San Andres Xecul

The church San Andres Xecul is possibly the most impressively colourful and wonderfully bizarre
church that we have ever seen. There's an unavoidable 'wow' moment when you first lay eyes on it, even if you've seen all the pictures and are expecting the bright yellow church facade with technicolor saints and angels sitting on ledges and clinging to vines. Its certainly worth the short bus ride from Xela. Add in the luck of it being market day in Salcaja (the town on the way to San Andres) and you're in for a colourful morning indeed. Salcaja is also home to Central America's first Catholic Church, in case that helps next you hunker down for a rowdy game of Trival Pursuit. Also, since we're on the topic- Salcaja produces some pretty delicious (homemade) liquors from local fruits which you can taste in Xela at the wonderful Bajo La Luna Bar.  But, back to San Andres Xecul... When you're in San Andres Xecul make sure you walk up to the top of town to El Calvario for spectacular views over the valley and village below. El Calvario is a small chapel only about 15 min up through town and you don't have to worry about missing it, seeing as its also painted bright yellow. Making this village even more endearing is the fact that they have a tightrope strung from the top of their church and a pole in the middle of their square for their yearly Tightrope Festival! Because, why not?

How to get there: Go to the bus stop in Xela on Avenida Independencia, its at the roundabout where

Monumento a la Marimba is.  There are buses that go directly to San Andres Xecul, seemingly randomly. If one happens to be leaving when you're there, lucky you- hop on! More likely you'll catch one of the super frequent buses heading north (we took the one towards Totonicapan, or Toto as everyone seems to call it).  You want to get off at the Moreria crossroads. Or just tell the bus guy you want to go to San Andres Xecul and he'll tell you when to get off. Cross the road and you'll see pickup trucks and hear guys yelling "San Andres". That's your que. Hop in the pick up with everyone else and you're off to the races! The pickup ride is Q2. Its all very easy, even if you're Spanish is as limited as ours.  There are buses that leave San Andres Xecul to go back to Xela from right beside the church.

How many people can you fit in a minivan?

33, it turns out.

The minivan in question, was, in its defense, a rather large minivan, with 4 rows of seats going three quarters the width of the van. Probably, the van was made to sit 12. To fit 33 people into this van required a bit of maneuvering, some elbows and a compete sacrifice of personal space. Children were strapped to mother's backs so that they were squished between the mother and the seat. Babies are probably softer than seat backs anyways! People were crouched on every square inch of floor space. The sliding door was wide open and people clung a bar installed on the inside of the van, their bums catching the breeze as we sped down the highway. Then there were children crammed onto everyone's lap. There were children sitting on children, sitting on children. And although I didn't verify it, or include them in my official count, I'm pretty sure there were children strapped to the roof. Not that over-cramming is an unusual experience on Latin American buses. Yesterday I rode the bus for 2 hours with only half a cheek on an old green vinyl school bus seat....

Chichi's Veggie Market

Here's a selection of photos from one of my favourite kind of markets: the Veggie Variety! Probably these photos would be better not in collage form, but I'm sure you get the gist of it!

Chichi, Guatemala's Market Town

The tongue twisting town of Chichicastenango is thankfully known as Chichi to pretty much
everyone. Although, imagining bus drivers yelling "Chichicastenango, Chichicastenango, Chichicastenango!!!" out the open bus door is an entertaining thought indeed.

Chichi is home to what may arguably be Guatemala's most touristy massive market. The market is held Thursday and Sundays and attracts backpackers, fancy tour groups, day trippers, national tourists and locals from the surrounding mountain villages. We arrived the day before the market so we could hit the market before the tour buses arrived. It was almost immediately apparent that Chichi relies heavily on tourism for survival. Randoms asked for money in exchange for directions, everyone followed 'Hola, Amigo!' greeting with: 'Come into my shop' and no one was particularly friendly without making their ulterior motives obvious. We were ready to leave almost as soon as we got there, but really, I suppose, what did we expect? It was actually worst the day before the market. It reminded me of when we were in Kathamandu in low season  (August) and got super harassed by hawkers. When we returned in October during high season, we barley noticed it. With more tourists, the attention really gets spread around better and wasn't so overwhelming.

