We were lucky to have a hospedaje (guesthouse) recommended to us and got a room with 2 double beds which we shared with Gary for 60quetzales. We get approx 4.5 quetzales per NZ$1, we were getting 8 pesos for NZ$1 in Mexico so you would think that things here should be at least half the actual number we paid in Mexico eg a bottle of coke was around 8p in Mexico and it should be around 4.5q here. We have been told that Guatemala is a very cheap country so we were expecting things to be a lot less than in Mexico but sadly this is not true. Food here is sold at the same figure as in Mexico eg a meal is 30p in Mexico and here the same meal is 30q which in reality means it is costing us almost twice as much. We are crushed to find it so expensive when we were so looking forward to having a break from our continual budgeting.
However on the bright side: the country is, to this point, very mountainous and green. You wouldn't believe how steep some areas are that they clear to farm here. Unfortunately like everywhere else in the world a lot of the trees have been cleared but there is still a lot of forest about. The lake is about the size of lake Rotorua but without the island in the middle and has 3 volcanoes on the opposite shore from Panajachel which you will see when we can put up the pics. The weather is warm enough for teeshirts but cool in the evening enough to need a jacket.
Panajachel is mostly one tourist street full of stalls in which the indigenous indians sell wares. The women dress in a wrap around piece of material which is always almost the same as everyone elses and a lacy embroidered top, the men wear colourful trousers and shirt over which they wrap a piece of black material like a knee length skirt. The local spanish and some indigenous indians wear western dress.
The hospedaje where we stayed was run by a family which included a couple of very cute children. They all lived in the downstairs rooms and tourists resided in the top rooms, you could also walk up on the roof which we used to do in the late evening and lie back and watch the stars while Kent produced hot chocolate for us on our camp stove.
Next we plan to cross the lake to visit a supposedly cheap village there famous for shoestring travellers called San Pedro.
