Lawry Goes to Guatemala: Xela to Panajachel

Here we are in Panajachel. We arrived yesterday, which was Easter Saturday, and the place was insane. Thousands of people crushing around us filling every square centimetre of space and so much noise that it drove us batty. Every shop, bar, restaurant and hotel was competing for 'musical' dominance. Add to that the constant touting and hassling of the street vendors and the whole scene became a cacophony. Neither of us really liked that very much.

The trip here from Xela was an interesting experience too. Because Guatemala pretty much shuts down for Easter (except for Panajachel) our shuttle was replaced by a driver with his own car. He also had two ladies from Canada that he had to drop off halfway to Panajachel and we had to fit all of our suitcases (5 of them) plus back packs into his car. So, all that luggage plus five people was a bit cosy. When I did this trip last time to work at the hospitalito it took two hours, but because it is Easter and Sololá (one of the towns we had to go through) had a market on, and there were so many people heading to Panajachel, it took a bit over four hours. We got there OK but our driver, Byron, was pretty stressed out and then had to drive back to Xela. Poor bugger.

In the evening we found a great little restaurant called 'Jose Pinguini' where there were four people playing marimba. It was like an oasis in the middle of a sea of noise. The music was great and the food was excellent. Unfortunately we did not have our camera with us so I can't post a photo.

Today (Sunday) we went to Santiago where we caught up with the family I stayed with while working at the hospitalito. We also caught up with Lyn who was my contact during the organisational phase. As it turns out, today was Jimmy's 13th birthday (he is the son of the family) and we had brought over Ozzie gifts for him and others in the family. There were heaps of people there and one hell of a spread so we had a great time. We felt very special to have been invited to the celebration.

At the moment we are back in Panajachel having a red in the lounge of our hotel planning what we will do tomorrow (apart from getting some washing done). And on Tuesday we travel to Antigua to continue the adventure.