La Casa Del Mundo (Lake Atitlan, Guatemala) – Luxurious times!

I first heard about this hotel on Lake Atitlan when I was reading “The Backpacker” blog on The Sydney Morning Herald website (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/the-backpacker/best-travel-experiences-of-2010/20101214-18w0c.html) at work, and was reminded about it when some Aussies we met mentioned that they were headed to stay there. We picked a date, emailed the hotel and made a reservation.

La Casa is all about location. It is built on a steep hill overlooking the lake and opposite 3 volcanoes. The views are amazing. On our first night we upgraded from an average room to a fabulous room. The photos sum it up really …              

Our room

The view

More of the view

Must mention the view...

Each night the hotel serves dinner “family-style” around a communal, candlelit table. It’s a really lovely idea when it works - we met a bunch of lovely, funny and interesting people from America, Australia and Holland, but one night we were not so lucky and sat opposite the greatest Norwegian bores that ever have lived. The food is tasty albeit simple. You get a soup, side salad/veges, main (fish=good, chicken mole=bad, chicken keiv=good) and dessert for Q85 (about $10), which is expensive by Guatemalan standards, but cheap everywhere else.

We spent 3 days and nights relaxing at La Casa. In between watching the sunrises and sunsets, we did a few things of note:

• Day trip to Chichicastenengo, a market in the highlands. The big market days are Thursday and Sunday. The locals set up hundreds of stalls in the main plaza and streets of the town. Parts of the market are targeted towards tourists, selling weaved products and wooden souvenirs (you get the feeling that you have walked past the same shop 1000’s of times), while others sell food, vegetables and everything else that local families need (toys, flowers, chickens, pigs etc). We were excited to see the food area because we had read that it was full of Guatemala Grandma’s cooking amazing chicken stews and chicolitas full of chocolate … but walking through the market was pretty dirty and we didn’t see anything good enough to risk getting sick. Sad times.
• I bought two Tz’utujil oil paintings. The Tz’utujil style originated in the Mayan towns surrounding the lake and the technique is handed down from generation to generation in particular families. The paints are brightly coloured and show Mayan market scenes from above. Cute!
• We went kayaking on the lake.
• We visited San Marcos across the lake, a quiet little town with dirt streets and a couple of shops, with an exceptionally modern, shiny and out of place basketball arena.
• We watched the moon shining over the lake at 4am.

Fruit and vegetables at Chichicastenango

The hotel has a number of "balconies" over the lake, made for
jumping off/sunbathing etc - only the water level
of the lake rose 3 metres during heavy rain, a few months ago,
so the balconies don't really make sense anymore

Grey on the wharf - the only way to get to the hotel is by boat

Grey with average Guat food

Grey make the mistake of seeking out a Spurs game

... sad about Spurs

San Pedro La Laguna (Lake Atitlan, Guatemala) = Hippy-ville

San Pedro is a small town standing at the base of a volcano of the same name. It is one of the most visited towns on the lake and has a reasonably large “social scene” by Guatemalan standards. Approaching the town by boat, it looks ugly – a mish-mash of crappy square buildings – but it’s a pretty cute place once you get to know your way around (save for all of the hippies).

Little wharf over the lake

Dancing beside the lake

We found a decent place to stay - Nahaul Maya – for Q100 per night (about $12). It was clean with a private bathroom and TV, and a hammock out front. We were pretty pleased with the find.

Hammock and a room - $12 a night

Highlights:

• We had Spanish lessons each morning at Mayab language school. We had two on one classes sitting out in a garden with a local Mayan woman called Maria. We learnt a bit of Spanish, and a lot about Maria, her family and her way of life. We felt really lucky to be there.
• Hung out at an Israeli hostel called Zoola, which served great food including awesome hummus, falafel and meatballs. AND played backgammon. We also found awesome salad at a place called Café La Puerta – it could have passed for a salad at home!
• We went to an Australia Day pool party with a bunch of people from everywhere in the world + 2 Australians from the Central Coast. We played beer drinking games, drank beer, ate chips and gravy, sat in a treehouse and generally had a very funny time.
• Q4 (50c)Cuba Libres at Allegre Pub.
• Hanging out on the edge of the lake. 

