Lake Antitlan
San Pedro
Thursday Feb 21
Fun fact, Lake Atitlan is volcanic in origin and is the deepest lake in Central America. It's massive and is surrounded by 3 volcanoes around the perimeter as well as lots of little pueblos. Most people do farming here, but in the popular tourist towns lots of people own hotels or restaurants, so much so that in some places there are just too many places and not enough people to stay in the places so accommodation can be pretty cheap!
We had gotten in to San Pedro from Antigua Wednesday night, just as it was getting dark. The bus dropped us off right in front of a few hotels and a guy immediately came out and ushered us over to check his place out. As we were walking we asked him how much and he said 50Q’s each, and then started to laugh. We were really confused but 100 Q’s, which is about $12, is about what we had been paying. It seemed fine but we told him we wanted to look around for something cheaper, he immediately changed his tune and said, “Oh no, I was just kidding it’s 50 Q’s total.” At that point we were like, boo ya, sold! We had an amazing view of the lake and it even included our own bathroom! :)
Thursday morning we walked around the little town checking things out, we were especially concerned about orienting ourselves after we had gotten lost the night before and couldn't even remember the name of our hostel, which is only a problem if you're asking for directions! :) We had made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up wandering around in the dark for an hour before we were able to retrace our steps, haha! Later that day we rented a double kayak and went for a nice cruise around the lake. The girl we got the kayak from gave us a couple places we could visit, one was about 45 minutes away and the other was an hour and a half away if you went fast. That didn’t sound too bad, until we got in the kayak and actually started paddling…. Let’s just say we were relatively close but didn’t quite make it to either location! :)
Later on we went to the town center and walked around. They have a basketball court with two soccer goals on each side for all the kids to use, and use it they did! We sat there mesmerized at the hecticness of everyone using the court. There were 2 basketball games on one side of the court and 1 basketball game on the other side and 4 different soccer games all using the full court. Somehow they all seemed very adept at mostly avoiding each other and knowing who was playing on who’s team. It was seriously crazy but looked like they were having an awesome time! For dinner we went back to this awesome little Italian place we had eaten at the night before, all the pastas and sauces were made fresh and they had the most amazing bruschetta ever!
$6 a night for this beauty, if you look close you can see how the bathroom and the room are separated by a small wall that doesn't quite reach the ceiling. This makes it very convenient if you're trying to listen and keep track of every move the other person makes while in the bathroom.... It wasn't all bad though, the bathroom is what I'm pretty sure they would refer to as multifunctional, meaning you can sit on the toilet while taking a shower and having a conversation with your next door neighbor who can monitor that you're using the soap correctly as she's looking in through the big open window from her balcony overlooking our room... :)
This is the view from our balcony just outside our door! I could get used to this!
Looking on San Pedro, this was about as far away from the shore as we got, I'm pretty sure most of it was from just letting ourselves drift because we got too tired....
If this isn't a legit dock I don't know what is! They're actually having a big problem with docks and storefronts along the water because the Lake is rising and in 2010 alone it went up 3 meters. It's really sad to see all the stores that are now halfway under water and all the new docks and things they've had to build to replace the old stuff.
The steep road down to the lake!
Friday Feb 22
San Marcos
The next morning we woke up early and headed over to another pueblo on the lake called San Marcos, via a water taxi. If you’ve never experienced the thrill of entrusting everything you need to survive for the next 3 months in a run down boat that looks like it could sink at any minute, I definitely recommend it! San Marcos is a lot smaller than San Pedro but has become a magnet for, and I quote, “hippies-with-a-purpose,” whatever that means! Supposedly it is located in a perfect crossroads of so many things that gives it a special spiritual energy. If you are looking for spiritual rebirth, relaxation, or just an excuse to meditate in a garden full of pyramids, this is definitely the place for you. You can have a massage, take a yoga class, and learn about crystal healing all in one place! :) Once we got off the boat we asked around a few places and ended up staying at Hostel San Marcos, which included a free breakfast, we’re nothing if not thorough when seeking out accommodation. We spent the day walking around the town and checking out the beach!
On our way up to the town center we were stalked by these two little boys who were trying to act like our tour guides so we would give them a tip. We told them we weren’t going to give them money but we’d buy them a snow cone if they wanted. They begrudgingly agreed and only said thank you when the snow cone lady made them, haha! Clearly they were less than stoked about me taking this picture! :)
This is what 125Q’s buys you for a night in San Marcos!
