Once again, I went to Guatemala without a plan. I hadn't booked accommodation and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. My rough plan was to attend a language school to improve my Spanish. Plus, I only had a week because Clemens is coming to Guatemala in 7 days. But fate helped me once again. At the airport, I met a nice German guy named Markus who could recommend a language school that he had attended. He was actually on his way there. So I joined him and got a ride with him. How crazy! I meet a stranger and just travel with him.
We took a shuttle bus on the way to San Pedro. The small note on the ticket is also very interesting: 'the bus arrives 10 minutes earlier or 15 minutes later'. Oh Guatemala..
But the trip was worth it because we went to Lake Atitlan, a huge lake in western Guatemala. The place was called San Pedro and it is a beautiful village right by the water. Everything is very traditional, for example, the women and children wear the typical traditional dress, the men wear their hats, and the laundry is still washed in the lake just like it has been for many years.
One of my most beautiful pictures: Sunday market day in San Pedro.
The view of San Pedro from the lake. As you can see, the whole lake is surrounded by volcanoes.
Street art, so beautiful!
Children fishing in the afternoon. In the morning, women wash clothes at this spot.
The house is underwater because the lake has risen in recent years. In the bottom left, you can see a resident washing clothes in the lake. Whether it's good to use soap in the lake is questionable...
There are also small, cute cafes with a view of the lake!
This is what the streets of San Pedro look like. The residents often sit in front of their houses for hours. It's also interesting to see the wiring of the electric network.
And as I walk through the streets, I see a little bunny sitting in a house. Oh, how simple it can be.
The Language School
The language school was also very good. I had 5 days of individual(!) lessons for only 60€! It really helped a lot, and I regret that I only did it for a week. But at least I made good use of the time while waiting for Clemens.
My 'classroom'. Nice, right?
Pauli and the Chocolate Factory
I also visited a small, sweet chocolate factory for a day. It was really great because I could watch and help with every step, and the family welcomed me as one of their daughters and showed me everything.
After harvesting the fruit, the cocoa beans are roasted over the fire first.
Then they are peeled. That took a whole 3 hours! And a white shirt was probably not the best choice :D
After that, the raw sugar is cut into small pieces. Look at the scene in the background!
Then the powdered milk is added. How cute the little girl next to me is! And of course, she is already wearing traditional clothing. It was also interesting to see the youngest daughter, who was only 2 years old, drink coffee. Help!
The beans are ground, and the heat turns them into a liquid mass.
Finally, the cocoa mass is mixed with milk and orange juice. Done! It has to rest for one night before being packaged. This is natural chocolate where you know there's no junk in it.
This is what the 'bars' look like. There are many different flavors, including basil, cinnamon, milk, orange, almond, peanut, sea salt, and of course, plain chocolate and many more!
They even invited me to have lunch with them. Typical Guatemalan food. I really struggled to eat it because I don't eat that kind of food, but I didn't want to be rude.
But then we had ice cream, which was much better! That's how you can enjoy life!
Excursions with Clemens
Then the week flew by, and Clemens found his way to San Pedro as planned. The idea came up during one of our phone calls because Clemens wanted to explore the world before studying. He showed me a year ago how to conquer the world. He earned money for studying abroad at Expert and wants to study international business in Holland after our trip through Central America. That was perfect for me because I always knew that this part wouldn't be easy. Plus, it will be good to finally have someone by my side after such a long time! Finally, we're going together and my last major section of the trip begins: Central America!
In San Pedro, we went on some nice excursions:
We went on an excursion with kayaks!
We visited San Marcos, another village on the lake.
In San Marcos, there was a small park. From there, you had a beautiful view of the lake.
We had delicious homemade wraps for lunch.
By the way, we always traveled in the so-called 'Chicken Buses'. These are old school buses from the US that are used for public transportation in Central America.
Yes, the rides were always exciting! The buses are called 'Chicken Buses' because people sit crowded together like chickens on a perch. And of course, it was the same for us every time! The funniest thing is that as rickety as the buses were and almost falling apart, they always had a sound system that played Spanish hits way too loud!
As you can see, Clemens is a bit too tall for the small seats. The local men are all very short, so they don't have any problems.
Sometimes we had to stand in the front if the bus was already full. Of course, the doors would never close. And it doesn't matter that the windshield has cracks all over it. The bus runs, and that's the main thing!! Jesus is also on board, of course.
Then we continued to Antigua, a city near Guatemala City. It is a beautiful colonial city:
An ice cream stand
We also climbed the Acatenango volcano there! That was anything but easy, and I decided that it was the last big hike for me. I've already done enough of them, and I somehow don't enjoy it anymore. But it was worth it because we saw the Fuego volcano erupt every 20-30 minutes. It was a beautiful natural spectacle, and it was impressive to see the power of nature!
The volcano in daylight
At night, it was even more exciting to watch because the lava glowed in the dark!
The only downside was camping! And as you know, I hate camping with a passion. And why? Just look at this picture, it says it all!
We did it!
The volcano today:
Today, almost 4 weeks after we climbed the volcano, we saw on the news that the volcano has erupted. It feels strange to know that the very volcano we were recently at has erupted and the population around it is suffering. Rescuers are searching for victims, whose number has now risen to almost 70. Over 1.7 million people are affected by the natural disaster (Source: tagesschau.de). We can hardly realize how close we came to it all. But when we see the pictures from Guatemala, we are speechless.
Final Thoughts:
But that's it for Guatemala. It's a beautiful, small, original country. But above all, it is poor, and it is incredibly difficult for me to deal with that. Indonesia is probably also a poor country, but I probably didn't recognize it in my initial euphoria. It has been harder for me here, but maybe I'm just tired of traveling. That could very well be because the homesickness gets worse day by day. To make matters worse, I also let myself be convinced to book my return flight very late. It's not what I wanted because I always said I wanted to go home earlier. But now I have to focus and enjoy the time. Even though I know that there's a lot waiting for me at home and even though I would love nothing more than to have my dearest girls around me because one thing is certain: there aren't many girls traveling alone, and it's easier to make connections with men than with girls. Of course, traveling is still a lot of fun, and I just love looking at the pictures, they are such beautiful memories!
