Monday, February 18, 2019
San Pedro La Laguna
Tom got REALLY sick overnight, like so sick I was regretting not getting a SIM card for my phone, because I might need to call in a helicopter evac! By morning he was still alive, though completely depleted. The plan was to visit the village of Santiago today, but as he is quite indisposed, he'll be laying around, and I'll continue exploring San Pedro on my own.
We'd already arranged to stay another night here, so at least we're not trying to leave town this morning. A third night booked directly with the hotel cost only the equivalent of $21. All the other hotel guests have checked out, so now we have the whole place to ourselves.
I went down for breakfast alone and brought Tom back some water and a Coke. It's his turn to be dehydrated. Then I went out and found a lavanderia so we can have fresh clothes for the rest of our trip. It wasn't hard. There are so many laundries in San Pedro, I took a picture of the one where I left our stuff so I will be able to find it again this afternoon. It was only 30Q to wash, dry, and fold everything we had with us that we weren't currently wearing.
Time to freshen up
After dropping off the laundry, I took a walk along the shore southeast of the main pier and found a nice shady spot with a flattish rock about 30 feet above the water where I sat for a long while, until the rock got too hard and I had to move on. There aren't a lot of private boats on Lago de Atitlan, other than the rough-hewn canoes the fishermen use, so not much boat traffic besides the public lanchas. Peaceful.
Lago Atitlan and Indian Nose from San Pedro
Peaceful perspective
I hiked on a short distance to Las Piedras, a flat viewpoint visible from our hotel, which seems like it may be the top of some kind of ruin. The views are good from here, but it's possible the land is private. Therefore, I trespassed.
They don't mean me. Right?
Multiple volcanoes from Las Piedras
Passing back by the hotel to check on Tom, I found him still alive but exhausted, then decided to revisit the Parque Municipal. Not much going on at the park today, unlike Sunday evening. There's a little mercado adjacent to the park, but it was shutting down for the day when I got there.
Political painting
I also found the chicken-bus stop for the bus to Guatemala City, located next to the park, and the bus looked pretty rough. We'd been debating whether to take the tourist shuttle or the local buses when we leave San Pedro tomorrow, but this helped me decide, if we can even leave tomorrow, with the way Tom is feeling. Hopefully by the time we know if Tom is able to travel, it's not too late to get seats on the shuttle.
I got an ice cream and wandered back in the direction of the hotel. Then I had to carry the sticky ice cream trash for an hour, until I returned to our room, because I never once passed a trash can. It's no wonder these lakeside towns have a litter issue.
We took a siesta, then at 5:00 returned to the lavanderia to retrieve our clean clothes. Tom felt strong enough to accompany me the one block to the laundry. Yay! We bought some bananas for Tom and a beer for me and sat on the hotel terrace until the sun went down. It seems now that Tom might actually survive. I hope so!
For dinner we went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant. Tom had little appetite so was just going to eat what he could of whatever I ordered. I got chips and guacamole, a small pizza, and a beer, with a Sprite for Tom. It was very good and only 90Q for WAY more than we could eat. Afterwards, we watched a silly movie in English on the TV and an even sillier show in Spanish, then turned in early.
Tom
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