Blackout, power outage

Back from the day trip, I went to my room and wanted to charge my mobile phone. Connect adapter, charging cable and phone... nothing. In fact, our little lagoon city has been without electricity since Saturday morning... and it would stay that way until Sunday afternoon. Most guests took it easy. Dinner was held by candlelight. There weren't many alternatives because our village could only be reached by water taxi, which ran until around 5 p.m.

On Friday, we left Guatemala City by bus. Old American school buses ensured long-distance travel for Guatemalans. Tourists referred to the colorful eye-catchers as 'Chicken Buses' because chickens used to be transported on the roof rack. The travel comfort could be classified more under the category of 'functional'. Flying vendors who got on and off in cities offered snacks, sweets, fruit or mobile phone charging cables. I used the time to inform myself in detail about our guest country, the civil war and the territorial conflict with Belize using Wikipedia. After three hours and two transfers, we reached Lake Atitlan, one of the country's tourist highlights.

We continued by water taxi to Santa Cruz, where our hostel was located. From the terrace, we enjoyed the fantastic view of the lake and the two volcanoes on the opposite shore. On the following day, we visited two small villages clinging to the steep mountain slopes like swallow nests. We indulged in the full tourist program by visiting a pottery workshop and a cocoa showroom, where we were talked into trying cocoa rum with a cardamom note for 18 euros equivalent. I could swear that our cocoa drink was much more watery than the one we had tasted before.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I also knew that Guatemala's export economy was mainly based on coffee and bananas. In recent years, in order to hedge against fluctuations in the world market, there has been additional cultivation of cardamom.

Interesting biographies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_%C3%81rbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Morales