Cheese & Wine

Five days spent in Panajachel studying Spanish and have we learnt anything? Je ne sais pas.
However, walking to school at 8am each morning and sitting in a tropical garden learning Spanish with the very patient Olga, before spending the afternoons on the shore of the beautiful Lake Atitlan has been a unique experience.

It was a bit of a wrench leaving the relative luxury of Mario's Rooms with its towels, soap, hot shower, balcony, Wi-Fi, drinking water and breakfast as any one of these is usually a bonus for us as we were to find out when we caught a boat across the lake to the small village of San Marcos. Basically our new home was a log cabin with a bed in it but at $12 (£7) per night, we couldn't argue but then again, nor could the ants.

The smoking Feugo Volcano at sunrise

San Marcos is the prettiest of the lakeside villages and consists of numerous pathways which snake through the tropical surroundings and we soon discovered that it's a bit of a magnet for  meditating hippies who believe the volcano gives off some sort of spiritual energy. Lurking behind the occasional banana leaf sit cross-legged humming hippies trying to find themselves and peace with the world whilst the local Guatemalans find themselves by celebrating their fiesta by letting off fireworks which aren't fireworks at all but more like huge explosive devices.

Following a strangely noisy night in such a ‘peaceful’ place, we had to pinch ourselves on  our final day at Lake Atitlan as we sat on the side of the small dock to witness the sunrise over the lake between the volcanoes, illuminating the gently smoking Feugo Volcano in the distance.

A very rare treat for us, cheese and wine

We caught our final boat across the lake, once again being giggled at by the locals as we stumbled aboard whilst the old women majestically step aboard with a weeks worth of groceries balanced on their head. The village of San Pedro was our home for the night but we immediately took a tuk-tuk to the neighbouring village of San Juan. Once again, we couldn’t quite believe it when we were sat in a tropical garden lunching on a cheeseboard of more than 20 different types of cheese plus, olives, dates, almonds, cashews, strawberries, gherkins, bread, quince, honey and a cheeky glass of red. All this by a lake in the middle of Guatemala and it was better than anything we’ve had at home!

Still the highlight of the day was when we collected our clean washing from the launderette. Funny how a chore has become a time to celebrate.