Grey and our teacher Maria at Mayab - we took classes sitting in the garden

Beautiful salad - muchos aguacate

Grey at Zoola, chilling at tables in a long tent

BACKGAMMON

Grey beating some little kids at FIFA

Hummus and other great things at Zoola

Buddha Bar

Grey stepped in shit

Another night, another cute restaurant with resident Spanish guitar player

Panajachel

Panajachel is pretty much a one-road town. We arrived after a 3 hour minibus drive from Antigua, and decided to stay for one night to check it out before venturing over to San Pedro on the other side of the lake. We checked into the Utz Jay hotel which was unremarkable save for an amazingly strong shower!

In our room practicing guitar

The lake was misty that afternoon so we didn’t get to have a good look at it. Instead, we walked up and down the main road, checking out samey souvenir stores and restaurants and then spent some time hanging out in our room practicing guitar. Later in the night we grabbed some dinner at Café Bombay. We were excited to see Pad Thai on the menu (having Thai withdrawal), however when it arrived at our table it was just pasta with peanuts. Sad.

Not thai pad thai

Not too much else to say. The next morning we packed up early , had a quick breakfast (I had fruit salad swimming in yogurt) and then caught a boat across the lake to San Pedro.

The main road in Pana - not much happening

Antigua - very un-Guatemalan

We travelled by minibus from Coban to Antigua. As luck would have it, when the minibus arrived to pick us up it was being driven by the same maniac driver that had taken us from Flores to Coban. I cried a little bit. Grey laughed. This time, the tour company had also overbooked the minibus – it had 12 seats, but 18 people needed to get on it. Instead of calling in an extra bus, we all squeezed on. People were sitting on upturned buckets in the aisle, and everyone got to know each other pretty well. I was happy because I got a proper seat, and I think the extra weight slowed the driver down a bit.

Antigua is beautiful. A little grid town, mostly single-level houses coloured yellow, orange etc, the odd ruin and church, lots of cute restaurants and a pretty plaza. A giant, extinct volcano overshadows the city. Very much like Oaxaca in Mexico, except for the volcano.

Ruins around every corner

Chicken bus taking a corner

Main square

Street picture

We stayed in a cute hotel called Casa Rustica. The hotel had a big courtyard/garden area where the owner’s 4 dogs hung out. One of the dogs had his leg in a crutch and a big bucket around his head. The owner said that the dog had been outside the hotel on the pathway a few weeks back when someone had driven past and shot him. Absolutely horrible.

Poor thing! Shot in the leg

The highlights:

• Eating breakfast at Café Condesa on the main square – beautiful coffee and amazing cheesy quiches and omelets!
• Walking around the city and checking out the ruins, houses, artisan markets, parks, restaurants, shops etc;
• Running up Cerro de la Cruz to check out the city from above;
• Shopping at the markets and buying beautiful vegetables for 2 cents a piece and cooking dinner in our hotel kitchen;
• Drinking at bars around the city – There is a big traveler scene in Antigua so it’s really easy to meet new people. We had a big Saturday night out at an “Irish Pub” (although there was absolutely NOTHING Irish about it) followed by a restaurant/bar full of Guatemalans singing and dancing to a big band on stage;
• Hiking up Pacaya Volcano. We went on an afternoon hike up this active volcano that last erupted in May of 2010. Our bus had to change a tire and run a few extra errands on the way to the volcano so we started up the volcano a little late. The view at the top was amazing, and we walked across the now dry lava flows and toasted marshmallows in the hot bits. The sun went down just as we began our descent and it got dark very quickly. Our guide asked the group if anyone had a torch … No, we don’t. So everyone began walking/running/sliding/falling down the volcano (the surface was steep and covered with small pebbles). It was pretty crazy and I feel a few times. By the time everyone got down most of us we covered in black ash. Dirty!
• Sunday lunch at La Cuevita de Los Urquizu, a Guatemalan Institution. Pots of stews and other food sit out the front of the restaurant and you pick what you want before heading in. Yum!
• I bought a guitar! 

Guatemalan hot chocolate is beautiful - lots of spices, cinnamon/cardamon etc

Sitting on the Jesus-chair

Cooking an omelette with cheese, tomato and mushrooms

The dogs loved the omelette

Luggage is getting to be a problem

On Pacaya

Grey's favourite quiche

A night out somewhere

Eating cheetos

No more cheetos!

