I got up a little before 7, finished packing, and read my Bible before joining Brenda for breakfast at 7:30. Sandy had set it all out for us, but she was not down there. I had coffee, frosted flakes with room temperature powdered milk. Brenda borrowed my dental floss. I washed my dishes, brushed my teeth, and then we left. We didn’t know where we could get the bus to go to Terminal, so we asked some people and found out that we can get an autobus (chicken bus) from the corner near our house (next to the sign that says información). Brenda had her huge backpack, but she squeezed on the bus. It made me think of Costa Rica and Tammy carrying her small suitcase with backpack straps and the weird looks people would give us. I just brought my blue backpack because I was coming back on Sunday. Brenda was moving to a different language school, so she had to take everything. We got to Terminal Minerva, and had to backtrack a bit to find the buses. A man asked us where we were going and directed us to a bus. I had to read an article from the national newspaper Prensa Libre for my homework, so I was looking for one on the way to the bus. Brenda asked a man and he somehow flagged down a newspaper seller out of nowhere. I bought one for three quetzales and got on the bus. The man took Brenda’s huge backpack and tied it on top of the bus. Several vendors came on the bus and tried to sell us things. The most interesting was a man with a briefcase who stood in the front of the bus and pulled out all sorts of vegetables and herbs. He would tell us what each one was for. He recommended putting drops of old potatoes in your eyes once a day and drops of some herb in your ears twice a day. Finally, he pulled out some vitamins, and I think what he was saying is that the vitamins had all the benefits of the other things he had shown us. He then went around the bus showing people and trying to get them to buy some vitamins. We sat in the last row of seats. It turned out to be an interesting place to sit because I got to sit next to a turkey! He was inside a feed bag in a crate with just his head sticking out. I tried to take a picture, but it didn’t turn out very well. Brenda went over her flashcards and I reviewed with her. We read some of my newspaper and just talked the rest of the time. The bus ride took about 1.5 hours and cost Q20. It amazed me how the bus assistant would climb all over the bus while it is driving. He would go out the front door and climb on the roof and the next thing you knew, he would be coming in the back door. It would be a very dangerous job!
I like the way you pay on buses in Guatemala. In the other countries, I have visited, you have to pay when you get on the bus. I never know how much the bus will cost, so it is hard to have exact change or even close to it. You also have to have your money out so it is ready, and I feel like I take much more time paying than anyone else, so I think I hold up the line. However, in Guatemala, you can ask the assistant how much it costs before you get on, but you don’t pay until you are on the bus and it is driving. Sometimes it is near the end of the ride (for shorter rides) and sometimes it is 20 minutes or so into the ride (for longer rides). I find it much easier.
We got off the bus at Morería and waited by the side of the road for the next bus that would take us to Panajachel. We waited about 10 minutes and then another bus came. The assistant tied Brenda’s backpack to the roof and we were off. This ride only lasted about 20 minutes and cost Q3. We sat in front of a woman with a 3 year old girl. The girl played with us and would give us her coat and blanket and then we would hand them back. We found out the bus would not take us all the way to Pana, and we would have to get off in Sololá and take another to Pana. The woman was also going to Pana and she offered to show us the way to the next bus. The little girl grabbed ahold of my hand and would not let go. I’m sure we looked like quite the sight with Brenda and her huge backpack and the woman in traditional clothing and me holding onto the little girl! We made it to the next bus and sat near the woman and girl. This ride only took 15 minutes and cost Q3. It was still cool in Sololá. Sandy had told us it would be hot in Pana. The difference is that Sololá is high up in the mountains and Pana is directly below it.
