Day 116 – Friday 13th January 2006

Almost 30 minutes east of Granda lies a volcanic lake, formed in much the same time way as Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. This lake is named Laguna de Apoyo. The owners of The Bearded Monkey also owned a hostel on the banks of Laguna Apoyo and they ran day trips there for US$7 a head. After Atitlan we knew that it wouldn’t be as impressive (I think that any lake in the world would be hard pressed to match the beauty of Atitlan), but we decided to go anyway for a day of swimming in the fresh waters.

As we arrived in our pickup truck our previous suspicions were confirmed as it wasn’t as gorgeous as Atitlan, but nonetheless it was still a beautiful lake. The owners of the Monkey Hut had also done a good job with this hostel, providing everything you could want to enjoy the lake.

Firstly we used the rubber rings to float about it, then we played a little basketball. By that time we had worked up an appetite and went down the road to a local restuarant for lunch. When we returned to the Monkey Hut we made use of the jetty to let our food go down, before taking the kayaks out onto the lake. Our last experience with kayaks was a pretty shitty one, and this being Friday 13th we joked about sterring clear of them for the day. However these kayaks were much superior to the ones at Atitlan, as you never had to worry about drowning whilst using them!

So that was the day, pretty sweet if you ask me, chilling out on the lake, swimming soaking up the sun and returning to the hostel in the late afternoon ready for another Flor de Caña session. It being Friday we expected the town to be busy and we were not disapppointed, the locals and the tourists were out in force. We ended up having a pretty late one, I don’t think I rolled in until about 5am, tired but satisfied after a quality day.