Saturday Feb 23 and Sunday Feb 24
The road to Utila, Honduras
The next morning we started our long journey to Honduras. We began in San Marcos and took a Tuk Tuk to the next town over called San Pablo. From there we were able to catch a bus straight to Guate! We told our bus driver we wanted to go to Puerto Barrios from there and he said oh yeah, I’ll drop you off right by the buses. He ended up dropping us off in the middle of downtown and told us to walk down the road 5 blocks and we’d find the buses, that easy. Apparently we’re still not the seasoned travelers we seem to think we are because we believed him. After walking much further than we should have there were no buses in sight. We finally asked some guys in this tire shop and found out it was actually on the other side of town. One of the workers was just leaving and told us he was headed there right now and we could tag along. So, off we went in to the city following a strange man bus hopping with our massive backpacks and getting the strangest looks from the locals. But miracle of miracles we made it! Once we got to the bus stop we had a couple hours until the bus left and it was just our luck that another Little Ceasars happened to be in walking distance, you know what that means! We were the proud owners of two more large pizzas! :) We made it in to Puerto Barrios about 9:30 and had to put a little faith in an unmarked taxi who took us to find a hotel, don‘t worry he had come highly recommended from the local drunk hanging around the bus station. When we got to the hotel they wanted to charge us 150 Q’s and McKay immediately said isn’t that a lot? Everyone else is charging 120 (we didn’t actually know how much anyone else was charging we just didn’t want to pay more than that), the lady thought about it for a minute and then told ok, as long as we didn’t need a receipt.
Sunday morning we caught a microbus to the border of Guatemala, after paying our $24 exit tax, we had to make the long walk to the Honduras immigration. Despite the walk it was easy peasy and they didn’t even pretend to ask or care what we were bringing in to the country, it was nice not having to stress for once about all this contraband we’re hauling around…. :) Being in Honduras also meant we had to switch currencies to the Libra, it’s 20 Libras to $1 and they only use bills no coins, which just means you’re carrying around a bunch of money that’s not worth anything at all. From the border we took a bus to Puerto Cortes, then caught a micro bus to San Pedro, where we were finally able to get on a bus headed to La Ceiba, where we would sleep for the night. Once again we didn’t get in until after dark. There was a hotel right where we where dropped off but it was 650 Libras a night, so we high tailed it out of there and started talking to a taxi driver who was going to take us somewhere else. As we were talking to the Taxi driver a security guard from the bus company came up to us and told us we shouldn’t get in the taxi, it wasn’t safe… Comforting words right? So, after we told him the hotel was too much money he dragged us back in to the front desk and said we could have room 14 for 300 Libras. The AC was broken, the TV didn’t work, and the fan had to be jimmy rigged to make it work… Naturally we took it! Later, when we found what looked like dry snot blood on the sheets, we realized we should have taken our chances with the taxi!
This is a view of the lake as we were waiting for the bus to Guate.
Because waiting at a real bus stop that doesn't smell like pee surrounded by trash and graffiti would be way less interesting!
Oh don’t worry this is just a friendly reminder not to pee on this building in case you had the sudden urge to go and couldn’t find any place more conspicuous…
Are you tired of seeing pictures of churches yet? Clearly we’re not, because we keep taking them! This is in Puerto Barrios. When we had been on our way to church that morning the sister missionaries were walking in front us. As we walked past them, McKay in his white shirt and tie and me in my dress, they said hello and then McKay said (in Spanish of course), “Ok, let’s go to the chapel.” They gave us a funny look and asked, “Wait, you guys are going to church?” “Yes” “The church of Jesus Christ?” “Yes” haha. They were so shocked, apparently they don’t get many out of town visitors in Puerto Barrios!
Welome to Honduras, I hope you like to walk....
We made it! We must have gotten our wires crossed somewhere though, because the welcoming committee with all the fireworks, balloons, and cold drinks were nowhere to be found....
While waiting for our bus to La Ceiba we discovered a Burger King! (Do you think we're starting to miss the food back home a little?) One Whopper Jr. combo meal all by itself was 109 Libras, that seemed a little ridiculous to me, so instead we opted for this Mega King family meal which included 1 Whopper, 1 chicken sandwich, 1 deluxe hamburger, 1 regular hamburger, 2 medium fries, 2 small fries, 2 medium drinks, and 2 small drinks, enough to feed a small army for only 219, and then proceeded to eat it all.... Awkward!
They legitimately advertised having a pool here.... It wasn't even filled up.... Classy!
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