But, Chichi grew on us like a fungus. We found a few good places to eat, our hostel had a nice view

Our cemetery view

and the market itself made for a fun day. Funnily enough, the view from our hostel was not just of the beautiful surrounding hills, but a cemetery. Probably the most cheerful cemetery we've ever laid eyes on. It was comprised of little brightly coloured houses, their luminosity highlighted by the dark green backdrop, and when we were very lucky, a ray of sunshine. The only bad thing about being so close to the cemetery was that locals seem to like setting massively loud fireworks off there. One morning, without exaggeration, all at the very same time, which happened to be 5am, there were fireworks, barking dogs, a car alarm,  roosters crowing AND a honking contest. So, that was some sort of record for us.. The most fascinating part of Chichi for me was the church, Iglesia de Santa Tomas. While its a Catholic church, the Mayan religion is woven right into the fabric of the belief of the villagers, and this is most apparent inside the church. By almost all accounts it looks like a traditional Catholic Church in Latin America. Its whitewashed and set above the main town square. Inside there are wooden pews, an altar at the front and paintings of saints on the walls. But, there are also large stone slabs lining the church's centre aisle covered in thin burning candles. These candles are lit in remembrance of passed loved ones. Food and flower offerings are scattered at the churches entrance and spiritual leaders chant magical words to stone plaques in-bedded in the walls. It was a very interesting experience and our first with the Mayan faith.

When all was said and done, Chichi provided some great photo opportunities and the beautiful array of colours and textures brightened the gloomy skies.

Where We Stayed: Posado El Telephono- with a fresh coat of paint, less rickety stairs, a few well thought-out sitting areas, and the general fixing of things that are broken,  this hostel could be really nice. It is in a great location and has a really nice view from it's terrace. As it is, its super cheap (Q60, $8USD, private room with shared bathroom) with friendly owners. Everything is very simple, but pretty clean.

Where We Ate: 
Comidas Tipico El Centro- I wish we had found this restaurant sooner. Its on the second floor of the shopping centre, you can see the sign above the street on 5a Av, north of the plaza. Great value, excellent food and friendly service made up for its plain atmosphere.
Restaurant y Cafe Pop Wuj- On the expensive side but good food, friendly service and right on the main plaza. Its on the second level with mini balconies looking out on the plaza.
Cafe LaNeveria- Good coffee and insanely decadent frozen coffees, made with icecream, chocolate sauce and whipcream- just what you need to re-energize half way through your market day bargaining adventure

Panajachel, Lake Atitlan

Panajachel is the resort town of Lago de Atitlan. Less crass than San Pedro but much busier than all

the other lakeside tourist towns, Pana, as it's known, has a beautiful view, excellent shopping and lots of food and sleeping options. Its easy to spend a day strolling around town, bargaining for colourful souvenirs and enjoying some lakeside cervezas (although look out for the insane tip amount that some fancy restaurants automatically add to your bill).

We highly recommend eating at Chero's Bar- an absolutely delicious pupusaria with a cozy atmosphere. Pupusas are Q10 ($1.30 USD) and a litre of cold Brahva beer is Q23 ($3 USD). Unbeatable. Try the cheese and garlic! Totally worth the garlic breath!

When you're done there, hop across the street to Dina's Chocolates. Watch out for tuktuks! As someone who has eaten a lot of chocolate, I can confidently say that this homemade, organic chocolate that is sweetened with honey instead of sugar, is some of the BEST chocolate I've ever had. Move over Lindt! The dark chocolate and salt bar is heaven in your mouth. Its expensive but worth it. (Q20, $2.60USD per bar). Dina's has a ton of different mouth watering flavours: dark, milk and white with cinnamon, mint, various nuts, coconut, Mayan chili pepper, peanut butter... I wonder if they have a points card...

Santa Cruz La Laguna & La Iguana Perdida

Wanting to get a more well-rounded impression of life on Lake Atitlan, and not quite ready to move on, we moved 2 villages over to Santa Cruz La Laguna. After a rough but beautiful 10 min boat commute from San Marcos we arrived at the Santa Cruz dock and pretty much stepped right into our next night's accommodation at La Iguana Perdida.

Santa Cruz is a much smaller village and the traveller scene is pretty much contained to a couple wonderful hangouts. Most notably, there's the super fancy and expensive, although very attractive Hotel Isla Verde, and the fun, relaxed, rustic La Iguana Perdida.

The story of La Iguana Perdida is quite captivating starring a young British woman travelling around Lake Atitlan in the 90s, falling in love with the area, buying land and then falling in love with a fellow traveller. (That's the Coles notes version, of course). And twenty years later, La Iguana Perdida, although bigger and with electricity still maintains the same focus as it did in its infancy-

Our Cabin the first night

travellers meeting other travellers and enjoying the spectacular lake side setting while forging friendships and sharing experiences. The shared family style dinner (Q60) plays into this theme well. The three courses are exceedingly delicious and the happy hour directly preceding dinner really lubricates the social aspect of the meal. So intent on this social outcome, La Iguana Perdida doesn't have WiFi. And while this was super inconvenient for us at the time, as we didn't realize it before arriving and were trying to organize a new apartment back in Canada which required a lot of paperwork and back and forth, we do truly appreciate the idea of being disconnected from our phones and connected to real people. This isn't to say that La Iguana Perdida is completely disconnected though, if that's a deal breaker for you. They do have computers with internet access that you can use for a small fee.

