Ahh, Thanksgiving 2010 in Montreal…. The haunting memories of the biting cold and our frozen toes were all too vivid for Jie and I, so we vowed to head south this year. The actual destination was inspired on our flight back from Ecuador last May. While Jie was sleeping, I came across a double-page spread in Copa Airline’s in-flight magazine of an enchanting elevated lake surrounded by volcanoes, dubbed by travelers as ‘the most beautiful lake in the world.’ The lake was called Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, and the stars aligned when we found cheap tickets for a flight over Thanksgiving weekend. It was time for another JieMei adventure!
Day 1:
Jie and I agreed to fly over separately and meet at the Guatemala City airport Thursday afternoon. After a few minutes of confusion, we were able to find each other and met the driver we had arranged to take us to our hotel, the Casa Florencia in Antigua. I had read that Antigua, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, would be a more charming and safer place to stay for the night. Below is the view from our room:
The Casa Florencia hotel was a cute 2-story boutique hotel that provided an oasis in the middle of Antigua. Our first observation of Antigua was that it was filled with cobblestone roads, and had very little street lighting with scarcely scattered street names, making it difficult to navigate at night. The weather was slightly chilly, but much warmer than the weather we had left in the U.S. We also noticed that the locals are very small, and so the doors that were built for them were barely higher than us. Most of the shops were styled like little bodegas, selling miniature-packed snacks. There was also railings covering all of the windows, making it seem a bit cold and deserted from the street, despite the glow from restaurants and cafes which oozed coziness from the twinkling lights and warm colors used to decorate inside.
Cobblestone streets
Cozy restaurant filled with twinkling Christmas lights
We decided to take our hotel’s recommendation, and had dinner at a cute restaurant called la Fonda de Real, which served Guatemalan food.
Jie and I at the outdoor restaurant
Some traditional Guatemalan food, including guacamole, freshly made tortillas, and meatball stuffed in chili pepper with a side of rice. We thought the food could have used a bit of a kick!
Then we visited central park at night, where there was a gorgeous arch:
After dinner, we stopped by a cute restaurant for some coffee and dessert
Guatemalan style bread pudding soaked in sugar and water
Day 2:
The next morning, we picked up a slice of pie from Café Condesa and went back to our hotel to wait for the shuttle to pick us up to go to Panajachel, where we would see Lake Atitlan!
The incredibly sweet key lime tart we got (we were only able to take a few bites each!)
On the way, we asked to be dropped off at Solola, where there was a Friday market. It was the most crowded market I had ever been to!
We also noticed again that the locals were very small and made us feel like giants. The women were experts at carrying items on their head. The market had basic fresh produce and tropical fruits, and fried chicken with French fries seemed like a staple that everyone enjoyed eating.
Guatemalan buns
Then we proceeded to take the ‘chicken bus’, which is a recycled US school bus repainted in crazy colors and designs to use as local buses. The ride was Q3 each and it was amazing how many people could fit on the bus (a 2-seater easily became a 3-seater). It was a fantastic experience squeezing with the locals, with the windows open, views of the lake, and soft Latin music playing in the background
Chicken bus
We finally arrived at Posada de los volcanes, our hotel for the night in Panajachel!
There were lots of tuk tuks everywhere, similar to Southeast Asia!
Our first stop was the natural reserve, where we decided to go ziplining. It was relatively cheap (USD $30 per person for 8 ziplines), with the longest zipline around 300 meters, and provided breathtaking views of the lake from the elevation.
Getting read for ziplining!
We saw some amazing views of the lake on our way back from the natural reserve:
Then because we had some time left in the afternoon, we decided to rent a 2-seater kayak! Little did we know, the waves were much rougher later in the afternoon, so we had quite a work out navigating the kayak in the water:
We decided to stop for an afternoon snack on the main strip (Calle Santander). The pastries and coffee here were delicious!
Our last activity was taking a tuk tuk to see the sunset at a viewing point, but unfortunately it was too cloudy to see the sun clearly. The views were still pretty nonetheless!
We ended the night with dinner at Café Bombay, this vegetarian place that served comforting, healthy food:
Day 3:
The next morning, we started out by having breakfast at an adorable restaurant called Deli Jardin which was mostly in an ourdoor garden. We had the breakfast burrito and Deli special (scrambled eggs with Mexican roasted potatoes that had lots of cilantro)
It was so satisfying! Jie had a huge cup of freshly squeezed pineapple juice. With our hearty breakfast, we were ready for a full day of touring the lake and surrounding towns. The tour would take us to San Marco, San Pedro and Santiago towns.
View of the lake in the morning (the waves are much smaller than the afternoon)
Mei had a not-so-brilliant idea of getting on the local boat to San Pedro, which caused us to be stranded on the island for 2 hours, but we got a chance to meet some local kids!
Some little kids came to watch us in San Pedro islansd and loved posing for us, so we ended up taking a bunch of pictures for them. Each time, they would run over to see themselves on my camera screen to see how their poses turned out and would yell, "autre, autre!' for another picture. Cute!
See how small the women are? Tien in Santiago
Snacks to bring home
Another satisfying trip done!
