Our next stop was Antigua, which was nice for a city, but too big and busy and expensive for us, especially since we got fully ripped off for a volcano hike.. good lesson to learn, dont believe ppl when they say that its all included cos ya get there then they slap another extra fee on top. Thems the brakes of bein a tourist tho, and day by day we are getting better at being more onto it to not get ripped off. The volcano was wicked though, with hot lava pouring out of the crators, and the rock underfoot being dangerously hot and crumbly. Gotta love the Guatemalan safety.. apparently they have been expecting an eruption for a while and thought about calling off trips there, but all good in the end. After a couple of nights and some great market bargaining action we jumped in a van with some funny Isralies and headed for Lago de Atitlan, which we were really looking forward to. High in the jungle covered mountains lie the cutest wee villages that you would never expect to see. The lake is surrounded my mountains and volcanoes, the locals dressed in their brightly coloured traditional dress, coffee being harvested and worked here which stinks like silage by the way.. San Pedro was our destination which is a funky village with cool bars and restaurants, we got talking to a cafe owner slash organic shop about how they should sell real Chai Tea, and he wants us to come and brew the Chai for him in exchange for free food and drinks| Perfect we thought. There are too many tourists here for us though so instead of staying here for the 2 weeks we ventured on the local boat over the lake to San Marcos which is much smaller and more local feeling. We met some lovely people there, swam and jumped of cliffs, and decided to stay. We have organised spanish classes starting tomorrow and will live in the local hostel right on the lake, and work to pay our way. I wanted to stay with a local family but things arent working out that way, so when our spanish gets better we can go hang with the local women and ask them to teach us some traditional weaving, cooking etc. The hostel is perfect to take yoga clásses which will help pay our way as well. So we are off to this wee island feeling paradise so learn, relax, swim, speak spanish and be healthy. Happy as wee clams we are. Smiles and love from way over here whoop whoop
