Intro & Atitlán

Surprise!

I'm keeping a blog of my adventures in Central America over the next few months. I'm here for a semester program through St. John's University (C

SB|SJU), along with 15 other 'Johnnies' and 'Bennies.' I've already been here over two weeks, so I have a bit

of recap to do.

I flew out from Minnesota December 30th with my friends Billie and Becky...

Our group was to report to Guatemala on January 2nd, so the t

hree of us decided to come a little early to ease our transition to Guatemala and enjoy some vacation time.

We went to Lake Atitlán. It's a large body of water in the western

highlands (mountains) of Guatemala. There are many small villages on the shores of Atitlán. We stayed at a hostel in Panajachel, the most accessible city via

road. 'Pana,' like other towns around the lake, hosts a sizeable population of U.S. expats, most of whom run restaurants or shops in the city. And there is no shortage of shops or street vendors.

Transport to other towns around the lake is simple and cheap. Simply walk down to the shore and hop on a lancha (boat). In our case, we ended up at the shore after a mini-adventure on a tuk-tuk, small 3-wheeled taxis c

ommon throughout Asia. While walking around Pana, Rudy, one such teenage tuk-tuk driver, picked us up. We only wanted a ride to the lake, but instead we ended up at San Cristalina, another town on the lake, for lunch. A

fterwards, Rudy returned us to Pana and dropped us off with his friend who owns a lancha.

We took the lancha to San Pedro: backpacker headquarters of Atitlan. San Pedro is situated on a hill on the shore, and it wasn't hard to find a cafe with a great view.

Also in San Pedro, we witnessed a New Year's festival with actors wearing giant masks of various characters, including two babies, an old man, a cowboy, a drunk, a

nd Michael Jackson. On our way back to the docks from this spectacle, we received an invitation to a New Year's celebration at a private residence on San Pedro volcano, which we obliged.

Before we went to the celebration, however, our lancha captain took us to San Marcos, another village on Atitlán home to a myriad of yoga retreats, holistic living centers, massage salons and more of the like. We didn't opt for any of these activities, but merely wandered around the village and enjoyed the views and people.

Later that night, we went to the private residence (La casa de Antonio) to usher in the New Year. As the clock struck 12:00, we had an amazing view from the volcano of nearly every town's firework display. Imagine the thousands of flashes that go off at a professional sports game or concert: this was the consistency a

nd frequency of the fireworks. Unbelievable! Of course, we also had a perfect vantage point for watching the blue moon and clear night sky above Atitlán.

The rest of our time in Atitlán was spent relaxing and enjoying the great weather. We spent

most of our time on the shore or on the roof of our hostel (Hotel Tzutujil) soaking up the sun

and the views. We also spent some time on the water in kayaks.

On our last morning in Pana, we rose early to watch the sunrise. We were joined by a small pack of dogs, which ordinarily would be dangerous, but when they approached us we just kept walking, and they decided to join us. They then took on the role as our protectors, and even attacked a man on the beach. There really wasn't anything we could do to help, as we had no control over the dogs.

Later that day, Billie, Becky and I hopped on a van that brought us to Quetzaltenango, or Xela, where we're living and studying for this semester.

Atitlán was a great start to our four months here, giving us a small, somewhat touristy but nonetheless valuable taste of Guatemala. We had our fill of relaxation and sun, and arrived in Xela ready for what the next few days would bring...