  Entire buses have been buried and gone missing to this day (this was just a few months back). After about 4 hours of hopping from bus to bus we entered the province of Totonicapan.  Arriving in the town of Salca we hopped in the back of a little Toyota (total of 17 people sardined in this little thing) and headed up the mountain to San Ramon where Anne's house is.


The small town is like nothing we've seen before.  The families still dress in typical Guatemalan clothes so brightly colored and distinct to the culture.  Every family has a little house with dirt floors (some are concrete now thanks to Anne), a giant garden, chickens, pigs, kittens, puppies, turkeys, rabbits, you name it roam freely! The men are up by 6:30 working the fields in the hot sun swinging their heavy hoes to get the job done only dreaming of one day owning a tractor. Women work hard in the house cooking, cleaning, going to market, and taking care of the family. We were definite foreigners to the small, dark skin, Mayans in the town.  They couldn't help but stare in shock as three "giant" and blonde gringos entered their land...but the friendliest and most welcoming group you can imagine!

view from Anne's roof

making dinner in Anne's kitchen

life

hand plowed fields

Adam and Anne overlooking waterfall

Anne's new house is unreal. Adam describes the house as a "Columbian drug-lord house". It looks like a palace (but has been vacant for 6 years and there is plenty of evidence to say so).  She has two rooms unlocked to use (one for the bedroom and one the kitchen). There is a tall gate around the house giving it some privacy and protection.  There is a little bathroom outside off the corner of the house and a pila where she can get water (unpurified) outside as well. Her home has an incredible view of the mountains and the towns below.

Kitchen

Anne's place (the two rooms to the right on the second floor are hers)

washing Anne's hair in the pila

We had a wonderful couple days in Anne's town.  She cooked us typical foods, had her buddy take us way out in the woods to 3 beautiful waterfalls, and took us to meet many of the families in the village.  Our second night in town we went to say hello to a couple families preparing for Anne's big project celebration.  They of course insisted we stay for dinner and we're so glad we did.  We sat on stools as four or five mothers and their children sat around us on the floor all eating soup and tortillas and giggling out of control at each other.  The little kids were particularly interested in Adam.  They poked him and giggled at him and couldn't believe this huge blonde man in their kitchen.  One little boy measured Adam's sandaled foot with his hands in clear disbelief.....very cute. I owe Adam one as he took one for the team and ate both of our helpings of liver (it's very rude not to eat what is served)...I'm still praying none of the ladies saw me slide my big brown chewy liver into his bowl!

Adam with some beautiful little girls!

Saturday was the big day to celebrate the end of the Peace Corps project Anne and her counterpart have been working on.  It was so exciting to see these happy families with their new stoves, floors, and pilas (outdoor sink/washing tub).  There was music blaring and lots of smiley faces giving little speeches to Anne and her team. They served us a scrumptious meal and we were on our way.

where's Waldo?

smiling ladies thanking Anne for all of her hard work!

We got to Xela (Quetzaltenago) Saturday evening and checked into our hostel running into many of Anne's P.C. buds along the way. Our hostel costs us a whopping $7.50 a night....it's kinda grungy...but an experience!  Grabbed a cold beer that afternoon and found out......dun dun dun...they do play american football games on TV....Adam was all smiles!  Xela is a great town with a fair amount of tourist so we don't attract quite as many stares and giggles. Lots of great local street food, amazing fruit, beautiful volcano views, big old historical churches,... Took a nice hike up to one of the mountains where we could overlook the whole city and much more.

Xela

Monday we had the hike of our lives.  We were up just after 6 and hopped a couple buses to get to the trail of Volcano Santa Maria by 7:30. Right beside this volcano is it's daughter volcano, Santiaguito.  Santiaguito was formed after an eruption of Santa Maria (out of its crater).  Santiaguito is named one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world b/c of how active and harmful it's been. Hiking in Guatemala is different...it's not like the states where colorful signs and arrows lead you in the right direction.  An hour after hiking straight up we sought direction from a farmer and realized we were hiking the wrong volcano....one of the most dangerous in the world.  You'd think we may have noticed from the soft showers of black ash and the thin layer of black covering the ground.  We all decided rather than waste our hour of uphill hiking we should trek sideways and try to connect to the mother volcano.  There wasn't a real path that allowed us to do this...and our fear of Guatemala's big "cats" helped persuade us to suck it up and hike back down to start over.  The hike up Santa Maria was insane!  Never before have we felt like out calve muscles may actually rip from their protective facia and tear out of our legs...but we felt it...a lot!  It was a 4.5 hour hike to the top (longer than normal b/c of our false start).  The last hour was a lot of mud and because of the great steepness of the volcano, a good bit of it was spent sort of crawling upwards.  There was no "giving your legs a break" with semi-flat ground.  Many times (we all admitted to each other later) we feared our legs would not actually take us to the top.  Even when the top was insight...I had to count backwards from 50 over and over to keep going (not sure why this helped).  The top was worth it!  Beautiful mountains and an incredible view was waiting for just us (nobody else up there that day).  We scarfed our bean and meat sandwiches down like hungry wolves and spent a couple hours hanging out.  Unfortunately, the clouds never moved uncovering Santiaguito (this is the main reason one hikes to see the active spewing neighbor volcano).  But we didn't care. We had done it...and it was worth it! :)

Cait looking out over the clouds

We got to our newest destination today (Tuesday), Lake Atitlan.  We are staying in the town of San Pedro La Laguna.  Another very memorable 3 hour bus trip (Adam was sure our breaks would go out on the old school bus as we plowed down the steep and narrow pathway to our destination). Gracias a Dios....we didn't! Our home here is Casa Lobo Bungalows.  Casa Lobo sits right on the lake hidden from the incredible poverty by a wild and beautiful jungle garden. There are only a few bungalows and it seems we are the only guests getting this piece of paradise all to ourselves.  There used to be a beach out front but the rain and Agatha swallowed it.  Luckily, there is a perfect little dock for sunning and a rooftop with the most amazing view to make up for it.  Looking out on the lake all you see are huge mountains and volcanos (and the occasional  Guatemalan who floats by on a hunk of tree with a paddle). Our bungalow has a little kitchen with a gas stove and hot water in the shower!!!! Life is good!


After spending a couple hours sunning on the roof and resting our bodies from yesterday's expedition, we headed to town for some cooking supplies.  We found a mini grocery store for some necessities and walked the long and colorful market for all of our fruits and veggies.  It still amazing us that a pound of perfect tomatoes is less than $0.25 and 4 big red sweet peppers are about $0.20. Walking in the market is such an experience.  Everyone has set before them the most amazing looking fruits and vegetables in enormous baskets that they give to us for nothing.  When someone isn't handing them quetzals (money) they sit and chat and laugh with friends or unwrap warm Tomales from their corn husks to snack on....They are such laid back and peaceful people who don't seem to have a clue that they live in a 3rd world country full of evident poverty and hardship.

traveling via hunk of tree

kayaking on the lake

breakfast outside of the bungalow

another beautiful waterfall in San Pedro across the lake

making friends

Rituals are so evident here.  Walking home with our bags of goodies we saw a group of about 20 walking slowly dressed in traje (typical clothes) and praying loudly. In the back were six men carrying a casket. Everyone came out of their homes and shops to sit silently and pay their respect.
Our evening was spent cooking up delicious bean, egg, and veggie stuffed tacos and watching the moon light up the blue waters of Lake Atitlan. We sit now with guidebooks, maps, and notebooks open planning tomorrow's adventures....horseback riding, volcano climbing, kayak renting, a trip to the hot springs.....vamos a ver (we'll see)!