Rolo on Tour

On Sunday I got by bus to Panajachel, Guatemala, a small town situated next to the beautiful Lake Atitlan.

Lake Atitlan

Fortunately I did not have any problems in crossing the border, so I could enjoy the beautiful mountainous landscape of Guatemala. In fact one couple, who were on the same bus as me, spontaneously decided to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere because they liked the place so much. In Panajachel I went for some „hostel“ mentioned in my guide book and when I arrived I thought „How funny, they even have chickens.“ If I had not grown up in a city, I might have considered the fact that those animals tend to produce a considerable amount of noise in the morning…

I had always wondered how long it would take me to meet somebody from Karlsruhe, my home town. On monday I got the answer (20 days!), as I met Hanna, whose brother used to be my classmate.

Later that day I went towards one activity included in my bamba pass, a home stay at a local mayan family. And the way there was quite adventurous: I was transported up a mountain road on the roof of some little pickup truck with 20 other passengers. And it was more than one time that I thought, that the truck would fall onto the side…

A Guatemalan way of transportation (Pic taken on the way back with only 15 passengers on board)

At this local family there did not happen much, besides the following incident, which happened on the next morning:

I was recommended to go up the hill some steps to have a great view of Lake Atitlan, so I did just that. I ended up on some small path, from which you indeed had this great view. I discovered that you could go up that hill some more, where I saw some dog loitering around. Some time later another dog showed up and the two of them did what dogs do when they meet each other. I was still standing at the same point some 15 metres away from them, when a third dog entered the scene and the three of them celebrated again their greeting rituals. But all the sudden an unexpected change happened: They looked at me and at the same time started to run at me at high pace and barking loudly.

So put yourself in my situation: What do you do?

My first thought was that they would just stop after a while, but they did not seem to have that intention at all. So I knew, that you should not run away in that situation, because it would make them more eager to get you. Well, I started to run anyways, until I reminded myself of that fact and turned around. Not knowing what to do, I had the brilliant idea, that they might be scared by a bigger and louder dog. So I started to bark at them as loud as I could, but it did not help so I ran backwards on this little path full of stones downhill while continuing to bark. Luckily I did not fall and after 50 metres the dogs stopped as they saw familiar people behind me.

That scene for sure must have been hilarious to watch but as there was nobody filming it you have to imagine it for yourself ;-).

The next few days I spent in San Pedro de la Laguna, which is also situated at Lake Atitlan. There I managed to run into a lot of people I met before, most of those were having spanish classes there. I preferred to become active:
The second day I was there I went by kayak to a rock (my guess: approx. 8,5 metres high) from which you could jump into the water. As I was alone on this trip it was really adventurous. Afterwards I was really done and had pain almost everywhere, so the next day was used for relaxation.

On this relaxing day I did some walk through the city and got to some less touristic area where I just sat down. And I discovered that all the people walking by where smiling at me and greeting me. (In the touristic areas they do it too all the time, but they then want to sell you something: „Hola amigo, quiere pan/cashews/tambores/weed… ?“) That was an experience I have not had before and I felt really great about it.
The second activity I did was climbing on some hill called the indian nose. The view was amazing and certainly worth the effort.

Me, our guide and Gosha from Canada on top of the Indian Nose

That was also the last thing I did there, as later that day it was time to head on towards Antigua. Some boat and bus ride later I was happy to catch some sleep there.

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