San Pedro de Laguna  August 8-16^th

We left Mario’s Marina at 7:15AM to get to the bus station at Fronteras to be able to take the 8AM bus to Guatemala City.  This time we used the Litegua bus line which was scheduled to be us to the city by 1PM it was not exactly a first class bus as the A/C didn’t work but it did have operable windows so we at least got fresh air.  Well the ride went smoothly, there was a 30 minute stop for food so we got to the station a little late.  

We were to be met by a van that would drive us to San Pedro de Laguna on Lake Atitlán.  Just as soon as we stepped off the bus and retrieved our luggage a van pulled up with a sign with our names.  We loaded everything in the van, jumped in and began our 4 hour drive to the lake.  We shared our van trip with another Spanish school student, Camila who was from Belgium,  and two friends of the driver.  The trip was not an easy one for when we hit the mountain road we found that there were a lot of washouts and landslides still left over from the hammering that Guatemala took in June, from Tropical Storm Agatha.  It was also raining so the trip took even more time than usual.  When we turned off the main highway we thought we were almost in sight of the lake, but alas we were on top of the extinct volcano caldera ridge and we needed to descend down the steep mountain side to the lake level that must have been at least 2000 feet below.  We lost count of the switchbacks but there were at least ½ hrs of driving on them alone. Finally the driver pulled into our town, San Pedro, and stopped in front of a black iron door we were exhausted, after 5 1/2 hrs of bus ride and 4 hrs in a van where the driver knew two positions of the peddles gas on or brake on it was truly a thrilling ride.

  We were a little nervous wondering what the house might be that was behind the door.  Two girls greeted us and took us inside to meet our family for the week.  We had signed up for Spanish school and opted for the home stay option.  As we pulled up we did have a quick moment wondering if really wanted to do the home stay, but once we met Inez and Tuli we were fine.  They led us upstairs and showed us to our room which was very nice, complete with our own bath.  Next Luis and Lety and baby Luis Jr. came up to meet us.  We settled into our room and then decided to go out and look around the town.  We found a pub, turns out it was a gringo sports bar that was playing Sunday Night Football,  had some dinner and then went back home. 

School would start at 8AM so Lety said that she would have breakfast ready by 7:15.  We came down stairs to a great fruit and pancake breakfast and soon were off to find our school.  The San Pedro Spanish School has a great reputation and it had been recommended to us by two other cruising couples.  We were greeted at the school by Ramón Peneleu the school director who had arranged our van pick up and home stay.  He was most helpful and we highly recommend his school to anybody who wants a great experience.  The cost for two of us for five days of school and 7 days of home stay, including all meals for 6 days was $300 (US).  You can't even find a hotel and stay a week anyplace and eat for that price let alone have 20hrs of one on one instruction.  After filling out the paperwork, we met our teachers.  Hank’s teacher was Carita and Betsy’s teacher was Mildred.  We each went off with our teachers to little palapas that they use as classrooms.  Now you may notice that both Betsy and Hank are wearing jackets and long sleeves, we have been in the tropics for 10 months not wearing more than shorts and T shirts, and this place felt cold as we were up in the mountains.  Hey the teachers who are natives to this region were also wearing sweaters.     

Our life revolved around school and family for the week, we had classes from 8 to 12, came back to the house for the big meal of the day at 1:30 and then we studied.  At 5:15pm we went back to school for conversation club.  Two times there was another activity after the club like a movie or salsa dance lessons.  The school keeps you rather busy but I think that you can go at your own pace.  We knew that we didn’t have a lot of time and we wanted to learn as much as we could.  Living with our family allowed us to learn some mealtime customs and to just talk.  The family was wonderful to us, Inez is 16 and she goes to school from 1PM to 7, Tuli is 9 and she goes from 7AM to 1.  Luis Jr. is 11 months old and just starting to learn to walk.  Before Luis Jr. was born, Lety used to run the restaurant that is the front part of their home.  Since the baby an afterschool club meets in the restaurant, giving the kids a place to come to do homework and to play games until 8 at night.  Lety is a great cook so we were lucky to have wonderful meals, for breakfast we had huge plates of fruit, which we covered with yogurt and honey.   

