Lago Atitlan

The one place I had highlighted in Guatemala is Lago Atitlan, an enormous lake formed by a volcanic eruption. From Antigua we take the chicken bus to Panajachel (known to all as Pana). The journey is supposed to take 3 hours. Just one hour from our destination we grind to a halt, 500 yards down the road a massive landslide has just occurred. The empanadas man is doing a roaring trade - mind you they were delicious. It takes two and a half hours to dig out one side of the road and less than two minutes for us to go through the landslide. A close call but not our numbers out of the hat today. The rest of the journey is without incident and makes for a bonding session with an Australian couple, which involves teaching them to play backgammon.

In Pana, a short walk takes us to the boat. Everyone goes to San Pedro we however, are going to Santa Cruz La Laguna, the last village on the lake that cannot be reached by car. There are two hostels, one either side of the jetty. La Arca de Noa is to be our home for the next few days. Our room is unbelievable, cheap but with a view to die for, right over the lake to the volcano. The village is about 70 metres up and the road is steep. During our stay we walk up to the village for lunch at Cecap, a project giving skills to the indigenous people in the village. They run a cafe, staffed by pupils of the project and lunch is delicious, stir fried egg plant with chicken (cluck cluck) served Asian style with rice. We also eat a meal at La Iguana Perdida (the lost iguana) which is the hostel next door, it's three courses which we are definitely not used to but delicious. The Iguana has a happy hour between 6 and 7 (beer about 80p a bottle) so we can dip into that and then head back next door to the peace and tranquility of Noah's ark.

We take a boat trip to San Pedro and decide we haven't missed much. As usual the park is beautiful, flowers everywhere and an enormous statue of, I think, San Pedro. We later hear from Kerry that it wasn't great.

Our return to Antigua for onward travel to Guatemala City is much more straight forward, boat to Pana, bus to Los Encuentros change to Chimiltenango and then another change to Antigua, it costs less than the journey out, no landslides and a very happy Fox. Our last night in Guatemala is spent in the Club Sandwich restaurant with Niels, Kerry, Kornelius and his friend Aggie who has joined him. We all leave Panama within a few days of each other so plan to regroup for a meal and swap stories before heading our separate ways.