Our Sunday morning lie-in was rudely truncated on 7th Dec by the sounds of firecrackers and music coming from the streets of Antigua. I should just mention at this point that noises such as these are by no means unusual in Central America. Almost everywhere we have been there have been people setting off bangers and playing loud music from their shops, cars and houses. But this sounded more organised and jubilant than usual so we went out for a look. It appeared to be a parade in honour of the festive season and featured school bands and dance troupes interspersed with commercial floats. Yep - trucks and vans and typical carnival style floats decked out for Chrimbo with people aboard handing out their products to onlookers. We managed to bag ourselves a couple of packets of instant noodles for lunch, James was lucky enough to get a box of condensed milk and the 3-M float gave us a scouring pad and 2 rolls of scotch tape! They also took our photo with one of their reps with us proudly displaying our goodies for their promotional material!! We did some more shopping that afternoon and tried to get to see the Burning of the Devil Ceremony that evening. The ceremony takes place outside one of the main churches in the town and symbolises the elimination of evil prior to Christmas. A huge effigy of the devil is built and burnt on a pyre - a little like our Guy Fawkes night. Unfortunately for us the crowds were epic and I got crushed trying to see anything so we called it a night before I got trampled and went for dinner instead.
We were up and out early for another bus journey on Monday morning - this time to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. The ride was a little crazy as our driver was mad keen on overtaking, especially on blind corners whilst hurtling down steep mountain hairpins. But, in fairness, we made it in one piece so mustn´t grumble. We found a place to stay, which had a nice balcony but rather tired decor, and then went in search of some brunch. Lake Atitlan was described by Aldous Huxley as "the most beautiful lake in the world" and I can see why he would say that. Seeing it for the first time on the drive in to Panajachel was a real wow moment. It isn´t a huge lake so you can see all the way across and the land around it is all really steep hillsides which just seem to disappear into the water with little towns clinging to the sides! We had brunch in a little place with a superb view of the lake and then took a walk by the waters edge. Whiled away the afternoon with a bit of time on the internet and then with a drink on the balcony before going for dinner at a lovely veggie restaurant. The meal came to an interesting conclusion as we got cornered by 2 young Mayan girls who wanted us to buy their handicrafts. Before he knew it James was draped in scarves and jewellery with both girls cooing over him and telling him how cheap everything was. We ended up making them an offer on a few bits which was in line with what they had advertised but now seemed mysteriously unacceptable to them. One girl gave James the most doleful puppy dog eyes and seemed to be asking why he would want to break her heart with such a low offer for her work. Artful, very very artful! The giveaway for me was that she couldn´t quite keep a straight face so I think they did ok out of us.
We took a look around Panajachel on Tuesday morning including a browse in the local museum which contained items that had been found by divers in the lake. It seems that there is a submerged village down there somewhere! We were approached by another little Mayan girl at lunch who James tried a delay tactic with, telling her he would catch up with her later on to buy something. We bumped into her again later on as we were heading out onto the lake for a paddle in a kayak, so he promised we would find her later although I was starting to suspect that this tactic wasn´t going to work as she had a spectacular memory and a tenacious sales pitch. Our kayak outing was interesting. When we had arrived the lake had been like a millpond and looked ideal for kayaking, but, of course, by the time we went out a brisk wind had picked up and we actually had quite a job paddling out. We both got pretty wet and cross words were exchanged every now and again as waves came at us from all angles. But it was a good laugh nonetheless. Really, it was. We went for a coffee later to recover and who should we bump into but our little friend! This time there really was no escape so we bought some lovely scarves from her which seemed to make her happy. We had probably the best burritos ever at Llama del Fuego that night, and that made me happy.
We left Panajachel on Wed 10th and took a lancha round the shores of the lake to the little village of San Marcos de la Laguna. It´s a bit of a hippy retreat but I liked the idea of doing some yoga and we were both up for decent veggie grub. We stayed at the unfeasibly funky Aaculaax hotel (which I´m sure would sound great said through an echo machine). It´s hard to describe the decor, so I´ll put some photos up for you. As we were exploring the coastline/lakeside around San Marcos we got snaggled by another dinky little Mayan girl called Sandra (?!) and since we definitely weren´t in the market for any more scarves we gave her a tip to be our guide and show us the best spot to view the lake from. The girl came up trumps and we sat admiring the view in the sunshine with her for a while. After a bit of chill time with beers and Yahtzee we went for dinner at Il Jiardino. Although the food was nice the extremely unhurried staff did seem to take rather a long time to produce the somewhat undergenerous portions. But it´s not exactly like we were in a rush and we got to chat to Bec and Kate, who we had met on the boat over, which was nice.
I had planned to get up early and join Bec and Kate at yoga early on Thurs morning but changed my mind when the alarm went off. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the terrace and then took a walk out to our beauty spot that Sandra had showed us. We lazed about in the sun for a hour or two and after lunch I actually made it to a yoga class, which was lovely. The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking up the peaceful atmosphere of Aaculaax before having pizza for dinner at El Forno where they even put a film on to entertain us while we ate!
I did actually manage to get up in time for the early morning yoga class on Fri 12th, which took place inside a wooden pyramid building which is part of the Las Piramides complex. Las Piramides is a renowned spiritual retreat in San Marcos and was full of people on macrobiotic diets who had taken vows of silence until the full moon. The yoga class centred around a glass pyramid with a crystal ball inside. Just a little much for me I´ll confess, but the yoga session was good nonetheless. After breakfast we went back out along the coast path to find a spot where Bracey could go for a swim in the lake. I didn´t fancy it much, preferring to sit in the sun and read, but the water was clear and not too cold, apparently. We caught a lancha back to Panajachel late morning and trudged around trying to find somewhere to stay. By the time we checked into Mario´s Rooms we were hot and grumpy, but nothing that a good shower and a tofu burger for lunch couldn´t fix. We did some souvenir shopping after lunch and made use of the free internet at the hotel before hitting up the awesome burrito restaurant again for dinner.
We took an early tuktuk (crazy Central American version of a taxi) out to the Atitlan Nature Reserve first thing on Sat morning. We had a lovely walk through their nature trail and saw coatis and spider monkeys - which freaked me out a bit as I didn´t realise a)how bloody fast they move through the trees and b)how spookily human they look from a distance.... cousins indeed (except for the gurt long tail that is). The trail took in some decidely decrepit hanging bridges but we got to see clear winged butterflies which are amazing. After a coffee we bought some bananas to feed to the monkeys, which would have been awesome, if the coatis hadn´t mobbed us for them first. I kept well clear but James literally had them clambering all over him to eat out of his hand. I think he thought it was quite funny until one of them climbed up his leg, digging his claws right in for better purchase. Ouch. Back in town we had a couple of hours to while away before our shuttle bus back to Antigua so went for a drink down by the lakeside and read in the sunshine for a while. The shuttle back was marginally less terrifying than on the way out and we got back to the Yellow House in one piece. It was really nice to go back to somewhere familiar, especially as they remembered our names and had kept the same room for us. If you ever find yourself in Antigua we highly recommend that place!
