Lago Atitlan - May 2011

High on our list of places to visit in Guatemala was Lago Atitlan. It lies at the foot of three large dormant volcanoes. It is in our minds the loveliest place in all of Guatemala.



Lago Atitlan

After returning to Monkey Bay, we very quickly got Ariel ready so we could leave it for a few months. We decided to stop in Antigua, our most favorite place in Guatemala on our way out of the country, and from there do a three day trip to Lago Atitlan. In Antigua, we usually stay at Casa Cristina, a small hotel in a quiet neighborhood, just a bit away from city center. The owner is nice, speaks English, and we were sure she would agree to hold our luggage while we took our trip to Lago Atitlan. Bill and Pat off Mobetah had left Monkey Bay a few days ahead of us for an inland trip to the west coast with Rodney and Katrina off Angelina. We planned to met them in Antigua and then travel together to Lago Atitlan. They arrived and we spent a couple days enjoying Antigua together. We used a travel agent in Antigua to book our transportation to and from Lago Atitlan and to book a hotel in Panajachel.

Our hotel, Jardines, is the nicest we have stayed at in Central America with a wonderful view of the lake and volcanoes from our room. It was also very close to the ferry dock so it made it easy to come and go.  Our first stop after checking in was to have lunch at La Casa del Mundo. Everyone that we talked to about their experiences at Lago Atitlan highly recommended staying at least one night at La Casa del Mundo. We decided since our stay was to be so short just to have lunch. La Casa del Mundo is situated on it's own remote cliff. After the water taxi left us on their dock, the first order of business was the climb to the top. The place is remarkedly beautiful and the view of Lago Atitlan is spectacular. We enjoyed touring the grounds and we also enjoyed wonderful meals. We took a private taxi back to Panajachel after negotiating down to the public rate.



 

Restaurant - La Casa del Mundo

The next day we decided to visit San Pedro, which is on the opposite side of the lake. The water taxi ride in itself was quite an experience. Firstly, the taxi does not leave until it is absolutely filled. So it is just luck as to whether it is a short or long wait. Secondly, the lake anytime after early morning will be deceivingly rough. It is a long ride to San Pedro, and for us it was very rough and very wet. They provide blue tarps for the passengers in front to shield the spray, but regardless we were all dripping. The constant thought is that we will still need to go back later and it will be even worse.

San Pedro was a nice little village. We enjoyed lunch there and did some shopping. We bought some cushion covers made from hulpil, which is a woman’s blouse. We know the patterns from the village of San Antonio, also on Lago Atitlan so we purposely selected those patterns.

Just after returning to Panajachel, again tired and a little wet from our boat ride, we discovered our camera was missing. I remembered laying it down while paying for our cushion covers. I had to beat myself to get back on the water taxi for a another round-trip ride to San Pedro. They had my camera, but before returning I felt I owed myself a burger and a couple beers. Back at Panajachel, the gang was growing concerned by the time I finally arrived back.

While wandering the markets in Panajachel we ran into Marguerite, a young Mayan girl that we had met in Rio Dulce. She had come to Rio Dulce to sell their goods, but it didn't work out and she was sent back. She was on the streets, along with her grandmother selling their goods.

Marguerite

After returning to Antigua we spent a couple more days, and then we went our separate ways. We took a shuttle directly to the airport in Guatemala City. Bill and Pat returned to Rio Dulce as they still planned another month on Mobetah before returning to the United states.

   Pictures - Lago Atitlan    

April 2011

Before moving on I need to go back and fill in some missing posts from last spring. Our last entry was from Calabash Bight on Honduras. After leaving Calabash on Roatan we returned to Utila. Our visas were soon to expire so we needed to stop in at immigration to get 30 day extensions. After getting our extensions we took a chance that our shipment of a new radar and chart plotter would arrive in the next few days, so we crossed to La Ceiba on the mainland Honduras to be ready to pick it up at the shipyard. We checked into the Lagoon Marina and found we were the only boat scheduled to be there that week.



View from dock at Lagoon Marina, La Ceiba

Beautiful Marina - no visitors

We stopped in at the Shipyard to find our delivery was not yet out of the container but should be within the next couple days. The marina offers van service into town with drop offs in a couple different locations, one being a fairly nice mall. We took advantage of that on several different days. The trip is one way only so each time we needed to flag a taxi for the return trip. The marina is well out of downtown and not all drivers know exactly where it is, so a couple times it was an adventure getting back. La Ceiba is a working town with really nothing at all for tourist. There were very few gringos around, those few we saw were at Expats, a well recommended restaurant catering obviously to the expatriate population.

When our delivery arrived it was missing a part. We took what did arrive and took advantage of the flat calm peaceful creek the marina is on to work on installing the new radome and cabling down the mast. This required about two hours working about one half way up the mast so it was a perfect place, with virtually no boat motion. We decided we couldn't wait for the last part to arrive and that we would figure out how to retrieve it later. We knew our friends on Angelina were planning to stop in La Ceiba and hoped the package would arrive before they too departed. It did and were were ultimately united with it back at Monkey Bay Marina in Guatemala a couple weeks later.

We had a very unusual experience while in La Ceiba.  John, the marina manager at Monkey Bay upon learning we would be in La Ceiba, asked us to pick up a package at a freight company.  We caught a taxi at the mall, after riding into town in the marina van.  We gave him the address and arriving there it was not apparent where the business was.  We eventually found the nondescript warehouse back from the road.  I provided the package number and they went off searching.  There was no apparent organization to the mounds of packages.  After about 1/2 hour they tried to explain to us that they could not find it and were instructing us as to what we should do.  The problem was we had no idea what they were saying.  Now this is like an Amazing Race episode.  Our taxi driver, still waiting took over.  We jumped in the taxi and we're off, totally clueless as to what we were doing.  We actually found it comical that we were the only ones that had no idea what was going on.  By now we had taken so much of our driver's time, that we first needed to pick up his daughter at school.  We then went to the business offices of the shipping company.  He motioned us to go inside.  They spoke English in the office, so we were able to sort it out.  They called the warehouse and provided additional information needed to locate the package.  We then went back to the warehouse, and with additional tracking information, they were able to find the package.  Our taxi driver took us to the marina, and we paid him well.

After five days in La Ceiba we returned to Utila. I had started some dental work there before going to La Ceiba and needed some follow up work done, Back at Utila we once again met up with Mobetah and with them spent some time exploring including moving to an anchorage on the west end of Utila called Diamond Cay.

Mobetah - west end of Utila

We traveled with Mobetah to return to the river. To avoid an overnight voyage we departed at 3 am so we could arrive at Puerto Cortez on the mainland during daylight hours. Puerto Cortez is a large ship port but there is a very nice anchorage just off the Navy base. The next day we continued on and anchored that night at Cabo Tres Puntas which is in Guatemala and about two hours from the mouth of the Rio Dulce and Livingston.

Mobetah - on Rio Dulce

Our trip up the Rio Dulce was uneventful with an overnight stay at Texan Bay so we could arrive at Monkey Bay marina in the morning well before the afternoon winds. It is tough enough backing into the slip with cross current, but the higher afternoon winds make it virtually impossible.



Ariel - traveling up the Rio Dulce