Day 36 - Panajachel and Santiago de Atitlan

We were early up this morning and ready for a short bus ride to Panajachel. The restaurant wasn't open this morning so breakfast had to wait. It was relatively quiet at the terminal at 7am and the bus was pretty empty. I anticipated having a couple of minutes to jump out and take a photo of a bus sitting next to ours, so I did. I only pressed the shutter once before being urged to come back on the bus by horn blasting and wheels turning. I jumped back onto the bus and we were off. We only went around the block and stopped to gather others waiting there. By the time we were on the road out of Antigua, we had managed to fill the seats on the bus with 2-3 people per seat and as we continued down the highways we picked up more and more people; very typical for Central America and Guatemala.

Reaching Solola the bus stopped for 15 minutes or so.  Most of the passengers exited here before we continued onto Panajachel.  Panajachel was only another 15 minutes or so away, but most of the drive is descending along a windy paved road that proved to be treacherous for one recent driver as their truck was stuck in some trees over the side of the cliff.  Arriving in Panajachel we exited the bus and decided to try our hand at hiring a tuk-tuk.  These 3 wheeled vehicles serve a better purpose of transporting 1 or 2 people; but we are 2 adults, 2 children along with our many bags.  Somehow it all fit although I could not even see Tegan when I was seated with all the placed baggage.  Another 5 minutes and we were at our hotel for the night and up the stairs into Hotel el Sol.

Hotel el Sol is run by a pleasant Japanese family and our room was clean and well kept.  Downstairs there was even a sushi restaurant that we chose as our eatery for dinner.  We basically threw our stuff into our room and then decided to head into town and do some exploring.  Panajachel's experience was different this time around; it was basically a single road town 10 years ago but now it had grown at least 5 or perhaps 10 fold.  The hired tuk-tuk took us to a row of restaurants that obvious had been built to meet the demand of tourists.  Greeted by competing restaurant staff urging us into their restaurant, we chose the lake view for our lunch.  I talked to a man about the various destinations we could go to by water taxi around the lake.  Santiago de Atitlan was recommended to Correen by a friend and we weighed the options of private water taxi over the public trip.  We chose the private water taxi and after dinner we were heading across the lake to the small town.

Upon arriving the market was very active and there were hundreds of shops lining the street up the hill towards the center of town.  We stopped and looked at some Mayan wares including some pretty woven shirts for Tegan.  Tegan tried on a couple of shirts and eventually settled on one with large flowers. She tried on the dress with the sash and I have to admit she looked pretty cute.  She wanted to wear it then and there.  So we worked on a price and got a quick alteration and she was off in her little Mayan outfit.  Correen made some deal on a a couple of hammocks and then we continued to explore the town.  Up the hill we walked along cobblestone streets and through the market selling a variety of staple products.  I Snapped a photo of some women selling fish and was reminded of how sensitive the Mayans are to photos. We stopped briefly at the church and then decided that we would return back to our ferry and return to Panajachel.


Tegan was a hit in her outfit.  The ladies of Santiago de Atitlan commented on the skirt she wore as it was of the towns colours..  Though Tegan fit in more in her traditional outfit, we still stood out as money spending tourists and the hoard of relentless little girls trying to get you to buy their whatevers began.  I had at least 4-5 girls constantly asking, begging and bargaining with me.  The price of bracelets went from $5 down to 5 for a dollar and still the answer was I don't want or need them.  Thank you and go find someone else to bug.  They might spend there money, but I'm not.  20 minutes solid of this continued  right until the boat was leaving the dock.  I was afraid the little girl was going to fall in the water as she was grabbing my hand and begging me to buy her bracelets.  It was a relief to be leaving that place and also sad to think it was probably once a great experience.

With the water taxi ride over we walked through some more shops along the lakeside walkway up to the main street of town.  We grabbed a couple of things in the store and then hitched a ride back to our hotel in another tuk-tuk.  Elliot and Tegan went downstairs to play with the kids that were hanging out downstairs in the lobby and courtyard.  There were 3 boys for T & E to play with and they enjoyed some time with kids their own age.

We arranged our shuttle to Chichi before we made our way downstairs for dinner at the sushi restaurant.  Correen and the kids shared some miso soup and sushi while I had a tempura chicken dish.  The meal was enjoyable and we spent the evening in the room just playing video games and readying ourselves for the next morning.