January 4, 2015

The day started with breakfast at Hotel Santo Tomas. I was served my huevos rancheros by men wearing the traditional Mayan clothes. The Guatemalan huevos rancheros are not nearly as good as those I have had in Mexico, or California, for that matter. The eggs are covered with a thin, soupy, tomato sauce and that is it. I had thought the breakfast was included in my room rate, but apparently not. I had been told I could leave my luggage in the room until I left on the 2 PM shuttle even though check-out was at 1 PM. I got everything packed up and then set out to see the Sunday market around 8:30. .

I could not believe the transformation from the night before. Not only were all the empty stalls filled in , but vendors had stands in the streets stretching for several blocks from the market. How all that occurred overnight was beyond me. I walked all around the market and found new areas such as that where all the yarns and threads were sold for the weaving, where large bolts of the basic Mayan fabrics were sold, and then on the street the women with poultry in boxes, large sacs, their hands, and their laps - all for sale. Nothing surprised me, but this was one big market catering to locals and tourists. I had read about a place to walk outside the market where there were supposed to be very good woodcarvers. I have a small collection of masks and was hoping to find something I liked. The Mayan mask I bought in Mexico at Chichen-Itza is far better than anything similar I have seen in Guatemala. One style of mask (I think I mentioned previously) are the colorful animal heads, but they all seemed to blend together. So I went for this walk and found this little house with an older mestizo (mixed Mayan and Spanish) couple. The man had antique and new masks. The difference was quite apparent. There were several of the antique masks I liked. They are small and I bought two - a monkey head and a horse's head. They are white with decorations and I had not seen anything like them in the market. I am not sure this was really one of the woodcarver shops, but I didn't really want to go further and was happy with what I found. I walked back (up the hill) and down another street from which I could see the entrance to the cemetery. I had read this cemetery was really colorful, so I decided to visit. It is very large with older and newer crypts and with some graves in the ground. As in the cemetery in San Antonio, the crypts are various pastel colors. I was really beautiful with the sun shining and such a different approach to the dead. I don't understand it, but beautiful colors in graves and marching bands playing joyful music in a funeral procession says something different about the concept of death. In one area of the cemetery was a small wooden structure. There was an older and younger man performing separately Mayan ritual ceremonies there.

I went back to the market and walked around more. I returned to the church (where I had fallen) and now the steps were covered with women selling flowers. I went up carefully and entered the church. A priest was in the back and appeared to be blessing babies. On the floor down the center aisle were square boxes filled with sand, I think, and candles. While it was a Catholic church, it appeared to incorporate some of the Mayan tradition with the candles on the floor.

I found a small restaurant to eat in near the hotel, had vegetable soup and a spinach and cheese crepe and lemonade (made from limes in Latin American countries) and then back to the hotel to be sure I would be there in time for the shuttle. It looked like large tour groups that had made day trips to Chichi had invaded the hotel. There were a number of individuals waiting with me for shuttles to both Antigua and Panajachel. Those for Antigua left first. Amazaingly a shuttle pulled up for Pana. The driver got out and actually called my name. I was amazed,

The ride to Pana was shorter than that from Antigua and not fraught with traffic problems. I spoke with several people on the shuttle. There was a man spending a couple of months traveling in Central America who worked cooking in a hotel in Mt. Rainier National Park and had worked in a number of other national parks. There were three young women traveling together, and I spoke with two of them. They are in graduate school at Columbia in New York studying economic development. One is American, the other Guatemalan. We talked about their interests and how they decided to do what they are doing and shared some travel experiences. It was a pleasant ride.

We drove through Solala, a town reported to have a very good market, not touristy, and quite close to Panajachel. While there was nothing wrong with the town, I decided that whatever thought I had about going to that market was gone. We came into Panajachel and drove down the main street - one tourist trap shop after another. We dropped a couple of people off and then went to the departure point for the boats for Santiago Atitilan, my destination. I had not done my homework very well regarding getting to the hotel. I knew I needed to take a boat, but hadn't checked the prices, etc. The shuttle driver stopped right in front of a man who had a private boat. With knowledge I gained later, this man was not totally honest with me. I could have taken the public boat for a few dollars and then a tuk-tuk to the hotel. However, he was very misleading about the time it would take and my resources for getting to the hotel. He quoted me a price for a 30 minute door to door boat trip on a private trip. It seemed very high. I was able to get it down some, but learned later not to where it should have been. There was no easy was to get from the street to the boat docks. The area was filled with people and tables and chairs and was terraced. I couldn't see a ramp anywhere. This guy carried my stuff down as I finally did agree to the private boat. The ride was ok and thirty minutes later we were at EcoBambu's dock.

I checked in and was given Room 1, a nice two bed bungalow with a rook made of thatched leaves. I am in the room closest to the lake, with a beautiful view of the lake. (I am writing this sitting on the other bed in my room a few days later because it is the only place I can be and plug in the computer - giant ant just crawled by (and has now gone to ant heaven), so now I think I know how I got a big insect bite on my leg in my sleep). I walked around the grounds of the hotel, saw the swimming pool, and walked up to the road and down some paths that go to some homes nearby. There appear to be some large and lovely homes adjacent to the hotel and, I suspect, with beautiful lake views as well.

I ate dinner at the hotel. In addition to the regular menu, they have pizza on the weekends, so I ordered a vegetarian pizza which was quite good and a Gallo (Guatemalan beer). Once finished, back to my room to settle in for the night.