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.    

Day 35 - Christmas Day in Antigua

This morning the kids woke up and dove into the presents left by Santa the night before.  There were a couple of ornaments and some candies for each of them.  We had breakfast at the trusty hotel restaurant and then vegged out for a bit in our room.  Nearing lunchtime we decided to head towards the Bus terminal and market and check out the area we had stayed in 10 years ago. 

We made our way down the street and decided to try some Pollo Campero.  This is a popular fast food chain that began in Central America and has made its way into the USA.  We sat down and placed our order and within 5 minutes we had our meal.  It was pretty good chicken and we left with full bellies.  The start of the market was across the street and we spent about an hour weaving in and out of cubicles of wares looking for nothing but finding a shirt for Tegan and a flag of Guatemala for her class.  We strode past stands of fruits and vegetables some unrecognizable.  Inside we found spices and raw meats being sold on tables with no refrigeration.  The fish was however on some small blocks of ice.  The clothing looked to be knockoff brands of A&F and Hollister and that basically went along with the DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters still in theatres and video games to be had for 5 to 10 dollars.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped and grabbed a ice cream treat for the kids.  Once back at the hotel we just continued to relax in the room, did a little packing and a little more work on the blog.  The kids continued to run around the courtyard playing hide and seek and other games.  The firecrackers noise started again on the streets and we all ran outside to see what was happening. This time a procession took place on the street with a gathering of people dressed up in formal attire and carrying a religious artifact through the streets.  Every so often a large bang like a cannon would sound off at the front of the procession.

When evening came we walked down the street to a Thai restaurant where we ate or did not eat some Thai food.  We went back to the hotel and walked a movie on TV with the kids.

Day 34 - Antigua's Christmas Eve Extravangaza

Today started out with the kids playing in the courtyard of the hotel while I watched a Big Bang Theory marathon on TV.  I got a couple of hours into the marathon before Correen rose to declare this day "UN-FUN".  Within minutes we were making our way down our street first to view a small church south of our hotel and then back north to San Francisco el Grande a large religious site in Antigua.  There were some souvenir shops setup against the perimeter walls of the churchyard and the kids focused on getting some candy for a few queztales.  We walked around the grounds admiring the architecture of this church and ruins dating back to the 16th century.  We decided to enter a museum and view artifacts relating to Saint Joseph Betancur who is enshrined in on these grounds and thousands make pilgrimages every year to beg for favours and miracles.

After our pilgrimage of sorts we made our way back towards central park and stopped into The Bagel Barn for some bagel sandwiches, coffee, tea and a pop and it was delicious!  Next we went for a walk through the parque centro and the kids stopped to do some painting that was free to all the kids.  Instantly I was captured by the beauty of one little Mayan girl.  She must have been barely 2 and she was adorable.  I wasn't the only one photographing her and I suspect that the money she held in her hand was from someone that photographed her earlier.

After the kids created their masterpieces Tegan had to return to the lady to have her hair braided.  The lady wasn't there, but the girls that were with her were there and they remembered Tegan.  We backed down from doing her entire head and instead decided to go for just one strand.  Have a head full of coloured ribbon wasn't the look we were going for.  Tegan sat for about 5 minutes while 2 Mayan girls weaved ribbons around a braid of hair.  Tegan was very happy with the results in the end.  With that completed we took the long way down different streets back to our hotel.  For the afternoon I worked on getting some photos onto the IPad and watching some more of my TV marathon. 

When it came time for dinner we had asked but there was nothing special being served at the restaurant but we decided to stay close to the hotel and have our Christmas dinner there.  At around 7:30 we headed back to the parque centro to hopefully find some Christmas parades and fireworks but when we arrived it was very quiet and uneventful.  We walked around for a half hour and then decided to return to our hotel.  The kids got into their PJs and we basically called it a night.



*Update*

Around 11:30PM the fireworks started and firecrackers were constantly going off.  It sounded quite annoying really after already falling asleep.  But after a solid 30 minutes, Tegan and I ventured outside to see what was happening.  The air was thick with spent gunpowder used in the firecrackers etc.  We walked out onto the streets and watched as people set off crackers in the streets and fireworks went off in each corner of the city.  Had we been up it might have been quite a sight to see.  We stayed out for 10 minutes or so watching fireworks launch from within the city and far away on the hillsides of neighbouring communities.  I wondered if the sight from up on the hillsides of Antigua would have been better viewing of the fireworks.  All planning for the next time around as we had definitely missed the bulk of the aerial display.

Upon our return to the room, the shoes that were left on the windowsill for Santa to find had magically been filled with candy and presents.  Tegan and I were both very surprised with Santa's ability to sneak past us on the streets near our hotel.  Now back to bed for all of us.