Friday, February 15, 2019
Panajachel, Solola, and Santa Cruz
Woke up this morning to no electricity. Last night we bought Nescafe, and since the stove is gas in the shared kitchen, we just had to find someone with a lighter or match, since the electric ignition wouldn't work. Luckily, there were some French guys around, who are generally good for a light since they all seem to smoke, so we were able to make our coffee. Yay!
After coffee and cookies, we got our now-dry clothes off the clothesline on the terrace. From the terrace you can see Volcan San Pedro, Volcan Toliman, and Volcan Atitlan from our hotel. Not the best view with the haze, but still nice.
Volcan San Pedro
Volcans Toliman and Atitlan
Today we're going to Solola's big Friday market, 10 km away, 2,000 feet above Panajachel and the lake. We caught a local bus near the intersection of Calle Santander and Calle Principal, a bona fide “chicken bus,” an old repurposed school bus, brightly painted, that the locals use to get around. Quite a bargain at only 3Q (40 cents) each.
Tricked-out chicked bus
View from Solola
We got off the bus in central Solola and walked toward the Parque Municipal. Indigenos in traditional dress from all over the highlands, including men in their bright britches and aprons, were streaming about in every direction to trade their wares. The pattern of embroidery on the brightly colored clothing serves to identify the village of origin of the wearer.
Mayan man in traditional clothing
The park is the epicenter of the action in Solola and is surrounded by points of interest. On one side is a brightly colored municipal building, the Torre Centroamericana. On another corner is a pretty white Catholic Cathedral, like they have in so many Guatemalan towns. The large market building in also adjacent to the park. And a lively marimba band added to the festive nature of the day.
Torre Centroamericana (Solola municipal building)
Another cute Cathedral
Draped cloth decoration
Marimba - The national instrument of Guatemala
The main market building is extensive, four vast floors of colorful commerce, occupying a full city block. This isn't a tourist market, and there were hardly any other white faces to be seen (although we did spot one albino indigeno). We didn't buy anything, but the vegetables looked fantastic, and the flowers were gorgeous. You can guy an avacado almost as big as your head for next to nothing!
Inside the Mercado Mayoreo
Vibrant vegetables
Sleepy side of the market
Fantastic flora
There was a food court in the market, but we were looking for something safe for our weak western bellies and went to lunch across the street from the park, behind the marimba band, at Ut'z Pizza. It was a lot of fun sitting outside and watching the action on the street.
How do they do that?
He's doing it wrong
Fascinating foot traffic
Public transport when you're off the chicken-bus route
After lunch, we walked a few short blocks to Solola's picturesque cemetery and mirador. On the way, we passed a children's park with steel and cement playground equipment and a concrete surface to land on. These kids are tough! Like '70s kids!
Could be a hard landing
The cemetery was quite colorful and interesting. Unfortunately, the view of the lake and volcanoes today was very hazy. It was still totally worth visiting. Solola market day was one of the highlights of our entire trip.
Cementerio y Mirador
Colorful crypts
From the cemetery, we walked to the main road and caught a chicken bus back down the hill to Pana. The trip down was WAY faster trip than the way up and pretty thrilling. I was holding on for dear life in the rickety old school bus. Meanwhile, the driver would occasionally pause to let people off, and if they were seated near the back, the ayudante (driver's helper) would open the back door to let them off, then the bus would take off, and the ayudante would shortly reappear at the front of the bus, having somehow traversed the length of the bus on the outside as it's hurtling down the hill!
Back in Panajachel, we stopped at a grocery store for beer on the way to the hotel. The electricity was still out in Pana. The grocery store had a generator, but hardly anyplace else. Luckily, unlike our hotel in Honduras, the toilet flushing here was not electricity dependent.
It was getting late in the afternoon, but we decided to take a lancha (boat) to Santa Cruz. The lanchas don't leave until they're close to full, and I noted by the time we were ready to go, there were far more passengers on board than life jackets. It was a rough ride, as the lake was pretty choppy from the wind, and a young American couple seated just in front of us, on their way to an exclusive resort, got soaked! I was protected by their presence and just got a wet knee. When they got off, a nice expat decided to be a gentleman and took the seat in front of me for the remainder of our ride.
From the dock at Santa Cruz La Laguna
We arrived at the pier in Santa Cruz at 5:00 p.m., after about a 20-minute boat ride, and caught a tuk-tuk to the Mayan village at the top of the very steep hill. In most of these lakeside villages, the tourist hotels, restaurants, etcetera are at lakeside, while the indigenos have been wise enough to build farther above lake level, realizing that the elevation of the lake has fluctuated over the years.
Steep road to the village of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz main square
There's a small cafe in the Mayan village, Cafe Sabor Cruceno. The cafe is also a vocational center where they teach culinary arts and make some of the crafts that are sold locally, hence the line of sewing machines at the entrance.
Cafe Sabor Cruceno entrance
Santa Cruz from the cafe
Lake and village view
Lago Atitlan
We each had a Moza at the cafe and chatted with a few expats while we enjoyed the hazy view. There wasn't much time before we had to catch a tuk-tuk back to the dock so we didn't miss the last lancha of the day to Panajachel. The tuk-tuk ride was pretty exciting on the way down!
From the pier
Local fisherkid
Sublime sunset
When we returned to the hotel in Pana, the electricity was STILL out. It went off sometime last night while we were asleep and didn't come back on until 6:35 p.m., just as it was getting dark. The expats in Santa Cruz told us it was part of a planned outage. I guess the authorities were doing some kind of upgrade. I immediately jumped on the computer, and the very slow internet was just fast enough for us to make our Booking.com reservation for the next two nights in San Pedro.
For dinner we ate at Las Chinitas on Calle Santander. (Almost everything is on Calle Santander.) We both had steak and onions, fries, sauteed vegetables, bread, and Moza beer. The flavor of the beef and vegetables was amazing, the best meal of the trip! Highly recommended. (167Q.)
Las Chinitas, Panajachel
We took a walk after dinner and found Pana hopping this Friday night, with lots of live music. There's a big backpacker crowd here, and they were having fun. Tom and I had fun spotting the copyright infringements!
Street-Taco Bell
Reminds me of something...
Most popular fast-food chain in Guatemala
Tom
Goetz's Homepage
|