San Pedro: Exercise? Whats that then?

• Tweet

• Tweet

Days 71 & 72 – Tuesday 29th & Wednesday 30th November 2005

I thought Panajachel was a decent enough place, but I wanted to see some of the other villages that surrounded Atitlan, so after breakfast I carried my bags down to the departure point and boarded a lancha for San Pedro, a small village on the opposite side of the lake, where the main traveller hang-out is situated. The boat bounced across the choppy waters and by the time we arrived in San Pedro everyone on board – along with our bags – had a taste of what swimming in the lake was like.

As we docked, being wet was soon forgotten as San Pedro looked like a cool place where I would like to stay for a few days. No sooner than everyone on board had got their things off the boat the touts began seeking our custom for their hotels. The hill up the main street to the hotels looked pretty steep, so as soon as one guy said he had a free taxi to his hotel I was all over him!

Eventually there were about 6 of us in the back of this pickup, and together with our luggage it struggled. It struggled so much that half way up I thought we were going to roll back down from whence we had came. I didn’t fancy ending up in the lake, so along with 3 others I got out and walked up the hill. At least I didn’t have to carry my pack up there as I left it in the back of the truck!

After some initial fuss about room allocation, I ended up sharing a triple room with a Canadian guy, who was travelling with his brother and sister-in-law. Early afternoon came arounda and I went to have some more food and wander the village. Not much happened, it was a quiet town so after a walk around taking some photos of the lake I headed back to my room and read, in between admiring the view from my balcony.

Having missed out a beer the previous evening I decided I was going out. I saw a cracking happy hour offer, a rum and coke for Q3 (Q13=£1), so at about 9pm I wandered down and took advantage of this generous offer. I got talking to another Canadian guy who was to be performing at an open mic night, so went along to see if he was any good. He turned out to be pretty decent, playing a mixture of his own music interspersed with covers including Eric Clapton, Oasis, Ben Harper and Tracy Chapman.

After his set we played some pool and chatted to some interesting NYC girls – apparently the new expression for when something is good in the Big Apple is PP Smoothie. I have some serious doubts about that one catching on. Godders, have you heard it on the streets yet?

I eventually clambered back up the hill at 2am for some sleep, satisfied that I had had an alcohol fix for the first time in a while.

When I woke up the next morning I had the temptation to hire a motorbike and go for a ride around the lake to see what the nearby villages were all about, but after breakfast I realised my head was a little fuzzy and I’d probably crash so I decided not to risk it and opted for the pushbike instead. The first hill I came to I nearly threw up and thought I’d made a big mistake, but I soon got used to the exercise after two months of abstination and began to enjoy the ride alongside the lake.

The day was pretty clear and stopping to admire the view gave me an excuse to stop and catch my breath. The road stayed pretty much close to the edge of the lake all way, but the edge of the lake wasn’t flat. It is a series of volcanoes after all. This gave me some serious uphill climbs, but also some panoramic vistas of San Pedro and the volcanoes.

As I rode through the villages of San Juan and San Pablo it dawned on me that the hills I was coasting down were the hills I would have to climb back up to get back to San Pedro, so I turned around and headed back. On the way I stopped at a wooden hut/corner shop for a coke. It turned out this hut sold two varieties of Coke. Coca-cola and cocaine. As I was casually sipping my drink and chatting to the guy, he offered me any drug I wanted, right in front of his 5 and 6 year old kids. I declined politely and continued on my merry way with only my regular Coke drink for energy!

I think when I got back to San Pedro the coke (drink) had given me an added buzz because I decided that 2 hours biking wasn’t enough. As it was only 3 in the afternoon I hired a kayak out for a further two hours and paddled my way along the banks of the lakes to where the volcano met the water. This took about 40 mins. Not wanting the hassle of getting out of the boat and trying to get myself back in it, I sat and drifted for about 40 minutes. This was a pretty peaceful 40 minutes, being out on the water alone watching the birds and listening to the sounds of the lake, but then the paddle back was a struggle as the effects of the coke had worn off and I was paddling under my own strength!

I made it back to shore knowing I would be aching the next day, and decided that after all the exercise, I deserved a beer. Thus I had a few with my dinner, watched Starsky and Hutch (new version) as well as some more live music. I didn’t get drunk though, because somewhere in my exercise-crazy-day I had found the time to book a tour to climb Volcano San Pedro in the morning, starting at 6am.