Sandy was right. By the time we arrived in Pana, we had shed all our extra layers. We got off the bus, got several hugs from the little girl who had to be pulled away from us whining and screaming, and headed out to find the restaurant where we were meeting Brenda’s friend, Laura. They had only seen each other once in ten years, but now they were both in Guatemala. Laura married a man from Guatemala and had lived here for several years. Now she lives in the States, but she was visiting for a month or so. We had a little extra time before we had to meet Laura, so we browsed some of the vendors’ goods. There were lots of textiles for sale. We didn’t buy anything. We started looking for Café Jasmin which is where we were supposed to meet Laura. We had trouble finding it, even after asking four people. Brenda checked her notes and saw that it was Deli Jasmin. After we asked the first person where Deli Jasmin was located, we found it right away. We were there first, so we sat down at a table and started looking at menus. I went to the bathroom which had both soap and toilet paper, and when I returned, Laura was there. We ordered our food. I had a watermelon licuado, which is fresh watermelon blended with water to make a deliciously refreshing drink. For my meal, I ordered mixed vegetables that came on brown rice with peanut sauce. It was good. Brenda and Laura caught up and talked about plans for the rest of the weekend. They decided to stay in Pana. Laura offered to show me where I needed to go to take the boat to San Pedro. We left the restaurant and went to find them a hotel so they could put their stuff down. After one unsuccessful attempt, we found them a hotel and they dropped their stuff off and changed into cooler clothes.
We headed out to walk around the town. Laura gave us a little tour. The beach was destroyed by all the rain they have had. You could tell the water line was higher than normal because many trees, docks, and even a lifeguard stand were under water. We took some pictures with the volcanoes in the background, and then Laura pointed me to where I needed to go to take a boat to San Pedro. I found it easily and was the second person on the boat, which meant I had to wait for about a half hour for enough people to go. I wanted to sit by a window so I could see everything. I thought it was funny that the woman behind me was sitting directly in the middle and wouldn’t scoot over even when we needed more space on the boat. When the boat left, I soon found out why. It was a very little boat and we had a lot of people in it, so it was riding very low in the water. The windows were loosely covered with clear plastic sheets that blew in the wind. Depending on how tightly you were holding the plastic down, quite a bit of water splashed the people sitting on the edges. I couldn’t really see much because of the spray, but I did get nice and damp. It was a pretty miserable crossing. Lake Atitlán was rough and there were whitecaps. Our little boat eventually made it after a half hour of being buffeted by the wind and waves. We paid as we got off (Q25). I wandered up to the town and looked for Casa Elena, a cheap hotel that was recommended by Frommer’s and Laura. I found it, but the owner was not there. I asked a man sitting nearby if he knew if there was room. He thought there was and said he thought the owner would return soon. I went out to the street and wandered around. I bought a few things from a man selling jewelry that he, his wife, and daughters had made. He said that his 10 year old daughter makes 1-2 bracelets a day. Each of these bracelets was selling for a little over a dollar, but could probably be bargained down to much less. I walked back to the hotel and this time the owner was there. I asked to see a room, and he showed me a sparsely-furnished but clean room. I could have a private bathroom for just two dollars more, so I decided to go with my own bathroom. The room was still less than ten dollars. I changed into a skirt and sandals, left my stuff, and headed out to explore San Pedro.
I wanted to find the other boat dock that I would need to find in the morning, but I ended up going to the center of town. I visited the market and the Catholic church. I also went in a little store and looked around. I recognized some of the brands from Costa Rica, but I was disappointed to see that they didn’t have vanilla or strawberry Chicky cookies, only chocolate, which tastes a little weird. I didn’t buy any. I eventually found my way to the dock. I tried to walk back on a path close to the lake, but it was flooded, so I turned around and went up a street. I discovered that I only had to stay on the paved path to go to my hotel. It was funny because the path curved and wound around between houses. There were no cross streets, just this one path. If you left the path, you would end up at someone’s house. I went back to the shopping away and bought a few things, including a big cinnamon roll. I had eaten lunch fairly late, so I wasn’t extremely hungry for dinner. As I was making my last purchase, it started to rain.
I went back to my hotel and decided to shower, even though it was fairly cool by this time. The shower never really got warm. It was the kind of shower that has the shower head on the wall in the bathroom without an actual shower stall. It was like this in India. This meant that the whole bathroom gets wet when you shower. I packed up my stuff, ate my cinnamon roll, dried fruit, and yummy Chocolate Chip granola bar from the Lakes, wrote in my journal, and went to bed. It was cold by this time, and I wished I had long pants to sleep in. The bed had sheets and a super thin silky cover on top. I wrapped myself in the covers as much as I could and went to sleep at 8:45. I was super tired and the rain on the roof made a delightful sound, so I fell asleep almost immediately.
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