Central America 2000 - Down to the lake
From Worldtraveller
When we woke, though, we found it was really not a nice day. We decided not to climb that day, but we didn't want to hang around in Antigua any longer. We decided to leave for our next destination, and hope to return to Antigua with a couple of days to spare at the end of the trip to have another crack at Acatenango.
So we headed for our next point of call, Lago de Atitlán. Many thousands of years ago, a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in the Guatemalan highlands left behind a crater hundreds of meters deep and several miles across. Over hundreds of years, the crater filled up with water, forming the beautiful Lago de Atitlán. Renewed volcanic activity then began, and over time three new volcanoes formed around the lake shore. Today it is one of the most beautiful places in Central America, and we had been looking forward to it.
Having been in Guatemala nearly a week, we decided to brave the bus system for this journey, and we were glad we did. The buses were not crowded, they were driven safely, and the people were marvellously friendly - curious about where we came from and what we thought of Guatemala. The only bad point was that the bus workers are so keen for your business that they will tell you the bus is going where you want it to even if it is actually going in the opposite direction. We thought it would be a two-leg journey but it ended up being four.
But it was worth the wait. Our first sight of the deep blue waters of the lake surrounded by towering volcanoes was breathtaking, and we had a long and magnificent descent in the bus from the hills to the lake shore. We arrived in the lakeside town of Panajachel at about 3pm. Panajachel is probably Guatemala's most touristy town, so we made a rapid exit, jumping on a boat across the lake to the town of San Pedro la Laguna.
Every afternoon a wind known as the Xocomil rises to churn up the normally placid surface of the lake into large swells, so our boat ride was bouncy to say the least, and occasionally I wondered how strong the hull was, but we made it to the other side OK. As soon as we got off the boat, we were engulfed by people offering to guide us if we wanted to climb Volcán San Pedro, which looms behind the village. This was the main reason we had come here, so we shopped around for a good rate. The more people in the group, the cheaper the cost, so we decided to try and recruit some other people for the climb.
We checked into the Hotel Valle Azul, a beautiful hotel right on the lake shore, with hammocks on the balconies and hot showers, all for £1.50 a night. We were surprised when Ashley, who we'd met in Nicaragua, emerged from a room near ours. Having been with us when we were defeated by Volcán Masaya, Ashley didn't hesitate to join us on our quest for the top. There were several other travellers staying at the hotel, and within half an hour, we'd managed to assemble a group of 11 people. We negotiated a rate for a guide, and arranged to leave at 5am the next day.
