The Black Hole

San Pedro
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Our bus ride from Antigua to Lake Atitlan was not at all pleasant. 6 of our group of 8 all went on the same bus at 8am, 2 stayed behind because they wanted a day to recover before an early bus ride. It wasn't a long trip, only 2 hours, but we were up till 5am the night before, and the road to the lake was one of the most windy roads I have ever been on. We finally got to Panajchel, on Lake Atitlan, and quickly found a place to just sit down and stop moving. Once we felt a little better we walked down to the docks and hired a boat to take us to San Pedro, which is a town across the lake, less busy and touristy than Panajchel. Lake Atitlan is huge, its more like a sea than a lake. Our driver of course over filled the boat with people and the motor wasn't even powerful enough to plane the boat, so it took a very long time to cross the lake. We all piled out at San Pedro, and said goodbye to James and Charlotte, who were doing spanish lessons and staying in a homestay. The four of us, Anna, Alex, Hiroto and myself walked around town to find a place to stay. Our first choice was Zoola's a place we had heard lots about through other who had been here, was full. The 2nd place we found was called Trippy's Hostel. It was full of hippies and drugs. We were sick of carrying our bags, so we decided to stay there for the night and find somewhere new the next day.

The Kayaking group
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We didn't really do much that day, as none of us were feeling that well. We went to a restaurant for lunch and it took over 1.5 hours for our food to arrive, and we only got sandwiches. The next day we met up with Dave and Mark, the 2 who stayed longer in Antigua, and the 6 of us went looking for somewhere better to stay. We found a really good deal, a hotel with private rooms that came with bathrooms inside the rooms! What a novelty! After unpacking our stuff we went down to the lake and rented kayaks for 8 people, we spent the day paddling around the lake, and found a nice small beach to stop for a break.

Our group at the Jamaican Bar
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The next day Anna, Alex, Hiroto and myself signed up to go see Guatemala's biggest market, in a place called Chichicastanengo, or Chichi for short. It was another 2 hour ride on crazy roads, and once we were at the market we had 4 hours to look around. I didn't buy much, only a Guatemalan belt that I had been wanting for a while. The lady wanted 120Q for it, and I talked her down to 70Q which is still probably too much. 4 hours was enough time there for me, and was glad to get back in the bus for the ride home. That night we met up with James and Charlotte again for dinner. I had planned to leave the next day, but everyone convinced me I should stay for the Full Moon party, which was going to happen Saturday night. I don't think anything could compete with Thailand's full moon party, but I decided to stay for 1 more night anyways to check it out. The next day I realized staying for 1 more night meant staying for 2 more, because at the full moon party we were going to be up until sunrise, and I would not want to travel after that.

Fire spinners
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We now had a group of 10, we started the night at D'Noz for dinner and drinks, and then went to a place called Freedom Bar. It was a cool bar, and they had 3 fire spinners just like in Thailand, but the music was pretty bad, so we didn't stay too long. Our next bar was the Reggae Bar, where you could get a rum and coke for about 65c. We stayed there until the bar closed at 1am, and then went outside to get the shuttle to the full moon party. The "shuttle" was just a pickup truck, and they squished about 20 people standing up into the back of it and drove us to the party. The party was at some abandoned house on the lake, and we had to pay at the top to get in. I gave the guy at the top a 50, 20 for the ride and 30 to get in. After he took my money I went to the gate, and the people at the gate told me to pay them, even though I just did. Turns out the guy I paid was just some random guy taking money from people. So I went back to him and told him to give me my money back, and he gave me a 20. I said he owes me 30 more, and finally he gave it back, then I paid the right people and got in. The party wasn't inside the house, it was right down by the water. They had a DJ set up and a bar, and a fire down on the shore. It didn't compare to Thailand's full moon party but it was fun just the same. At 5am we said goodbye to Alex and Anna, they had to go back to San Pedro and catch their bus to Mexico at 6am. Once the sun was fully up we got back into a van and they drove us into town. On our way back we were stopped by police, who were looking for drugs going to the party, Our driver explained we were just tourists going home, and he let us go.  I was happy to be in bed finally at 8am, and slept until 2pm.

We spent a day recovering and just hanging out, and said goodbye to everyone, as we were all going to be splitting up after San Pedro. The next day Dave, Hiroto, and I went down to the dock and got a boat to take us back across the lake to Panajchel. It was tough to leave that place, originally I had only wanted to go for 1 or maybe 2 nights, but I kept saying just 1 more night. San Pedro is like a black hole, once you're sucked in its hard to get out. I was there for 6 days and really didn't do much, but it was hard to leave anyways. Next stop: El Salvador.