Our school break was a time for us to meet other students.  We found that most of the students were enrolled for a length of time.  Alex a doctor from New Zeeland wanted to practice medicine in Central America so he was at school for 5 months, another David and engineer from Maryland had been there for 4 weeks and he was staying longer.  Our friend Camila from Belgium was staying 3 weeks.  It was a friendly time at mid-morning break. 

We tried to take time to walk around the town and get to know San Pedro, the lake was at about 5000’ so we had to adjust from living at sea level.  We loved that fact that the streets were steep and they lead down to the lake. The lake can be traced back 85,000 years to a volcanic eruption that created the collapsed caldera the lakes now fills.  It is about 8 miles across from San Pedro to Panajachel.  As you stand on the street looking down to the muelle where the Panajachel launches arrive, you see the how big the lake is.

As we walked we saw that many children and adults were flying kites; maybe it was in preparation for the big kite festival that was held on November first, or maybe it was just that they had wind. Kites flown over the cemetery are believed to be a vehicle for speaking with the dead for the flying kite represents the spirit of the departed. 

 We also saw that they use every available space to grow corn and that there are crops of peanuts right down to the lakes edge.

Our house was several blocks up from the water, but it you continue to walk up the hill you come to the main part of the town where the church, market and plaza is located.  The streets may be narrow and some of them are one way.  On Saturday morning we found the town alive with vegetable sellers and people in traditional clothing moving about the town.  Here we saw a few men in their white woven pants, but all the women and girls wore the traditional dress.  As I stood in one of the stalls, I watched all the women go by doing their daily shopping.

This is another town where Tuk-Tuks (small 3 wheeled taxis) play a big part in transportation; a ride costs about 5 Questalles (8 Q =$1US) per person and they will take you all over.  Sometimes it is nice to ride instead of climbing the steep hills.

The women and young girls carry everything on their heads, they roll up a cloth to use it as a circular base and then they put the load on their head.  Even with the cushioning they must have tremendous neck muscles.  I tried to get so many pictures of women walking with loads on their heads but usually my pictures just show their back.  For this lady I asked and then she wanted a tip.

Too soon it was Friday and we would be having a graduation ceremony at school.  As we sat in class the director came around to tell us that we were expected to say a few words at the ceremony.  I thought that that wasn’t a lot of preparation time, but maybe they didn’t want any long speeches.  Hank and Betsy both gave a short talk as did another gal.

That night we took our family out to dinner, we wanted to do something for them, and thought that a night out for everyone might be nice.  We choose one restaurant but the wait was too long so we ended up in a smaller quiet one.  This turned out to be great because Luis Jr. could walk around and we could talk and hear each other.  The food was OK but it was really the companionship that was the greatest.

On Saturday we took the launch across the lake to the touristy town of Panajachel.  It is about a 30 minute ride.  The launch cost about $3 each way for tourists and far less for locals.  As I sat in the launch going over, I couldn’t really see out the front, but I was glad to see that there were life preservers on board.  They ran the launch up to shore and then you climb out somewhat awkwardly.  Most of the people paid after they reached the shore, so you can see the guy collecting the money in the picture while Hank climbs out of the launch. We walked to the main part of town checking out all the shops, this was not like San Pedro, this was hard sell.  Street venders walked with you, not letting you go, and when we sat down to eat lunch, it was a steady stream of sellers.  If we did not know better, we would have thought we were back in Tijuana, Mexico.  We enjoyed watching the street venders from our table, we just didn’t want them coming into the patio area of the restaurant and bothering us. 

We enjoyed walking around seeing the town and the brightly decorated buildings but the wind was picking up and it was starting to rain.  We were prepared for the rain but we were not sure of the lake and how the waves would react, so we headed for a launch back to San Pedro.  This launch was ready for the rain for it had black plastic along the windows and in the front so the passengers were not drenched by the rain.  By the time we were ready to go the rain had subsided so it was a nice trip back across the lake.  

