Into the unknown .....

After two weeks of Spanish school I had made friends with quite a few people, and four of us (Laura, Jaime, Jana and myself) decided to head on to the next part of our trip together, so on 1st September we caught a shuttle up to Lage de Atitlan. This beautiful highland lake has formed in a collapsed volcanic crater, and covers about 200sq miles. Like Antigua, it is surrounded by three imposing volcanoes and it is absolutely, staggeringly beautiful. We spend our first night in the main town on the lake, Panajachel, where the majority of tourist traffic arrives and departs. The place is bustling and fun, with some great live music (Daddy, think Paolo Conte but Spanish - equally gravelly and supercool- the singer sipped rum and smoked cigarettes throughout the night!) and beautiful views over the water.

The following day we caught a chicken bus to Chichicastenango, the site of Guatemala's most famous market which offers everything from livestock (hang two cockerels upside down by their legs and sagely nod while you compare their weight) to vegetables to second hand clothes to broken loud speakers and other useless nicknacks to traditional clothing and craft goods.

The whole day is absurdly hectic and fascinating - particularly if you venture away from the tourist oriented stalls into the central food market, where chickens run around piles of gorgeous vegetables, and the air is heavy with the chatter of Mayan dialects and the smoke from endless comedores cooking meat and tortillas. Oh, and the less atmospheric smell of boiling soup with a whole chicken foot sitting perkily in the middle. My favourite! Our journey home was a genuinely 'local' experience. Chicken buses are chaotic at the best of times, but this was so full that we were standing in the central isle clinging on for dear life as the driver hurtled unforgivingly round the hairpin mountain bends and we tried to avoid landing on one of the three or four people squeezed onto each seat on either side of us. Needless to say we all got pretty hysterically giggly, which made it all the more challenging when we tried to capture the moment on camera.

More transportation excitement came on our return to Panajachel and the lancha (little motor boat with cabin) over the lake to San Pedro. The winds tend to pick up mid afternoon and whip the surface of the lake into small but choppy waves and so it was that once again we were hurtling at break neck speed being thrown around all over the place and once more gettling the giggles as we tried to take photos and got sprayed with every crash landing.

San Pedro is a hippy little town on the other side of the lake, heavily populated by bohemian travellers who have settled permanently and (in the case of the older generation) live in little huts amid the maize and banana plants doing ostensibly nothing or (in the case of the younger generation) sit on the pavements all day making jewellery from wood and shells. Despite all this madness, it's a fun little town with some good hostels, some fun bars, more fabulous views and some seriously good food.

Over the water at the even more 'alternative' San Marcos, we spend a great afternoon jumping off cliffs into the lake, swimming, sunbathing and exploring the settlement, much of which has no real roads but just dirt tracks between the maize, bananas and avodado plantations.

written by

Alex Kent on September 1, 2007 from Panajachel, Guatemala

from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature

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