Just up the hill (ok ALL the way up THE hill) and perhaps benefiting enormously from La Iguana Perdida's lack of WiFi is CECAP restaurant and training centre. With a gorgeous view, an excellent cause and free WiFi, the restaurant/cafe at CECAP is run by students who are learning to take traditional Guatemalan dishes to international tourism standards. The food and drinks are delicious and supporting people from a small community to learn useful skills is always a good way to spend money. There is a small shop out front with women sewing high

quality purses, scarves and other such handicrafts.

Our first night at Iguna Perdida we stayed in Arriba Payaso 6 which was the top floor of an adorable A- frame cabin at the back of the beautifully landscaped property. It was airy and comfortable with a bright Mayan woven blanket and well thought out with places for bags and plugs right at the bedside. (Q130, approx $17USD). As this room was booked for the other 2 nights we stayed we moved to Room A (Q100, $13USD) in a 4 room cabin at the front of the property. The room was large and had big windows with nice views over the lake. Sheets of something that looked like maybe woven bamboo covered the walls and ceiling, along with a colourful wall hanging. It felt very rustic. Again, the space was designed with travellers in mind, having a place to put bags and hang towels. The bad thing about this room was that the walls were VERY thin. Sometimes (well, probably most of the time) you just don't want to hear what's happening in the next room- believe me. We also happened to have a very interesting visitor in our room one night- a scorpion! It was the first time I had ever seen a scorpion, so I can check that off the list of critters I never want to see in my bedroom again. The staff were quick to assure us that these scorpions aren't poisonous and that getting stung is akin to a bee sting- so I felt a little better, but still made J check every inch of the bed before getting in and curling up arbitrarily in the corner that I thought the scorpion would like to visit least. In reality, I do realize that critters are a part of everyday life and there isn't much you could do to avoid them sneaking inside. And I know that they're more scared of you then you are of them, blah blah blah. And, in his defence Scott the Scorpion of Room A did scurry out of sight as soon as we flicked the light on never to be seen again- but still. Scott- can't you just live outside? Or in the noisy neighbour's room at least? Please.

Anyways, after your good night's sleep (neighbour and scorpion nightmares dependent) there are
some great walks from Santa Cruz. We walked both directions along the shore and found great views and interesting slice of life tidbits. Left, with your back to the lake is a crazy boardwalk that leads to Hotel Isla Verde in about 10 mins. This used to be a lakeside path before Stan the Storm ruined it. You can stop in here for a drink and WiFi on their awesome patio. From there you can follow signs to the next village of Jaibilito (about 30 mins). The hike isn't very long, or particularly difficult but offers wide, unobstructed views. From Jaibilito you can keep going all the way to San Marcos (we hear this is about another 2.5 hrs). We got distracted in Jaibilito with fresh lemonade at the charming (and shockingly cheap) Posado Jaibilito and ended up just taking a boat back to Santa Cruz (Q5).

Right along the shoreline (with your back to the lake) a narrow path winds through well kept estates and coffee plants and local farmers back down to the water. Keep going and you'll come to a forested area with trees that have exposed roots wrapping around rocks, Siem Reap style. It seems out of place, but is super beautiful and the walk is an easy way to stretch your legs after an afternoon of hammock lounging at La Iguana Perdida. Just make sure you make it back for Happy Hour at 6pm!

La Iguana Perdida is also the only place on the lake that offers scuba diving. High Altitude diving, as Santa Cruz is at 1833m! I suppose a positive from the lake's rising levels is that there are now bars and houses at the bottom of the lake that you can dive to and through. Although we didn't partake in the diving, it did sound like an awesome way to spend even more time on the lake. And, with the water being 22degrees Celcius, you wouldn't even need a hood or gloves like the diving we're used to!

We just happened to be at La Iguana Perdida for Open Mike Night. A fun filled night of songs and bad jokes fueled by free shots of tequila for entertainers. Needless to say, J was in his element and all his campfire sing-a-long practicing was put to good use. If you can make it, Open Mike Night is definitely an extra good night to be staying at The Iguana. I feel like we hit the jackpot with our Lake Atitlan accommodation.. which is probably why we ended up staying on the lake a week when we had originally only scheduled a couple days.... and don't regret it at all.