It’s another early start to fit in our supermarket sweep before we jump in a shuttle (minibus) to Lake Atitlan from Antigua, laden with two extra bags full of food, on top of our regular five.
Lake Atitlan was ‘famously’ described by Aldous Huxley to be “[Lake] Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing”. So, we’ve picked a room in a remote lake house to relax in and enjoy the lake views. Many reviews mention how difficult it is to get to, but when have we ever let something challenging get in our way!?
The first part by shuttle is once more slowed down by the road we need to go on being built as we drive on it. It’s really quite impressive the amount of roads being built as we travel! We jump out of the shuttle a few hours later, and stand at the side of the road. Instructions are to get in the back of a pick-up. Not at all sure what kind of pick-up we should be jumping into the back of, whether we’re meant to be hitching a ride or this is a genuine mode of public transport, we wave down everything and anything pick-up-esque to no avail. A locally-dressed lady asks us where we’re going and tells us the pick-ups actually pick people up around the corner. So close! She escorts us round and thankfully the pick-up sets off with us, our array of bags, and a few other people in it. One of which being an elderly lady with a box full of chirping chicks sitting next to me! The road climbs and the view opens up of the lake. It’s pretty misty so we can’t see the full extent, just a glimpse of the picturesque Huxley has alluded to.
We drive through the cramped and small town of Santa Catalina, and end up getting all hauled out in the smaller town of San Antonio. As we try and unload all our bags, a fellow pick-up drives onto our food bag that we’ve just brought all this way! Thankfully, it stopped just in time to only roll over the rice. (If it had crushed Alex’s beloved watermelon there would have been Hell to pay – James)
Next part of the journey is to try and get a boat. I said it was remote! After picking up a bag of eggs (the usual mode of transport for eggs unless you buy the usual carton of 30!), we find ourselves once more standing around laden with now eight bags looking around lost and confused. Another local lady asks where we’re from and where we’re going. She tells us that we just missed the boat (literally), and the next one won’t be for an hour. We can get a private boat though. As we’re just eager to get there, we agree, and she sets off to find us someone. Based on our experiences to this point, we wonder whether we will need to tip her for this help, and as we clamber into the boat with eggs carefully in tow, she wishes us well on our journey and walks off. Not expectant of anything, just helping people out to help them. The wonderful kindness of strangers. Something to think about next time we see someone lost in London!
And so we finally make it to our accommodation for the next few days, Casa Tribu. It’s got the feel of a swiss chalet, with stone walls and wood accents. It also has a huge garden with hammocks, hanging egg chair, and a jetty for us to relax and recover in after a whirlwind few days.
We get to grips with our new space, including having to earn our filtered water by way of pump, washing up with a trickle of water out the tap, hopping over a channel of waste-water to make it up to the road, and navigating barking dogs baring their teeth each time we do so. Thankfully, a small girl is often on hand to help protect us!
A glimpse of the less glamorous route in and out when not going by private boat:
But stunning surroundings on the property itself:
Our days here are mostly spent planning our last leg of latin-america, catching up with family and friends back home, eating our way through the supplies we’ve lugged over from Antigua (including some amazing fajita spreads made by James), sipping rum and coke on the lake-shore watching the sun go down, and going out for the odd walk or run. It’s a lovely spot to recover from the volcano hike and lengthy shuttle bus over to Guatemala, and catch up on admin. There’s definitely a lot more to explore here, and I’d definitely go back for a holiday!
Panajachel
Our journey from Lake Atitlan to our next stop, Lanquin, to see the limestone bridge of Semuc Champey, requires another lengthy shuttle bus ride, that starts at 7:30am from the main town Panajachel. Rather than navigate the boat + pick-up situation so early in the morning (and not able to ensure the little girl can protect us from the dogs), we decide to cut our stay at Casa Tribu short by a night and spend one in Panajachel itself instead. The hosts at Casa Tribu are nice enough to let us make the most of our last day on the property, before making our way back the way we came to Panajachel.
Expecting very little from the main town of Lake Atitlan, we are pleasantly surprised. Sure, it’s fairly built up compared to where we were before, but it’s got all the colour and vibrancy of a typical latin-american town full of locals, with some tourist markets, restaurants and fancy accommodations to boot. We enjoy having a wander around and once more sitting on a jetty watching the sun set behind the clouds across the lake.
Dinner tonight is a meal out at a local taco-joint playfully called Taquero Mucho (‘te quiero’ means I love you in Spanish), before another early night in preparation for another early morning.
We go again!
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Adventure – clambering our way in and out of Casa Tribu each time. Exploring the area by walk and run. Pick-up taxis.
Excitement – when the clouds cleared and we could see the full extent of the lake and surrounding crater. Meeting people just looking to help us for nothing in return. The ‘fashion’ of the local women here, really loved their skirts!
Trauma – A church blasting out some horrendous tune and sermon at 6am on our first morning there, desperately in need of sleep. The dogs, the damn dogs. Life admin, so much life admin. The start of feeling a bit rotten (James)
1 Comment
Montgomery Burns clearly has relatatives in the area around the lake. ” Release the hounds “. Enjoy the final leg of Latin America. Belize looks stunning.