Arriving in San Pedro that day of Presidential elections we found our school for the month and met the eldest daughter of our homestay. Our new casa was a lot bigger than we expected with the added benefit of having our own en-suite. The father of the house (Manuel) works at a radio station for the local church and is some kind of pastor or something (I still can’t figure it out). The house is situated on top of a hill which means we have a great view of the lake and surrounding volcanoes. The mother of the house (Maria) is a savage cook and she piles on the food. The first day of school and we were introduced to our teachers for the month. My maestro was Lorenzo, the Director of the school, teacher by morning and coffee farmer by afternoon. His wife cooks the lunch for all the students and is also currently making Sarah a dress. His son, also Lorenzo-age 5 is hilarious, apparently he lives a stressful life according to himself (he plays all day long) but is always around cracking us up. Sarah’s maestro, Wilson (yes an odd name for a Guatemalan) was a much younger teacher and taught at the school full time.
First week we went on a coffee tour with just the two of us and one of the teachers. Most of Lake Atitlan is covered in coffee plants with a few coffee producers in the area. A week in and our Spanish must be at a good standard as we both understood most of the information from our Spanish speaking guide. As my teacher is a coffee farmer I now know a lot about coffee production, probably way too much for someone who doesn’t even drink the stuff. Although seeing as all my knowledge was retained in Spanish maybe my facts will be completely out! That Friday we found a small Irish contingent that had gathered in a local pub to watch Ireland hammer Estonia in the first leg. Free tequila shots after the third goal went in scuppered our plans for a quiet night before a morning hike. Next morning we hiked up the Indian Nose with Andrew and Emily, a hike that provides the best views of the towns with Lake Atitlan in the foreground and San Pedro and Santiago volcanoes rising in the background. Our guide for the day was Delfino, the 62 year old gardener from our school. Machete in hand we started our trip in the back of a pick-up (second only to the Tuk Tuk as most common mode of transportation). It was just over a 3 hour hike up and Delfino put the four of us to shame as we stopped for several breaks and gallons of water as he strolled ahead without an ounce of water. Check out the photos below for the unbelievable views during the hike. Finally reaching the top we were glad that the way back down was a quick 30 minute walk on the other side of the mountain to the town of Santa Clara. The journey back was a bit of an experience, but a good one at that. Firstly it was a pick-up truck where I had to hold a kitchen table that was placed on the roof so it wouldn’t fall off on the steep slopes all while being crammed in by 10 plus locals in the back. After that it was a very cosy 6 of us into a Tuk Tuk for the journey home by the “roads” that bordered the lake. There was a speedometer on the Tuk Tuk that had a limit of 80km/h; must have been put in as a joke! The rest of the day was spent in the hot solar pools recovering from our only serious exercise since Mexico. We wrapped up the weekend with a trip by lancha across the lake to the hippy town of San Marcos, not much going on here unless you want to do a yoga course or get a massage.
Our second week in San Pedro and we did a bit more exploring, a walk along the lake highlights the serious issue of heavy rains over the last couple of years. Several signposts point towards the lake alerting passers-by to nearby restaurants and hostels which as of now are completely underwater. As Delfino and any local will tell you, the lake rises every 50 years to the detriment of any newcomer who bought up lakeside property when the lake levels were low. Several bars and restaurants that we frequent are also in serious danger of being underwater come next year. All of this means any offers to go swimming in the lake are quickly turned down due to the pollution (all toilets lakeside go pretty much to one place, the lake!). We had a speaker come in and talk to us in Spanish about the civil war that went on for over 30 years in Guatemala. Very hard to comprehend the war crimes that happened in this very town to people who still live here, especially hard to comprehend is how they are all so friendly. The school arranged dinner for everyone that Friday night and a few cuba libres later and the Spanish was in full over-confident flow. Next day was our new cure for any problems, sitting in the hot solar pools all day till you feel better and it worked a dream. That Sunday we booked a shuttle to a famous Sunday market in Chichicastenago. After some hard bargaining and being hounded for 2 hours solid we bought a few well-earned souvenirs. Locals are a bit crazy around the market as there is a flood of tourists come Sunday and several of them(in particular, a certain 3 foot tall old woman) will follow you for a good 15 minutes if they think a sale is on. The local church is a mix between Catholic and Mayan religions which results in some traditional practices similar somewhat to the indigenous towns of Mexico, for example more chicken sacrifices.
