...Hell. Well, I suppose not really. I'm in San Pedro La Laguna now. We came back from Santiago La Laguna today. That roundtrip boat ride was so slow in comparison to the lanchas. But we got to see a nice rainbow this afternoon and the lake wasn't as choppy as it could've been if we were going faster. Let me talk about Santiago first since we were there for only a few hours. The main drag consists of shops and vendors all selling Mayan artisan things. We didn't go see much more of the town, except for the city center (I think) and the central market. This market is multiple floors, 2 or 3. We were glad we decided not to stay here. Again, first impressions.
San Pedro is for lack of a better phrase, an interesting place. Lots and lots of hippie gringos hanging out all day waiting to party at night. Yeah, I'm labeling. I don't mean to, but, really when the shoe fits....
I think the story of San Pedro is a bunch of hippies were driving south from the states, possibly San Francisco, and this is where their van broke down. They either never left, or set up for a really really long smoke break. That seems to be the norm for a lot of whites here in San Pedro. They come and stay for really long times. It's really strange to see all the gringo hang outs close to the water and then the locals living further up into town. I guess everyone gets along amicably though. There's a fair number Spanish immersion schools here, but again, I'm confused how one would be immersed. San Pedro also has a handful of coffee production companies, for lack of a better term. There are certain areas of town where you walk by and the coffee smell is overpowering. Huge piles of shelled coffee beans from the plants. Then, in some places, there are entire lots where the shelled bean is laying out in the sun to dry. I'm not really sure of how the process goes but I think they go from brown to tan to dark brown again when roasted. I guess we could've filled one of our days with learning more of this process, but we were never in a hurry to get up. I chalk it up to the environment.
We're both leaving tomorrow to separate destinations. I'm off to Queztaltenango to do my Spanish immersion and hopefully climb a volcano overnight during this full moon. Hopefully I'll see the eclipse too.
Hasta Pronto.
1 comment:
ahh, too bad you didn't check out the fantastic local market of Sololá. If it's not too late...go there before you get to Xela. It's not too far outside of Pana. Yeah, we found San Pedro to be quite the armpit of Lago de Atitlan. And when we were there the streets pretty much smelled like piss.
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