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So...
I woke up at 6:30 ready for my transfer at 8 to Flores, a town in the far north of Guatemala - 10 hours away. After picking up a tasty ham and bread (but not ham sandwich?) thingy in a bohemian bakery - and having an awkward conversation with a very facially expressive and camp middle aged Guatemalan - I waited in the main plaza in the centre of Antigua where my ticket said I'd be picked up.
Yeah by 9 I'd realised something wasn't quite right.
When I went back to the hostel, it transpired that the shuttle had actually gone there, although 'apparently it had driven round the plaza three times to find me'. Which would have been pointless given I was hardly the only person with a massive backpack there...
So, I decided instead of wasting a day in albeit lovely but, little to actually do in, Antigua I decided to do what I was planning to do... in reverse.
So I'm here on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala's deepest and Central America's most beautiful lake. The shuttle to the lakeshore town of Panajachel was easy and drove through the mountainous Guatemalan hinterland. Boys with machetes walked down the side of a damp highway as it snaked through the lush, verdant mountains through grey, dilapidated towns. With lots of sex shops.
Panajachel is very over-touristed. Gringos have flocked to Guatemala in their droves and Panajachel is a symbol of the worst excesses of the tourism trade - proudly traditionally dressed elderly Mayan ladies aggressively chase down American tourists to sell them Chinese imported necklaces.
From Panajachel it was a half hour lancha ride across the lake to the town of San Pedro. San Pedro is Guatemala's rave town, a town of party hostels, but also the town with the best facilities, without being to filled to the rim with tourist tat. Judging by the signs around my hostel - ran by two bearded Aussies and called 'the Mullet Hostel', the locals are getting a bit fed up and there's a strict 11pm down time as the hostel was so rowdy it was facing closure!
So yeah, I'm knackered and I've got an evening to try and work out what is the best way to spend the day I have here by Lake Atitlan, a place I really didn't expect to end up in at the start.
Vamos!
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