by Toni St.Clair on Friday, July 11, 2008 at 6:41pm via FB
So I think I left you all on my first day at Lake Atitlan, and I was in San Marcos (Tuesday)...
After meeting Jen at the meditation center we decided to explore the town, which didn't take too long. It's the smallest of all 12 Mayan villages on the Lake, but is definetly beautiful and has for sure maintained it's quaint, quiet and simple ways. The town itself has houses on either side of the main square, whoch has the church, a basketball/soccer area and the beginnings of a new school. The rest of the islan closer to the lake is made up of little paths and buildings built around the jungle. We had to buy a flashlight since there were no street lights and I didn't feel like sleeping outside so... :)
Wednesday morning we woke up to a beautiful view and went to have some massages...and OH MY... they were awesome massages!! I had a 90 minute Swedish massage and it was about $30...and Jen had reiki, which I am still trying to understand...Afterwards we went across the lake to San Pedro, the so-called party town. Well, maybe it's off-season, or maybe my standards of a party have changed since living in Mexico City but it wasn't very lively...yes there were tons of people, but most abrs were playing movies, and not music. C'est la vie...we watched American Beauty, had a drink and went back to our room. Thursday morning we had a leisurely brunch and caught a boat back to Panajachel around 2:30pm. This gave us plenty of time to explore Panajachel, which is basically one long street of artesanias, a couple hotels and that's it. Good thing we didn't decide to stay there...at 4pm we caught our shuttle back to Guatemala City, via Antigua (a much better 4 hr trip as we were in the front and had more room). We had some cool shuttle mates as well...7 guys from Holland who were HILARIOUS, and 2 girls from the US who we stayed with until reaching Flores. Once we reached Guatemala City (which really doesn't seem like there's much in the way of tourism), we caught an overnnight bus (yes Nana, overnight) to Flores...9hrs later (6am Friday). Now most people would of course get off the bus, find a bed and sleep right?! Well Jen and I aren't most people (much to my dismay) and we decided to go to Tikal at 9am. So we cleaned up, ate and got on a bus for an hour ride to Tikal.
Tikal was worth every penny, and sleepy hike up the pyramids. It is GORGEOUS and defiently a hidden treasure. Unfortunately we were unable to climb the tallest pyramid there (72m) since it was having some restoration work done, but we were able to climb up close to the top via some stairs built on the side. Goregous view, and many more photos of course....
Tonight Jen and I are staying in Flores, but we will be up around 4:15am to catch the one and only bus to Belize City at 5am...this trip is only 5 hrs, with a stop at the border, so hopefully all goes well... the plan is to be at Ambergris Caye, the largest island off Belize, and one of the ones closest to the Belize Barrier Reef tomorrow night. That's the plan...
- xoxo
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