OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

So from Xela i left for Lago Atitlan, the shuttle was due to leave at 3pm, i left my hostel at 11am so i decided to go to a nearby cafe where i had been a few times before. They had the most amazing food and fast wifi so i just sat there for a few hours listening to music and chilling out, then a friend walked in Elizabeth, one of the girls from the hike up Tajumulco. Elizabeth has been in Xela staying with a host family and studying abroad, she is only 18 which i found extremely brave of her and her parents for her to be staying in Xela alone.. Elizabeth said she was also going to Lago Atitlan for the weekend. We arranged to meet at the same hostel in a place called Santa Cruz, on the lake. I left in my bus and set off for the 4 hour ride, it was an experience that's for sure. We were winding through a big valley in the think fog. I was half asleep in the back with my Ipod in, when the driver slammed the bracks on, i nearly ended up in the front seat...! there was road works and the driver hadn't seen the banked up cars when coming around the bend, it was a close call to the car in front, but not as close as what happened next. We were sitting there at the road works, and i actually got out for a pee, i jumped back in the bus and about 2 minutes later we heard a massive squealing noise coming from behind, everyone span around as fast as they could to see what was going on. There was a massive semi trailer coming for us, the trailer was no joke at least 2 meters out to the side and sliding fast towards us. The truck stopped no further than a foot from our bus. Everyone on our bus was just in disbelief of what had just happened, everyone pilled out shaking there heads, all the locals from the surrounding cars came running over laughing in shock at how crazy the situation was. I just couldn't believe what had happened, it really wasn't anyones fault it was just thick fog, maybe the truck was going to fast but it was all fine in the end. We continued our journey and arrive in Pana, where you have to get a taxi boat to get to Santa Cruz. Lago Atitlan is only accessible from two towns by car, Pana and San Pedro. If you want to go to any of the small villages around the lake, you get there by water taxi (Lancha). I arrived at the hostel in Santa Cruz a short while later, (about 30 mins costing about $1.20) The hostel Elizabeth and i decided to stay in was called La Iguana, it was an amazing place right on the waters edge, the staff were great and they organised a big group dinner every night, with activities also, like trivia, movie nights and other things. I woke early and both morning and did a lot of hiking around the area, it is set on the edge of big mountains and valleys with dense jungle and creeks running down the valleys. Elizabeth arrived the second day, the next morning we woke early and went out with our camera's for sunrise, the mornings are just magical there but every afternoon around 3 it pours rain for a couple of hours, so we were taking advantage of the mornings. After our sunrise photography expedition, we went on a big hike up through one of the valleys trying to find a water fall. Basically there was no trail, it was just following the creek up the huge valley. A fairly demanding hike, it took a lot longer than expected, to find the waterfall a big disappointment i didn't even take a photo. We headed back to an Italian restaurant further around the lake that everyone raves about, we later found out why. It took soooooo long to get there, we got lost on the mountain trails trying to find it, we could see it down by the lake but just couldn't get there haha, it didn't help we were walking in the rain and arrived around 3. We ordered straight away, as we were starving. I ordered an amazing appertizer of fresh raw salmon, which was by far the best thing i have eaten on my trip so far (besides the steak in Hawaii). This place was extremely upper class and expensive (for Guatemala) but worth every bit, for my main dish i ate a marinated chicken panini with a pesto sauce which was just amazing, also a hot chocolate. All this cost me 200 Quetzal's which is around $22, which you would expect to pay around $60 or more at a place like this in Aus. It was owned by an Italian guy that had been living there for 16 years, he was a great guy and really friendly. This restaurant had a pool and spa down on the waters edge. It's really strange with Lago Atitlan, there is no over flow for the lake and over the past 10 years it has risen 5 meters with all the rain, covering many houses and is still on the rise, they offer diving tours through the houses bellow the water. 

It was a well worth trip to the restaurant, it felt good to lash out and treat myself for once, i have basically been eating of street karts for dinner most nights, touch wood i have not been the slightest bit sick yet which i'm surprised about considering what i have been eating. That afternoon Elizabeth and myself caught a Lancha to San Pedro to stay the night because we planned to do the sunrise tour up a volcano around the San Pedro area, called Indian's Nose. We arrived at the hostel around 5:30, it only cost us 30 Q ($3.50) to stay there and we had a private room. We also booked the tour that night for the next day. The company Big Foot would pick us up in a shuttle at 4am, drive us to the volcano, do the hike to the top and back down, drive us to the Chi Chi markets (2hrs away) stay there shopping for 4 hours and then drive me to Antigua (where i am now) and Elizabeth back to Xela. All that cost us about $20, it's crazy how they can even do it for that price. The hike up Indian's Nose was easy, it only took about 30 mins, but the view was just epic, the sunrise could not have been better, with bright orange/res glows reflecting off the clouds. We sat up there admiring the view and taking photos for an hour or so. Once we were done we hiked back down to get the shuttle to the Chi Chi markets, Which are one the biggest and cheapest markets in Guatemala. It was amazing to walk through there and just really feel in the middle of the Guatemalan culture. I had a jacket on with nothing underneath so i just brought a shirt for 25Q ($3) i only just found out today what the shirt is, it's actually a Guatemalan University shirt haha, i wondered why all the locals where looking at me weird. Elizabeth brought a fair bit of stuff. We actually made a friend who walked around with us for a while, he was a 15 year old Guatemalan (John) from Chi Chi, he was so shy and polite, he also introduced us to his parents as we walked past where they had there stall. We took John and shouted him a drink at a shop and he loved it. As we walked out the shop all his friends were there wondering why we were treating him haha, i just said jokingly, John is our friend and you guys aren't. A short time later Elizabeth and i said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. It was such an adventurous day filled with action and a lot of fun. I'm currently in Antigua, i'm only here tonight, i have organised a bus to go down to a small surf town in El Salvador called El Tunco. It's actually sad to leave Guatemala, i have been here for a month now and it is an amazing country with so much to do, i love it. Well now i'm off to the coast again to spend some time at the beach...... it's been a while but i can't wait. 

I'm going to skip through El Salvador and Honduras fairly fast over the next few weeks, because i want to spend a lot of time in Nicaragua and i now have less than 2 months before flying out of Panama to Puerto Rico. 

Blog again soon!!!!!!!

The wifi is bad here so photos are still to come....