Guatemala round two

We had planned on taking one of the bikes to the small villages that are scattered around the lakeshore, this plan changed to hiring a boat to take us across the lake to 3 of the villages. The day off the bike would be nice and judging from the road into Pana it would not be much fun to ride around. The boat cost about $50Cdn (360Q) and we were joined by a young traveller from Toronto.


The first stop was a vibrant and steeply graded village, San Pedro la Laguna. Here there were alot of travellers, the most we had seen since the start of the trip. The boat tours are popular so there sometimes is a congestion of tourists in one spot. The village itself is built on the side of a mountain so the street grades are incredible. Good exercise to be had will snooping out the place, this also led to us finding some rather interesting albeit very confusing laneways. The buildings are all connected as they are in many of the towns, so the laneways go for longs distances sometimes until another street is crossed. Plus, the walls are high so it is harder to get one’s bearings at times. We did find some trendy coffee shops and therapeutic massage parlours amongst the maze. We managed to make it back to the boat on time and even had a moment to talk with the Auzzie couple again, they had also taken a boat tour and were now enrolling into Spanish classes for a week or two. Hmmm not a bad idea.
Our skipper quickly navigated the boat around a point and into a small cove where the second village, San Juan la Laguna. This village was quite a bit smaller and quieter than San Pedro, it was also set back from the water, so this gave us our first TukTuk ride. The driver took us to a local shop where the women weave the elaborately coloured clothing that we have seen in the shops. The lady did her best to describe the process in English and I think we got the most of it. They use natural food dyes to color the cotton that is picked in the hills around the area. The cotton comes is three colors; white, brown and khaki. The cotton is then cleaned of seeds, stretched out and beaten with a “Y” shaped stick for 20 minutes, then it is spun into thread using a stick about 18inches long. The white thread is then dyed to achieve the colors needed. Carrots for orange, basil for purple, flowers for yellow, grasses for different shades of green, and coconut for browns. The thread is then weaved onto a board with spikes in it for drying, she said this was a very important step in the process. Then the weaving actually can start. She said it takes about a week to make a sweater and about the same for scarf. The more colors the longer it takes. Some of the ladies in town are selling their scarves for 10Q ($1.50cdn), not that much for a weeks work, although I think some of the products are mass produced based on the number of them available and the consistency of the stitching.


The third and final village, San Marco la Laguna, is still a total hippie hangout. Lots of holistic shops, yoga, massage parlours, meditation centers, and pretty much anything else you can think of in way of spiritual development. Throw in a few bars, coffee shops, and restaurants and that about sums up the whole village. The layout of the village was the most unique of all, there was one major path about 4 feet wide up from the water to the intersection with a small road. That was about it, aside from a bunch of dirt trails through the bushes that would lead you to the shops and healing centers. Our young traveller friend talked to a lady that had just finished a 3 month meditation, which means all she did was think, eat, sleep. No conversation with anyone as she was shut into a room and given her meals through a slot in the door. It sounded more like solitary confinement than meditation, but we can respect her accomplishment and perseverance. There must be a large energy center here to support all this healing.
So the decision to rent a boat was a good one, we met some nice people, seen some interesting things, and got to enjoy the day without the worry of traffic and navigating.
From Pana we intended to take the lakeshore road around the north end of the lake then turn to Solola and then on to CA1 which would take us towards Antigua Guatemala, we were on the road early filled with gas and as we left the west end of town the highway was closed off with a steel gate. Hmm... back through Pana and south along the east coastline the way we came in. In hindsight it was a good thing we hired the boat because the “ride around the lake” turned out to be a bust. Backtracking is alright, once in a while, at least we knew the road was open. We made a guess that the road heading due east to Patrizia was open, this saved us going all the way south to Godinez and then back NorthEast to Anitgua. The road was open all the way although there was a section or two missing.


This gave us another first for our trip. The first water crossing, as in ride through the creek that was over a couple feet deep in the centre. The bikes handle this stuff just fine, they are actually built for this kind of action. The rest of the road wound its way through some canyons and hills then spit us out onto the CA1. This sped up the journey as traffic is at full highway speed on CA1. Big highway, lots of traffic and trucks and busses. Wehn we got to the spot that said "Antigua ->" we turned south as expected but ended up on a small highway that ended after about 20km. I stopped to ask a man cutting weeds along the road, he was very helpful and told us in rapid Spanish to go back and around the volcano, we thanked him and were on our way. Ok, I know...backtracking again.
So back in the town we can’t pronounce, the sign clearly indicated to turn where we did. This time we decided to follow the CA1 until we seen another sign or major highway. About 5km past where the sign was there was a major highway with another sign that said "Antigua –>". Now we were confident that it was the proper road, not really sure what the first sign was all about. Boogy down the road it should have been easy to find Antigua, but there was no sign from the North to say turn left, so we of course blew by the turn, about 10km later I realized all the signs were indicating Esquintla not Antigua, so once again the kindness of strangers was tested and yes they confirmed our suspicion that we missed the turn. From the south it is clearly signed.