Third week in and we have put our plans for Christmas in stone as we have booked a cabin on Roatan Island situated in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. Plan is to meet up with a few other people there and celebrate Christmas on the beach. Our English friends that we have met along the way will be there along with another couple we met in San Pedro-Aisling and Ade, and one or two others that hope to make it. One of the potentials for Roatan is our friend Andrea from Ireland whom we met in Mexico and who just found out she got Dengue fever in Guatemala. Although less serious than Malaria it’s still something that can really ruin your day or in her case about 3 weeks. All better now and she might make it to Roatan, our invitation still stood as Dengue is not contagious! There is no medicine to prevent contracting it and no medicine to help fight it once you do contract it. It’s down to bad luck and then just waiting it out to get over it. We celebrated Thanksgiving in style with the full works in a local bar owned by an American, the same place we have been losing a weekly pub quiz. I played 5-a-side football with a few of the local teachers and a couple of other students. Afterwards they went to a local cantina where the men’s urinals are at the bar!! Literally you make room for more drink while simultaneously ordering your next one! It won’t be long before this genius of an idea catches on in Ireland!
Previously that day we visited some families and delivered some food as they struggle to get by on their low income. The money the school earns from teaching Spanish goes to building houses and providing food for day to day living. Sad to see but at least the school is making some difference to these people’s lives. Weekend activity for our third week was a exhausting Kayak around some of the lake. With the football and Kayaking in the same 24 hour period I could guarantee that another trip to the hot pools was on the cards to heal all the unused muscles that were shocked into doing physical activity. After the kayaking our family was celebrating the anniversary of a church group that Manuel (father of the house) was presidente of and we got a Tuk Tuk to a place by the lake for the party. We ate our dinner at what looked like the table of honour as it was full of pastors while everyone else sat out on the grass. Dinner consisted of a crab, fish and other food that was tough to get down. I took a good shot at the food while Sarah stuck wisely with the soup. The next night we went to church with our family and most of the men at that table from the previous day were now on stage preaching. Embarrassingly we got a mention at the start of mass and some welcome song was sung. After about 20 songs and 3 hours later we finally got home and with our religious experience box now fully checked for this trip. It was the final night of a few people we hung out with in San Pedro and it was karaoke night, Sarah sang ‘Time of my life’ from Dirty Dancing with 6” 7’ tall Nick (a big guy) from Australia as me and his wife looked on in laughter at the height difference between them.
Our final week is upon us and another fellow traveller that we met in Mexico has joined us, American Andrea. Following the string of bad luck that both Andrea’s we have met seem to be getting, her bag was robbed in Santiago’s (Chile) main bus station with her passport, laptop, phone and bank cards all in the same bag. She works on websites while travelling so her ability to work was also taken from her. Waiting in Chile for 3 weeks for her new passport to arrive she worked in hostel while sleeping on a couch. Apparently there are a lot of hotels that rent a room by the hour (sex hotels) that are painted red. And as this hostel was for some stupid reason painted red she was woken up every 30 minutes by drunken Chilean couples who mistook the hostel as one of these rent by-the-hour hotels. Hopefully bad luck now over; she is now in San Pedro and also making plans for a Christmas trip to Roatan. Sent another package back to Ireland so hoping for a similar result to the package we sent from Mexico City. We received a package from my parents this week with a tonne of chocolate and a couple of Santa hats etc. so it’s been a week full of eating junk (is necessary in order to reduce the weight of our bags!). Sarah is awaiting a package from her parents that will hopefully arrive just before we leave for Antigua. We booked our trip to Antigua with one of the more reliable tour companies, the cheapest for all tours has a bit of a questionable reputation and history. This company is by far the cheapest for all tours but we heard about a couple of bad experiences with them. For example, they would cancel transport to Mexico that morning if the bus wasn’t full. After speaking to my teacher I grasped why they might not be reliable. The owner of the company used to be a police officer and after some money and drugs from criminals went missing from the local police station that this guy was in charge of he suddenly retires and starts up a laundrette, internet café and Tour Company with capital that appeared out of nowhere. Doing this all in one go it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots on this case.
So, our time in San Pedro is sadly coming to an end and it's on to explore more of Guatemala and maybe on towards Belize before Christmas in the Bay Islands. We finally have the Spanish (80 plus hours) to have meaningful conversations with the locals so we hope to get more out of our Central and South American experiences. No longer will it be a simple “dos cerveza’s por favor” but a friendlier “Yo podria tener dos cerveza’s por favor y puedes tu decirme donde visitar en Guatemala como nos encanta estar aqui”.
