On the road again...

I love blog comments (hint hint). They're almost as good as getting emails. Thanks to the two people who write them!

So I wrote earlier about how sometimes the journey is more interesting than the destination. Well, yesterday I thought my journey was going to BE my destination...

I decided on Friday that I wanted to go to Lake Atitlan, which is supposed to be the most beautiful part of Guatemala. I've seen pretty lakes before - one in Chile I cant remember the name of, in Swizerland (also cant remember the name), so I was skeptical. I also was undecisive so didn't get a chance to book a 6 am shuttle to Panajachel (the sort of gateway town on the lake), from one of the many travel agencies, because I realized I might as well do it with my host family or I would feel bad. But then their office was closed, and neither parent was at dinner, so I couldn't do it. So I decided to take a direct Pullman (coach) bus to Panajachel that left at 7 am since I didn't need an advance ticket. I've been waking up early anyway, (I have no friends to go out with, so I go to sleep early too). So I was up around 6 and it was actually nice to walk through the city when it wasnt busy. The bus left around 7:05, and was supposed to be direct. I figured this meant that if you didn't get on at Antigua, you didnt get on at all. Not true. While the bus may not have detoured, it definitely picked up people along the way, who ended up having to stand in the aisle (all the tourists got on at Antigua, so none of us were standing). About an hour into the journey, the conductor guy (who collects the money, not the driver) yelled out to everyone to duck because there were police on the side of the highway. When I was on a "public bus" in Zambia to go to Victoria Falls, we actually got stopped by the police, who were claiming it was only one set for a person, not two..but they let us go without a fuss in a minute or too. So the whole "duck for the cops" thing was kind of old hat for me. And we didnt get stopped. One of the ladies who boarded the bus had a basket of tortillas and cooked veggie (and who knows what else) and was selling them to people on the bus before she hopped off.

Then about 1 hour 40 minutes in, we came to a part of the highway where all the cars were stopped. This is the Pan American Highway, by the way, which I think goes from Mexico (and the US?) to South America. In Guate it is one lane in each direction. So people were out of their cars and buses, but about 3 minutes later we started moving. Not too bad of a wait! Then 20 seconds later we stopped again. Aparently there is construction on the highway so 2 or 3 times where you have to wait for 20 minutes are not uncommon. And then some buses in front of us started turning around. And then we did, too. The conductor yelled out something, and a lot of the local people got off. But he didnt give any more information. I really had no idea if we were going back to Antigua or what. After about 10 minutes we turned off the main highway and squeezed our way through a small town. I felt comfortable that we were going the right way because other cars and buses were going the same way, including an armoured car. Anyway, once we made it past the town (which had many inhabitants standing on their "lawns" - I dont think it is every day that a parade of vehicles goes through the town) we hit a dirt road. And then started winding our way up and down through a canyon. In an old Greyhound bus. Awesome. I think I was more worried about a breakdown than anything else, because I dont think Greyhounds were built for dirt roads (good thing it isnt the rainy season). The conductor and driver actually stopped the bus a few times, got out and did something outside the bus. I'm not sure I would have wanted to know what! It was encouraging every time we saw a sign for "Panajachel" because it meant we were still heading there, but discouraging when we got to a sign pointing Pana to the right...and we went left. But finally, after 3 1/2 hours (instead of the supposed 2 1/2), we got to Panajachel! The worst part for me was not being sure if we'd have to go back that way (there were clearly buses and shuttles running in the opposite direction through the mountains, too).

In Pana I bought a shuttle ticket back to Antigua, to be sure I'd be able to get back, and then headed down to the down to catch a boat to Santiago Atitlan, which one book called the most interesting town on the lake. There are a few more, one which has multiple Spanish schools and a hippy-laid back-"'grass' is grown there" vibe which isnt me at all, so I wasnt really interested in going there. To get to Santiago, there's a public ferry that takes more than an hour, and "lanchas" which take half an hour, and are still public, but leave only when full. I headed to a lancha, which wanted way more than I expected to pay (50 quetzales round trip, at 7.8 to $1) so I said I didn't have that much (and meant it, as I was supposed to get change from the shuttle company later) and walked away. Without meaning to, that was a successful bargaining strategy because they brought it down to 40 RT. Anyway, I have to say that Panajachel, the lake itself and Santiago Atitlan would all fall under my category of "not nearly as charming/beautiful/interesting (pick your own positive adjective) as the books say they are." I do realize that you cant have the same standards as in the US or Europe, but I just didnt find them that appealing, and the lake wasnt a pretty color, nor were the mountains/volcanoes surrounding it green (maybe it was just the season). Anyway, I was done with Atitlan pretty quickly. I suppose that I wasnt appreciative enough that many indigenous people live there, and wear colorful woven clothing - the men in capri length shorts, the women in long skirts, but I dont know much about the Mayan culture so cant distinguish the differen "tribes" (I dont think they are called tribes). There are about 20 different Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala.

Back in Pana I killed time eating lunch slowly (18 quetzales, about $2.50 for a drink - don't know what it was, it was kind of like coconut milk, fried chicken, rice, veggies, potatoes and tortillas - not a bad deal! There's a place in Antigua also with a set menu for 18 Q that includes soup too, and I've eaten there twice..it is going to be hard to eat anywhere else when I know what I can get there, and the "menu del dia" changes daily) and looking at guidebooks in a used bookstore where I spoke with an Australian lady. She complained about being a permanent resident of Canada and having to go back every 5 years to keep that status. I guess I don't feel like it is that unreasonable for a country where you aren't actually living to ask you to do that every so often! She also complained that her partner couldn't get permanent residency in Australia, where they wanted to live, because the government decided he wouldnt be working and therefore wouldnt provide much tax revenue. Again, I think it might be within a country's right to decide who they want there (if one isnt an asylum seeker with nowhere else to go), plus she could have just married him. People are funny politically. I was kind of glad to have to leave the store to get to the shuttle.

Which left late. Fortunately, the highway was cleared by then - apparently it was a mudslide from the night before. There were 3 in the shuttle at first, all of us American, then we picked up two more people from another shuttle at a gas station, and one happened to be a an American college student (from Llyod's university!) studying at the school I have been thinking of moving to in another city for my third week. He is there with 23 other students from his school, and had nothing but good things to say about the spanish school, so maybe it is fate that I talked to him? So last night I was all set on moving to Xela (shay-la) for the third week, and even leaving on Saturday because I think I will have had enough of Easter celebrations by then (so much to say about that...another day though). But then today I met 2 girls (one American, one British) who are studying at a school here - a Christian school - and they are nice and I'm meeting them and others for dinner, and a girl I met the other day who I hung out with emailed me to say she's still in town. And all I really want is friends. While I think the quality of my school is ok, I made a bad choice to go to a small one. Yes immersion at my school is easier, but I dont know much Spanish and I'm more interested in having friends at the moment, because that is what will make me happier for now. So we will see. I keep going back and forth between wishing I wasn't in Guatemala for 3 weeks, and wishing I was here longer!

I have so much more to write about but I've struggled with this sticky keyboard enough.