Traditional Guatemalan fare - stew, tamale etc

Cute restaurant - pick your food before you sit down

Coban and Semuc Champay – Unexpected cool

We decided to go to Coban and Semuc Champay to break up our journey from Flores to Antigua. Our minibus driver to Coban was a maniac and the journey was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life (think 140km/h on the wrong side of the road, around blind corners, on the edge of cliffs). I was so amazed that we made it to Coban alive that I insisted that we have a celebratory lunch – and a much needed wine.

We found a little restaurant in a garden courtyard called Acuna. It had absolutely beautiful food and wine. That afternoon we had soup, bruschetta and wine, and we returned again the next night for guacamole, pastas and the MOST AMAZING DESSERT EVER ZOMGGG!!! The waiter liked us because we gave him a $5 tip at lunch, so at dinner we got free dips, cheese toasties, chicken legs (?) and an extra big piece of cake.

Street corn on the cob with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, chilli sauce and parmasan

Also - we walked to a church overlooking the town at sunset, had our first Pollo Campero experience (like KFC only better, and one of Guatemala’s most successful businesses) and saw cute dogs and a billion chickens in a pet shop.

Giant pinata store

View over Coban from the church on the hill

Semuc Champay is made up of a valley between two steep cliffs, a river running through the valley, and a limestone step platform covering the river with flat pools of fresh water to swim in. No one I have met has been able to explain how or why it was formed. Not even Wikipedia. We went on a day tour from Coban with a bunch of cool traveler kids. The day started with a long drive through mountains covered in coffee plantations, and a steep climb up to a lookout to view the platform from above. AMAZING. Then we went swimming in the pools, jumping from platform to platform. So fun.

Limestone platforms from above

Us at the lookout

Platforms

Having a break

After we visited some caves. No so interesting. But okay in retrospect. 

Flores and Tikal – An island in a lake in the jungle & some pretty awesome ruins

Flores

Flores is a small man made island in the middle a lake in northern Guatemala. The island is full of cute restaurants and is a good spot to watch the sunset over the lake – although not much else. The main drawcard of the island is its proximity to the ruins of one of the largest Mayan cities – Tikal.

We were expecting bad things from Guatemalan food – a month of rice and beans basically – and our first impressions weren’t promising. We had an afternoon snack of nachos with orange American cheese and Doritos and ate dinner at a “traditional” Mayan restaurant where the food was barely edible due to the copious amounts of salt. However, the food improved as we steered away from Guatemalan food. We had lots of sunset happy-hour drinks overlooking the lake, watching hippies play guitar and talk garbage. Funny! We also had a beautiful meal at Il Terrazo, a cute Italian restaurant with homemade pasta (the 10 Quetzal ($1.40) mojitos may have helped).

Salty Mayan food

Beers by the lake

Sunset

On our last day in Flores we visited an animal rescue centre across the lake called Los Arcos. Arcos rescues animals from poachers and illegal traders and attempts to rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild. A Spanish speaking guide showed us around huge cages of exotic birds, spider monkeys, crocodiles and two Ocelots (the best).

We also visited the town of Santa Ellena, across the short causeway from Flores. It is not a tourist town and was our first glimpse into real Guatemalan life. We wandered around the dusty streets and markets checking out caged chickens, eggs, vegetables and meat. In order to keep the universe in balance we went to Burger King on the way home, which had the best view of any fast food joint we’d ever seen.

Best Burger King view ever!

Tikal

Tikal was one of the largest Mayan cities back in the day before being abandoned around the 10^th century. You enter the ruins along a jungle path which ended up being really awesome as we saw anteaters and monkeys swinging from the trees. Further down the path we saw a jungle rat chowing down on a massive wild turkey which had been killed by a jaguar (exciting!).

The ruins were fantastic.  80% of the site is still under the cover of jungle, and it didn’t feel like a reconstructed tourist park as some smaller, well-tended ruins have in the past.  A lot of the ruins only have their facades cleared of jungle with large trees and shrubs covering the posterior aspects.

As you climb temple 4 (one of the tallest pyramids in the world), you get an awesome view out over the canopy with jungle all the way to the horizon – brilliant. 

On the big pyramid

Cows on the road on the way home