Monday 8 November
Off to Atitlan, taxi to the bus to Los Enquentes, another to Panajachel as we thought but it turned out to be Solola, we should have waited for a further bus or taxi to take us the rest of the way from the top of the caldera down to the lakeside. The lake looked so invitingly beautiful that we decided to walk down with our heavy rucksacks, not realising it was a 8km downhill walk in the midday sun.
The lovely view was long forgotten by the time we reached the bottom, hot and completely exhausted. Joan had the good fortune to rave about seeing another humming bird, but eventually concluded she dare not stop for fear of being unable to start again.
Luckily we found a restaurant on entering the town and recovered with glasses of real lemonade, a bowl of soup, chicken and chips and a pasta salad. We then took a boat across the lake to San Marco and with difficulty found Jinava, a wonderful spot indeed a magical tropical garden full of flowers, exotic poinsettia, avocado palms, banana trees and little stepped paths between the bungalows meandering down to the lake shore.
We chatted to a Portuguese man born in England with a Franco-Portuguese wife who were taking a three month holiday from their hotel in Mozambique, close to the South African border. They had traveled up Central America starting from Panama.
Supper of a tasty spaghetti and in bed by 7:30 completely whacked.
9 November
A restful day both with Joan with stiff hips me with sore legs, starting with a cold shower, not working at first but fixed rapidly on telling the owners. Chocolate pancakes for breakfast then diving off the boat key for a wonderful swim in the lake and delighted to find it easy to walk out. High quality sunbeds and a sauna within an hour lit promptly on request. A French couple from Paris were also swimming and sunbathing but for us a much needed rest day.
Idyllic, huge 130 square kilometres and at 350m Atitlan is the deepest lake in Central America surrounded by volcanoes itself a caldera. A wonderful deep blue colour surrounded by volcanoes, peaceful with just the occasional sight of a lone traditional fisherman casting his net from his small paddled wooden boat - though they don't seem to catch much.
Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it in his 1934 travel book Beyond the Mexique Bay: "Lake Como it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." It will long rate as our most favoured peaceful spot. However just a year later in 2005 Hurricane Stan caused mayhem all over Guatemala and the nearby lakeside town of Panabaj was buried in a landslide causing 1400 deaths and leaving 5000 homeless.
A lunch at 3pm so big we settled just for chocolate pancakes for supper - real backpackers fare Brian called it.
Wednesday 10 November
My birthday 'well he hasn't wished me happy birthday yet and it's 10:30 am. In the end I had to remind him.'
She should be grateful I bring her to such fabulously different out of the way places - very few husbands do!
She spent the day was spent swimming and sunbathing and watching blue bellied golden faced lizards digging for ants beneath our sun loungers, admiring the birds, the black iridescent magpie , watching birds fly by with three inch black fish in their beaks noting she had never seen them dive in for their prey. 'I am pretty sure they are the birds I saw in inland Tasco (Mexico) in the spring so they must have adapted their diet to eat fish.
There are swallows/martins and brown breasted birds of similar size that perch awkwardly on the reeds looking into the shallow water but I am still looking for the humming birds the German owner tells me he often sees.
He has a pet parrot a beautiful green with a multi-coloured face and wing tips. It's a very quiet peaceful place to be.'
11 November
The German owner, a very pleasant talkative guy, told me he came as a hippie to Panajachel, married a local who still works at the hospital. He showed us his photos of the designing and building first of his house and then gradually building the various bungalow rooms, the base for the ones at the very top had to be hewn out of the rock.
Their garden is tended with loving care and full of beautiful flowers and trees, there is a Datura (moon flower) on the beach, yuccas, bamboos with yellow and green striped stems, banana and coffee trees,bougainvillea, poinsettias, many ferns and so many beautiful flowers including lillies and roses with a bunch of them in a vase in our room and flowers lying on the clean towels laid out on the bed.
There were two young men eating here last night, one had been in Nicaragua advising on water projects and water hygiene. Tonight there were three women, one from Guatemala, one Swiss and one Belgian advising on textiles - showing how good quality could make good money. They had just been to the village of San Juan where they still weave using natural dies from wood saying cheaper dies run on washing and noting there are few villages still using natural dyes. They were also very helpful in suggesting routes from here up into the hills and then east to Coban, and by Rio Dulce to Livingstone on the Caribbean coast. Advice which we thankfully heeded.
12 November
There seems to be more wind today and the lake's usually calm surface is covered in small wavelets, their tips catching the sun causing it to sparkle like jewel encrusted cloth. The little fishing boats are rocking in the waves and the motor launch prow bangs into the waves as they plough from village to village across the lake.
