Lake Atitlan

With the chicken bus we continued our journey. Chicken buses are old decommissioned American school buses and Guatemala's main mode of transportation. It quickly becomes clear why they were decommissioned in the USA when you see the thick black smoke rising from the exhaust. And in any case, they would certainly no longer meet any safety standards. Beautified, these polluters still serve their purpose here. Loaded with bags and baggage, children and babies, chickens, corn sacks, and other things, the population here travels from A to B. Quite an exciting spectacle.

The goal of the tour was Lake Atilan. Surrounded by several volcanoes, it offers a wonderful backdrop. By boat, you can reach the surrounding towns. As a first stop, we headed to San Marco, a tiny place with a very specific philosophy of life. Here everything revolves around yoga, meditation, massages, and "hanging out". But the atmosphere in town wasn't the best. As one of the "hangouts" told us at the beginning, there are problems and rivalry between the locals and the newcomers, which was particularly reinforced by the fact that a tourist had taken the new mayor's wife. In addition, almost everything in this place is foreign-owned. Eccentric people and shabby millionaires stroll through the streets. everything somehow crooked.

After a few days, we continued by boat to the next town called San Pedro La Laguna. Not necessarily a dream but at least a bit livelier. This place was completely dominated by Israelis. Apparently a popular vacation destination. So we also ended up in an Israeli-run hostel and supplemented our menu with hummus and falafel ;-) And as it sometimes happens on a trip, we stayed in some places longer than we had planned. Reason: we had a good time here!

One highlight was the morning climb to the so-called "Indian Nose" (a mountain silhouette that looks like the profile of a face). From here, you had a good view of the lake and the volcanoes, as well as a beautiful sunrise. Furthermore, we wanted to educate ourselves a bit and took a coffee tour.... not a coffee drive ;-) The area around the lake is known for its particularly good coffee! Unfortunately, our timing wasn't the best once again... The coffee bean season doesn't start until November. So we had a coffee tour without coffee ;-) but it was still interesting! The climate here is perfect for coffee beans and the volcanic soil makes it a special highlight. Very expensive and unfortunately never affordable for locals. But damn tasty too.

Another highlight was a day trip to the Sunday market in Chichicastenango, but we have dedicated a separate blog post to this spectacle.....ChiChi Market.

But what will remain in our memory of San Pedro are the children. There are plenty of them in Guatemala, unfortunately mostly poor. Maya families usually have 5 or more children, and the mothers are often still very young. Due to poor conditions, they cannot afford to go to school. Therefore, many children have to work in order to afford this privilege. A special encounter was with Pedro, an 11-year-old boy who wandered around on weekends to shine people's shoes. He gave us an insight into the world of these children.

Afterwards, we spent a few days volunteering in an afternoon care center. Here, the children are taught English, helped with homework, or played. The teachers were grateful for any support and were also very happy with new ideas. So, with the simplest means, we did a little creative project with the girls... making new Barbie outfits from fabric scraps; decorating t-shirts; turning pants into bags... or making origami dresses. It was a lot of fun for us and the children, and it was nice to be able to give something back.