Alone again

Briony left for Mexico today and I decided it would be a good day to take a trip to the yoga farm I've been thinking about doing an apprenticeship at. First I had to take a boat to Santiago Atitlan and ask around about Finca de Yoga Mystica. After wandering the town a bit I found someone who knew what I was talking about. I got on another boat and the man took me across the bay to the property. I didn't realize it was going to be so expensive, 80 quetzales with return! That's like 10 dollars. Plus when I got picked up it was by a different boat and that boatman was trying to get me to pay him 40 more. It was a bit of a scene and I ended up not paying him and telling him he needs to figure it out with the other dude because it wasn't my problem he didn't get paid. That, and the fact that I had over an hour and a half wait until the next boat back to San Pedro, put me in an irritable mood. I forgot how difficult it was to get around with my embarrassing Spanish skills, I was so spoiled traveling with Briony ;)
So, anywaysss.. Finca de yoga was alright. Kinda pointless for me to have visited because they were in the middle of a teacher training so no one was available to chat with me about the possibility of an apprenticeship. I did feel like I could spend some time there though. Its in a very secluded location, one of the most beautiful spots on the lake, on the eastern slope of San ¨Pedro volcano where its all a protected park. The side of the lake with San Pedro volcano is obviously a protected site because compared to the other mountains, it is mainly forested, where as the remaining mountains are pretty sick looking. They have lots of landslides because they farm on the steep slopes year after year and add more and more fertilizers. From a distance you can see the square corn and coffee crops and then many plots with no vegetation whatsoever. Close to the lake shore are many small scale vegetable gardens with much more variety in plant species.
Santiago is a small town, much less touristy than San Pedro. I was thinking I would change locations for my last couple days on the lake but I'm pretty content with my spot and now that I've been to 3 other towns I enjoy the variety of things to do in San Pedro the best. You can have all the meditation, yoga, eating, social life you want here, a little bit of everything :)

I haven't been doing much around the lake. Our second day here we hiked up volcano San Pedro. That was one hell of a hike! I've never hiked such a steep trail before, there were times I thought I was going to fall backwards. We met the local guide, whom turned out to be about 70, accompanied with his machete and towel around his neck...(the towel should have been my clue to get more clothes!!) at the reception of our hotel at 5am. Two Irish guys were ready for the hike as well. We started walking through the town and into the National Park and began the accent at sunrise. All seemed pretty good until I realized the guide was going to keep up the fast pace and not have any tolerance for stopping or meandering. I got pretty frustrated with the hike. I really wanted to enjoy myself and be able to check out the plants n whatnot but the guide was, clearly, in a hurry. (Its mandartory to get hire a guide in the National Park, otherwise we would have gone alone). We got to the summit at 8:30am! We relaxed and ate for about 20 minutes and then, vamanos! down we went, basically running. We made it down in 1 hour! It was so crazy, I have no idea why we had to complete the hike so fast. Oh and to make matters worse I thought I was getting frostbite on my toes the whole way up. I really assumed I would heat up and the sun would warm us but, man alive, was I wrong. I ended up wearing one of the Irish dude's thermal on my legs to keep from freezing. Briony and I were both wiped out for the rest of the day so we just sat and drank coffee and ate for the remaining of the day. There are many delicious gringo restaraunts here with lots of vegetarian options.
The other day we took a boat the Panajachel, the biggest town on the lake. We just wandered around and then came back to San Pedro, there's nothing special about Panajachel except it has the best view of the three volcanoes from the dock. Yesterday we kayaked to the town across the lake from San Pedro, San Marcos. San Marcos is very small, its basically a meditation, yoga center and then the indigenous people doing their thing. The kayaking was great on the way there but the way back was brutal, the wind was blowing against us and waves were crashing into the kayak. Briony thought we were gonnna drown, haha. I will stay here for 2 more days and then meet up with Joey somewhere on the beach of El Salvador. I've met some pretty..interesting El Salvadorians so far so I look forward to seeing what the country is like.

As for Tikal...where I left off on my last post:
Tikal is massive, its a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It took nearly 5 hours to walk to all the different temples, climbing the temples gave grand views of the forest canopy and the vantage point for hearing monkeys all over. We got there shortly after sunrise and there was still a heavy fog covering the tips of the temples to the point where you couldn't see the temples from high up structures. It was beautiful to watch the fog burn off from the top of Temple II.  Tikal was definitely the most impressive of the Mayan Ruins I have visited. Its very close to the Mexican border, so it is close to Calakmul, that other archeological site I wanted to visit but never made it. Tikal was the capital of the conquest state for the Mayans, in politics, economics, and military.

After Briony and I visited Tikal and Flores we went to Lanquin for 2 nights. The major spot to see outside of Lanquin is Semuc Champey, a series of natural pools in the valley of the mountains. Lanquin is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in Guatemala. Its just a small village community and some tourists who are there for a day or two to visit the river's beautiful colorful pools. We stayed at a hostel that was on the peaks of several smaller mountains, we had a nearly 360 degree view of the canyons and river down below. The highlight of Lanquin was definitely the puppies at the hostel! There were 4, 7 week old puppies. SO cute!!! Briony and I spent pretty much all our time with the puppies or taking photos of the puppies. Moma pup was around too so that was just even more adorable when the puppies wanted to eat and she wasn't having it or when she would groom the little guys. Precious.

After Lanquin we spent one night in Antigua. We were getting anxious to settle in one spot, at the lake, so we just briefly saw Antigua. Besides, Briony had been there previously and I didn't care for the town as much as other people seemed to. People from all over rave about Antigua but what I saw was a bunch of white people taking over the town. There's a large population of students and peace corps volunteers in and around Antigua that makes it seem like a Californian town in Guatemala. Yuppie shops and not much traditional Guatemalan life going on in Antigua. Also very expensive clothing and food stuffs. But then again, where the white people are so are the health food shops so Briony and I did have a play day in one of the cafes, mmm huevos motuleños!

Well, I think that sums up what I've been up to in Guatemala so far. It sure doesn't sound as exciting as its been so I must be leaving things out or just not a good story teller...op! but thanks for reading anyways!