Brian has had his swim, so it's time for mine. Chocolate pancakes again, then we headed for the bus to San Pablo and then on to San Juan where we went to the quiet women's cooperative the women had recommended last night. We bought a table runner which still adorns our sideboard made of natural dies of orange, blue, browns and beige really very attractive. We walked through the village and then took a boat for 10 quetzals each to San Pedro to experience for the first time a holiday atmosphere with lots of 'Gringo's'. Ate superb fried fish on the lake shore before walking up to the village with lots of gift shops and hurriedly took a bus back to San Huan San Pedro and San Marco.
By this time we had long learned an alternative to conventional buses. Passengers simply stopped by hailing a truck laden with passengers, climbed up and joined the standing crowd in the back. Such trucks run return journeys from one small village to the next for a minimal fixed fee, by changing from one to the next it is possible to circumnavigate the lake. I may not be so observant as Joan of the birds and the flowers but I do learn how to get about strange countries.
For all the friendliness during the day we were advised of the danger of being robbed if walking alone between villages at night, which restricted our movement, eg seeking new restaurants, more perhaps than necessary. More than anywhere else we had been we were very aware of being far more privileged than any of the locals. Even during the day I remember a man coveting my Canon SLR camera, and desperately wanting to hold it in the small crowd gathered as I was taking a photo of this tragedy - I felt greedy at holding on so tight.
Off to Atitlan, taxi to the bus to Los Enquentes, another to Panajachel as we thought but it turned out to be Solola, we should have waited for a further bus or taxi to take us the rest of the way from the top of the caldera down to the lakeside. The lake looked so invitingly beautiful that we decided to walk down with our heavy rucksacks, not realising it was a 8km downhill walk in the midday sun.
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| WALK DOWN TO SAN MARCOS |
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| LAGO ATITLAN, WALK DOWN TO SAN MARCOS |
 |
| JOAN RELAXING IN GARDEN at JINAVA CHALETS |
Supper of a tasty spaghetti and in bed by 7:30 completely whacked.
9 November
A restful day both with Joan with stiff hips me with sore legs, starting with a cold shower, not working at first but fixed rapidly on telling the owners. Chocolate pancakes for breakfast then diving off the boat key for a wonderful swim in the lake and delighted to find it easy to walk out. High quality sunbeds and a sauna within an hour lit promptly on request. A French couple from Paris were also swimming and sunbathing but for us a much needed rest day.
 |
| VIEW from JINAVA |
Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it in his 1934 travel book Beyond the Mexique Bay: "Lake Como it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." It will long rate as our most favoured peaceful spot. However just a year later in 2005 Hurricane Stan caused mayhem all over Guatemala and the nearby lakeside town of Panabaj was buried in a landslide causing 1400 deaths and leaving 5000 homeless.
A lunch at 3pm so big we settled just for chocolate pancakes for supper - real backpackers fare Brian called it.
Wednesday 10 November
My birthday 'well he hasn't wished me happy birthday yet and it's 10:30 am. In the end I had to remind him.'
She should be grateful I bring her to such fabulously different out of the way places - very few husbands do!
She spent the day was spent swimming and sunbathing and watching blue bellied golden faced lizards digging for ants beneath our sun loungers, admiring the birds, the black iridescent magpie , watching birds fly by with three inch black fish in their beaks noting she had never seen them dive in for their prey. 'I am pretty sure they are the birds I saw in inland Tasco (Mexico) in the spring so they must have adapted their diet to eat fish.
 |
| JOAN and BRIAN see SAUNA behind |
11 November
The German owner, a very pleasant talkative guy, told me he came as a hippie to Panajachel, married a local who still works at the hospital. He showed us his photos of the designing and building first of his house and then gradually building the various bungalow rooms, the base for the ones at the very top had to be hewn out of the rock.
 |
| JINAVA HOUSE from the BEACH |
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| We could stay here for ever, muses Joan. |
12 November
There seems to be more wind today and the lake's usually calm surface is covered in small wavelets, their tips catching the sun causing it to sparkle like jewel encrusted cloth. The little fishing boats are rocking in the waves and the motor launch prow bangs into the waves as they plough from village to village across the lake.
 |
| STANDING VIEW over BOAT CANOPY |
By this time we had long learned an alternative to conventional buses. Passengers simply stopped by hailing a truck laden with passengers, climbed up and joined the standing crowd in the back. Such trucks run return journeys from one small village to the next for a minimal fixed fee, by changing from one to the next it is possible to circumnavigate the lake. I may not be so observant as Joan of the birds and the flowers but I do learn how to get about strange countries.
For all the friendliness during the day we were advised of the danger of being robbed if walking alone between villages at night, which restricted our movement, eg seeking new restaurants, more perhaps than necessary. More than anywhere else we had been we were very aware of being far more privileged than any of the locals. Even during the day I remember a man coveting my Canon SLR camera, and desperately wanting to hold it in the small crowd gathered as I was taking a photo of this tragedy - I felt greedy at holding on so tight.
 |
| A FALLING TREE DEMOLISHED A HOUSE |
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