El viaje

Having had a nice sunny birthday morning in Antigua we saddled the horses and rode into the sunset!

Unfortunately our horses are called Jim and the spectacular sunset was a couple of massive rainclouds..

There was a hurricane in Mexico and there is still a couple of remnants to be felt and seen all over the place here. Especially in the mountains. And thats where we went , up into the Guatemalan highlands.

Nineteenth century traveler/chronicler John L Stephens, writing in Incidents of Travel in Central America, called Lago di Atitlán “the most magnificent spectacle we ever saw” and the dude had been around a bit.

Fishermen in rustic crafts ply on the lakes aquamarine surface, while indigenous women in multicolored outfits do their washing by the banks. These banks are covered in every imaginable facet of green and over everything loom the volcanos , between which crazy cloud formations dance wildly in all shapes and forms. Bonkers!

Volcanic explosions have been going on here for millions of years but the todays landscape has its origins in the massive eruption of around 85 thousand years ago, called “Los Chocoyos” which blew volcanic ash as far as Florida and Panama.

The quantity of magma expelled caused the surface terrain to collapse, forming a huge hollow that filled with water: the Lago di Atitlán. Smaller volcanos rose out of the lakes southern waters thousands of years later. Volcán San Pedro followed by Volcán Atitlán and Volcán Toliman.

This is the only time i could get both of them , since the clouds moved so fast. Every 2 minutes the entire scenery changed drastically.

The lake today is 8km across from north to south , 18km from east to west and averages a depth of around 300m.

Around 900 AD when the Maya highland civilization was in decline, the region was settled by two groups that had migrated from the Tolpec capital of Tula in Mexico, the Kaqchiquel and the Tz’utujil. The Tz’utujil settled at Chuitinamit, across the way form the present Santiago, while the Kaqchiquel occupied the lakes northern shores. These demographics persit to the present day.

By the time the Spanish showed up in 1524, the Tz’utujil had expanded their domain to occupy most of the lakeshore. Pedro de Alvarado exploited the situation by allying with the Kaqchiquels against their rivals whom they defeated in a bloody battle at Tzanajuyu. The Kaqchiquels subsequently rebelled against the Spanish and were themselves subjugated by 1531.

Approaching from the east we avoided the highly appraised Panajachel because it is known to be a backpackers party town and Lu having felt better but not on top of things didnt want to spend the evening with loud techno and shots. Me neither, so we went south along the shore crossing San Lucas. Shout out to both our Luc(k)as friends!! The stone pushing Lukas B. & and mathmind Lucas M.😘

Lu was not feeling well. We only had a few glimpses of the lake, even though being on the shore we could hardly ever see the other side. Rain and clouds intensified. So we decided to go to the next village. Hoping the rain stop would behind the next corner. And it did in Santiago.

I bought a very nice blanket and a kind of scarf the locals wear and craft here.

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We liked Santiago the most because of its lack of forgein influence. There is not as many hotels/hostels/bars and burgerjoints as in the other villages. Each village seems to have a bit of a theme going on. Panajachel for party, San Marcos for yogis and hippes etc

Driving out towards San Pedro you go up the mountain and around the Volcano San Pedro. The volcanos slopes are covered in coffee and mais plants and every other green plant you can imagine. Earlier i wrote every facet of green and it really is true. Especially since the light changes every two minutes or so because of the swiftly moving clouds so it just gives the entire setting a truly mystical vibe.

We chose San Marcos, the hippie place, as our final destination. But we chose late and by the time we got there we could not find free rooms without bugs in the bed ( literally) and decided to have a snack and watch the rain. It was a weird Indian/Guatemalan fusion of food. San Marcos is not only shanti, its shanti shanti. Shanti but good 😉

Having failed to find a hotel, the rain getting stronger, the dark getting darker and Lu getting weaker i started feeling guilty. Its her birthday, she has a bad stomach and we drive around bad roads without a hotel and all i can do is shanti shanti soup?

The last bit, in the now very heavy rain , and the dark, we drove back to San Pedro were we found a nice little hotel. To bed and instantly , we fell asleep.