The trip we took on Sunday was organized by our Spanish School, we went with four student and 6 others to the town of Chichicastenango.  It took the van 2 hours to negotiate the bad roads to get to the town of Chichicastenango.  It was Sunday and it was market day, all the guide books say you must go on Thursday or Sunday; Sunday being the best day.  Shopping is the main attraction, when we were at Mario’s Marina we were lucky to have some cruisers show us their purchases and explain what they paid.  This turned out to be wonderful, for when a vender gave us a price; we could say that our friends bought one two weeks ago for ____. 

We used a guide who met us in the parking lot, this was a local young man named Sebastian.  He asked us what we wanted to see besides shopping.  We started out by going to see The Saint Thomas Church.  The church dates back to 1540 and is used for Catholic and Mayan rituals. On the steps, you see the indigenous people in prayer, swinging incense-laden censers.  The steps are also strewn with flowers and a young man was lighting fireworks.  A procession had just arrived at the steps as we got there.  The traditional dress worn by the men was black and red.  They were carrying three religious statues in a cart.

Next we moved on to Hotel Santo Tomás which is a lovely colonial-style hotel with rooms centered around a graceful courtyard fountain complete with squawking macaws.  We had our picture taken with the musician who was playing the national instrument of Guatemala.

From the hotel we could look across a small ravine to the cemetery on the hill.  You can see some white smoke in the right hand side of this picture.  Our guide said that a small Mayan ceremony was taking place and thus the reason for the smoke.

After seeing some sights it was time to do some shopping, the guide book states that the better handicrafts are found in the central part of the plaza.  There were so many booths and shoppers that it was hard to tell where the plaza was located.  We first went upstairs in a building so that we could look down at the local vegetable market.  Just before we went up the stairs, a tourist policeman warned us to be careful with our backpacks and to watch our purses. 

When you look at the picture of the crowds, especially going down some of the narrow aisles, you can see how it would be perfect for pickpockets.  Everywhere you see wonderful weavings and ever so many beautiful huipiles (blouses).  Betsy was drawn to these beautiful blouses with their baroque woven roses, but they were very expensive.  It was fun to just wander about and look at the various designs.  We saw many booths that were selling the different yarns; and I even saw one where you could buy patterns for weaving the roses.  The patterns looked like they were also used for cross stitching.  Sitting on the ground near a booth was a young woman working with her embroidery.  I noticed her because she was working with purple thread and her hands were completely purple from the dye on the thread. 

Our driver wanted us back at the van at 1:45PM, so we decided it was time to look for a place to eat lunch before we started back on the two hour trek.  Sebastian took us to a restaurant that over looked the main street.  I think it was called Saint Thomas or something like that.  Betsy ordered an avocado salad thinking it would be half an avocado, but actually was a plate with lettuce, tomatoes, and at least three avocados.  This was 30 Q or a little less than $4.  Sebastian said that there were lots of avocadoes around so it was no big thing to have a platter of them. 

It was raining rather hard as we headed back to the van, luckily we had rain jackets and umbrellas so none of our shopping treasures got wet.  The trip back to San Pedro was a quiet one for everyone was rather tired.  No the roads had not improved so still had many bumps and ruts to endure.  We arrived back in San Pedro about 4:30PM.  We said hello to Lety, told her of the crowds and showed her a small suitcase that we had purchased.  We didn’t want to eat dinner for we had scheduled appointments for hot rock massages with a woman named Andreá.  You see massage signs all over town, and when we asked people for recommendations they all said Andreá was the best.  Well Sunday night at 6 and then at 8 were her only two times that fit into our schedule.  Neither of us had had a hot stone massage before and we both wanted to try one. 

We both agreed that it was fantastic, an hour for 150 Q that is slightly less than $20.  I would have paid much more, for it was a perfect way to end a day of heavy shopping.  Tomorrow off to Antigua.