Guatemala round one

Guatemala here we come, it is Nov 21st and we are heading to the border at La Mesilla. It should only take a couple of hours according to our experience but we are unsure how long it will take to get across.
We have read that if you don’t surrender your vehicle documents that you don’t have to pay a second time upon returning from Central America. This is a good strategy to save some money but we would like to have the option of shipping the bikes home without returning to Mexico should something happen down the road.
We made it to the border in the estimated time, the first thing we noticed is that it is very busy, not at the crossing but along the road leading up to the crossing. There were numerous taxi’s, mini busses, food vendors etc. All this hinting at a long wait, why else would there be numerous restaurants at a border in the middle of nowhere. We pulled up to the pile-ons and a fella in uniform motioned for us to pull into a "quarantine area" for fumigation; this was expected so we were not surprised. The fumigation is to prevent transfer of bugs and stuff across the border, yes, it is a comical situation, people are carrying all kinds of stuff across, but the vehicles have to have their undercarriage sprayed with a liquid that does not have any chemical odour to it at all. Personally I think it was just dirty water but it only cost $12.50Q for each bike. $1=7Quetzals.
Then we went to the immigration office to get our passport stamps, they told us to go back down the road 4 km and get our Mexican exit stamps first, I thought this was the Mexican exit. Apparently we missed something along the road, so back we went and sure enough there was the office, on the East side of the road. When leaving Mex that would make it on the other side of the highway, no wonder we missed it. The chap behind the counter was not very helpful, both Brenda and I are sure he was asking for us to pay an exit fee of 262pesos each, the same as what we paid when we entered at Nogales. We kept asking what the fee was for, he would explain in rapid fire Spanish and we would try to pick up a few words every time he repeated it. Finally, with the help of an Italian traveller, we got it straight. The immigration guy backed off on the fee and stamped our passports. He did take our visitor visa even though it was good for 6 months but only one entry. No biggie, it was only $25 bucks anyway. We then were directed to the Banercito to turn over our bike documents, we were happy to learn that we did not have to as our current permit is good to the end of March. This doesn’t help us if we end up shipping home from Panama or something though. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there.
So, back up the hill the 4km to the border, the immigration guy smiled widely when we showed him the Mexico exit stamp, then boom boom we were stamped into Guat and off to the Aduana office to import our bikes. This was also a very easy process as the form was bilingual and the fee was only $40Q each, one more quick check of the documents by yet another border person and we were done. All that and 90 minutes.
The welcome to Guat is done via a cramped two lane highway through La Mesilla with hundreds of vendors lining each side of the street. All the usual products, blankets, clothes, shoes, trinkets, pottery, food, wood carving and more overwhelm the senses as we try to negotiate traffic. Then we come up behind some sort of procession that was either a funeral or some sort of religious thing being Sunday and all.


Anyhoo, a couple on a scooter were nice enough to show us an alternate route through town, on the side streets, and then we were away.
Just out of La Mesilla the highway cuts deep into the bottom of a lush gorge. The landscape and even the foliage has changed drastically in the last couple of miles. Not like crossing from Alberta into Montana where everything looks the same.
Our first night in Guat was spent in Totonicapan, which is about 20 km from the more popular Quetzaltenango. We feel we made the right choice because it was a very quaint town that had a nice market happening just a couple of blocks from our Haspedaje (Guat term for hotel or boarding house).



The town also had a large Centro Square in front of the main church, plus a park that worked as a cornerpost for the market. The ladies are all dressed in traditional clothes with brightly colored dresses and blouses with wide sashes, and low healed shoes. Even with the heals the women are only about 5ft tall, so Brenda feels like a giant amongst them. They are of course friendly and when we catch their eyes checking us out they smile and quickly and greet us with a friendly Buenos tardes (good afternoon). The young girls giggle and cover their mouths sheepishly, just like at home. The young guys try to be cool and not look, but we catch the occasional glance, so again just like at home. The sun sets like clock work and it is dark by 6pm so we head back to our room to plan the next day and capture the current. This involve downloading photos, writing a bit for the blog, looking at maps, and trying to rough out a route, plus stay awake long enough to do this. It sounds funny but we tend to fall asleep before 9pm and are usually awakened by the first noises of the morning at about 6am.
The days start with a quick breakfast of fruit and sometimes coffee in our room, followed by packing all the stuff into the luggage, not the saddlebags just the Ortleib bags, and then hitting the road. Oh ya, and the spare tires. I never wanted tires to wear out so fast so that we can stop packing these spares.
The next stop was Lake Atitlan and the town of Panajchel, this lake is flanked by two inactive volcanoes. Panajchel was once a great spot for hippies to come and relax and smoke what grows, over time some of them opened shops and bars and now it is a regular tourist destination. Despite the road in, it is actually quite a vibrant town with an active market street and good nightlife. The shops have all the same stuff as we’ve seen at the border and in Toto yesterday, so little is of interest, plus we are not big trinket people anyway. If you have been to our house you know this to be true. We did see some nice artwork though, so tomorrow we may have to do some haggling for a piece or two. Our haspedaje was recommended to us by a couple from Australia that we crossed paths with on the highway. It just happened that as we came to a fork in the highway they were coming from the other direction and stopped in the big center triangle thing. I seen that it was a big bike(650 KLR) so I pulled up beside them and started a conversation. She has been travelling for 6 months and has another 6 to go, he joined her and will spend 6 months in C.America. They had just come from Pana, so I asked where they stayed and wella here we are. Basic room, bath down the hall, clean, secure bike parking, 70Q. Yes that means $10CDN, and free coffee. We may stay a while.