23 Days in San Pedro

Three weeks ago yesterday we arrived in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala. Departed at around 11PM from sea-tac, flew to Houston, ate a breakfast burrito and slept on the floor. (I received some earplugs in my stocking for Christmas, they came in very handy right off the bat and have been an asset ever since)Another 4 hour flight to Guatemala City, and I was on land south of the Texas border for the first time in my life. Six piled into the microbus for the trip to San Pedro (pop. 13,000), our new friend Kristin, Dante, Mikail, Matt, Graham and myself. About four hours later we were deposited at the house of Tula and Francisco Mendez, our home for the next three weeks. Night one in town. We all went to the famous (according to Mikail) Buddah Bar, for the first of many night of meeting other travelers and playing pool. The roof is open air, and tall enough to look out on Late Atitlan, although it was usually dark. We quickly met our second friend, Danny, a late 20’s English fellow on a trip to Central America to learn spanish and study sustainable farming. Danny was heading to Xelatanago the next morning, so we parted ways and went home. The next day was allotted as an adjustment i.e. not school right after traveling day. The town was explored, money was changed at the bank, three meals were made for us by Tula (this was a daily occurrence save for sunday, part of our home stay parameters), and Danny was again encountered at the Buddah. This was to become a theme.


It took about 15 minutes to walk to San Pedro Spanish School from the house which lay relatively on the outskirts of town. This was occasionally expedited by rides in Tuc Tucs, aka auto rickshaws in India and very cheap here, 5 quetzales (currency and national bird) per person to anywhere in town. The current exchange rate is approx. 1$ to 8Q. School was held from 1-5 every day monday thu friday, one on one with a Maestro/a. Each pair retreated to a private-ish spot on the schools grounds with a table, two chairs and a white board to conduct the lesson. My teacher’s name was Thelma, a good humored 20 year old studying to be a lawyer. In Guatemala, the best Universities are free for those who can get in, for her program there are three mandatory exams on all sorts of law stuff that must be passed in order to be accepted. She had passed the first two, and had the next in 7 days, I was her very last student and lesson, as she resigned from the school in order to focus on studying.

Most mornings consisted of sunbathing and spanish homework no one felt like doing after class. Our three rooms sat on the upper floor of the main building on our family’s property, connected by an open air hallway and huge balcony with a view of the lake. The view was not all good. Some serious rain about 6 or 7 months ago caused a massive mudslide that tore through the property and those surrounding it, taking out a massive stone wall, destroying some buildings and depositing a tree in the kitchen, all when Tula and Francisco were sitting and watching TV. So far only half of their land has been rehabilitated, the rest remains covered in dirt and debris, including a swimming pool and hot tub that had been completed just weeks prior. The rain continued and the lake rose - flooded. Many buildings, homes and businesses once sat on the lakes edge, and I guess they still do, although they are different ones from before. San Pedro fared better than San Antonio, a village across the lake which also suffered a mudslide, however theirs occurred in the middle of town which sits on a steep hill. You can literally see a path torn through buildings all the way down to the main road by the lake, 30 people were lost in the tragedy.

On selected other morning and weekend days, we went on little adventures. Our first adventure 1: The “Indian’s Nose,” an elevated spot on the surrounding mountains resembling nothing other than a Mayan’s face. This gave us our first experience in a chicken bus, the primary form of distance travel for all residents of the country. These expired US school buses were incredibly efficient, in that they hold 2-3 times the number of people they may have when hauling US middle schoolers. Instead of slowing down much for the turns up and down the steep switchbacks that lead to the villages on the lake, the drivers simply honk to make sure that any oncoming traffic knows that they are about to lose in a collision. Our wheel started smoking, the assistant jumped off, pulled something off of the hub cap and we were off. Views were pretty spectacular, 5 volcanoes or something ridiculous in one pan across the lake from the look out tower. This trip exposed us to all three main forms of public transport, chicken bus on the way up, taxi (pick up truck with elevated metal cage/ passenger support bars in the bed) most of the way down, and a tuc tuc back to the town center.

Adventure 2: San Marcos Cliff Jumping with Kristin. Boat ride across the lake, met with impromptu 14 year old tour guide Edgar who took us the best restaurant in town (his house) for graham to get some pizza. Enjoyed a nice stroll through town filled with signs making sure every visitor was aware of its status as a meditation/yoga/relaxation/metaphysical/myan mystical tour/tarot card/serious chilling paradise. A platform was erected within the past year about 40 feet up a cliff with a platform for launching into the lake. Blissfully enjoyable.

Adventure 3:Chris, Dante, Graham try to find the black sand beach down the shore a away, don’t make it; find a awesome lookout after stumbling upon a stone walkway seemingly in the middle of nowhere, try to find the road we know is somewhere up, and end up in the middle of a coffee plantation only to discover that we passed the road, backtrack to a path to the road and walk back in time for lunch.

Adventure 4: Kayak to black sand beach an beyond. Got to float through trees swallowed by the flood and get a good deal of sunshine to add to the ever growing tan base layers. Think about kayaking to San Marcos again, (Mikail didn't make round 1) decide to take boat on account to hole in boat - chris/mikail and general tiredness. Cliff jumping again. To sleep by 730, record since age 10.

Adventure 5: Panajachel market shopping day. This one with parents, Nani, Jill, Leah and Iggy all arrived and joined us at the spanish school. Dante and I purchased hats which will continue to define our identities as we continue south, a fedora and a cowboy hat respectively.

Adventure 6: Last day boat trip around this island on hired boat with friend Brian from school who we plan to meet in Honduras and/or Panama in the next few weeks. A friend of Mikail’s from last year has a boat and offered to take us all out for a day form 100$, not a bad deal. Visited San Marcos, Antonio, Panajachel and Santiago. Utterly enjoyable and wonderful way to spend our last day together as a group.

That brings us to last saturday. It is now tuesday and we are preparing for our departure out into the greater Latin American world. If all goes according to plan we will be on a 7am chicken bus to Guatemala City tomorrow morning on our way to Coban where we will stay the night on our way to Tikal, the Mayan ruin capitol of the world. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more (briefer) posts in the coming days/weeks/months.