The Lake: Day Two (Cont.)

 

The cyanobacteria ruining the lake (too much village sewage) was immediately evident. The air was instantly more polluted and the houses less polished. Definitely Atitlan’s older, more developed side. But I’m being spoiled so let’s make it clear that it was still gorgeous. We started up the steep hill asking for directions to Ecolodge Mayachik, dropped off our bags, and promptly headed east for San Pedro.

 

 

 

 

The small highway offered great views of Indian Nose and a solid dose of carcinogenic, gasolined air. Tuk-tuks ran by but I insisted we stay on foot. We entered town and a pick up truck with a gringo hanging on the back zoomed by and happened to stop 100 feet ahead. Of course I sprinted and got on. 2Q took us to central San Pedro.

 

 

Gringo had been living here for 6 years and was tight with the locals. As we passed dirtier streets and more cramped buildings than those in San Juan, he told us about the suffering local economy and scared the shit out of me with chikungunya disease. It’s a recent disease transmitted by mosquitoes and aside from showing up in the form of fevers and bone aches three days after infection, the pains last for years. Lime juice can help neutralize the effects if immediately applied to a fresh bite. Guess who already had 10 bites?

Round trip lancha tickets to Santiago were 40Q. This is the largest town. We gorged on too many fried chicken pieces and fed some crispy skin to both begging dogs and a begging pedestrian walking by. Because there’s only buildings to walk by and dirty rainwater for cars to splash me with, we decided to call it quits and go see Maximon. He’s a local iconic figure who supposedly encouraged all the men in Santiago to battle another town while he watched over their women. The men return and everyone’s pregnant. They killed Maximon. Now he’s a small wooden statue that between moves houses of descendants each year and charges 2A for entry. It was pretty silly.

Our driver charged 25Q total for taking us out there, waiting, and taking us back to the dock. Some people were snacking on chocolate dipped frozen bananas on a stick and it caught Nelsons eye. So naturally I forced the driver to pull over for the snack attack. We even treated him to one, he picked frozen coconut. Each piece is 1Q. PSA: frozen papaya, plain, is amazing.

 

 

The nasty rain started up again so we were miserable on the lancha and tuk-tuk (7.5Q but really should’ve been 5) rides back.

Then came extreme boredom. Nelson and I seemed to be the only ones around, the party is all at San Pedro. We wandered into a new fair trade project called Casa del Teljido. They gave us a free tour on how Mayans traditionally dye yarn and weave it on the wooden loom. You’d be surprised how useful carrots, coconut skin, or crushed shells of cacti bugs (aka our common red food coloring) can be.  Plus we got some coffee and a bathroom break. Nelson was nice enough to spend 10Q on a ball of blue yarn he plans on using to barter with hippies back in the States.

 

 

 

Comedor Elenita was just as empty as the rest of town so we got some mixed rice platters. Judging from the details of his past women Nelson started blabbing about, he was semi-successful with getting tipsy off of Gallo cerveza.