They really do tempt you to be lazy over here and use the shuttle bus instead of jumping on the good old chicken buses. Considering it was Christmas Eve we decided to splash out ($10) as there was still a niggling worry that the buses would stop running at midday. The morning dawned bright with perfect blue skies but it was a bit chilly at 1500m so the fleeces joined in the festivities. By midday (6hrs after setting off) we arrived in San Pedro La Laguna having passed beautiful village, valley and volcano vistas. Along the main road gaggles of children were sitting on the curb side waving at passing vehicles – a bit odd we thought. An usual form a begging? Just being friendly? Nothing better to do? We’re not entirely sure but think they were waiting for Christmas alms / hand-outs; a few vehicles did stop and that had them running with little excited faces. San Pedro La Laguna turned out to be much more built up than we’d anticipated but the town still have a small community feel to it. Those twizzlers, great unwashed and return ticket losers that managed to get out of Honduras only appeared to have made it this far! This has got to be Central America’s equivalent of Marrakech, Goa or La Paz depending on which decade and continent you’re looking at. Holland & Barrett’s got nothing on San Pedro’s macrobiotic, vegan scene and led me to coin a new phrase – organic numpties. As for crocheted jewellery and losing your way so much you can’t even afford to buy a pair of shoes; I think you get the picture. We didn’t care one little jot as we were staying a 15min walk away or, short tuc-tuc ride with backpacks. They have proper Bajaj tuc-tucs that you find in India and Sri Lanka – oh how I miss them! Having said all that, we liked San Pedro as there plenty of choice of places to stay and eat and the lake side setting is thoroughly lovely. Basically we were looking down on a huge, ancient crater lake and again there were plenty of volcanoes in the vicinity. Steve had found Casa Lobo a fantastic place and just what we wanted for Christmas. We splurged, and forked out $47 a night, but considering the location and all the facilities it was a brilliant deal. Sadly the buildings that used to be on the lake shore are now under water as levels have risen 5m in just 2 years. Wolfgang, the German owner, is worried that he will lose another unit within the next few years too. It’s a real shame as he’s put a lot of effort into the place and has furnished it very nicely, even down to putting table and chairs and loungers on the balcony. Plus the kitchen had all the equipment we needed (bar a kettle!) and he’d even left us a 5 gallon drum of fresh drinking water. We’re not into celebrating on 25th Dec and never even buy each other a present but we do like to try and treat ourselves to somewhere nice to stay. This was perfect – our own little apartment where we felt like we had a home for a couple of days. Not only did we have our own, totally private balcony over-looking the lake but we had that small kitchen too. Once we checked out the facilities we walked straight back into town for provisions. A few hours later, having checked out the Scottish-owned pub, we were back with the door locked and fridge stuffed full of goodies. The next day we didn’t venture beyond our balcony and did nothing! Well that’s not strictly true; we lounged around reading, stuffed ourselves silly and supped some booze whilst watching the birds in the garden and on the lake. Following the mad dash, lengthy travel to get here it was just the sort of inertia we needed. Boxing Day saw us marginally more active as we walked back to town where we found some attractive, narrow lanes to wander down. We then ambled over the headland to the next village for a bit of a nosey and popped into the pub to watch the late kick-off. For once this meant we were watching Liverpool, not City, and I’m sure you know it wasn’t a good footballing day in the SHED household. You can’t have everything in life! Never mind we had our lovely place to return to and a fridge to divest of its contents before moving on the following day. It would have been all too tempting to stay longer but we needed to do some serious exercise in an attempt to neutralise some of that festive indulgence. Not to mention combatting 5 months of being forced to try new beers and foods! Thank you San Pedro La Laguna - we’ll be back and next time we’ll be arriving on foot.
