Due to lack of practice, My bartering skills seem to have deteriorated from neglect nearly as much as my spanish (which in my prime never really attained heights above that of a disinterested high school student). I would like very much to say that i was not taken in by the first English fluent driver i encountered, that after a long and nearly sleepless flight i was able to muster more than token resistance to the notion of comfort over economy, and that i struck a shrewd and canny bargain that won me the admiration of my driver instead of settling for the first reasonable sounding price. Alas, as the opening sentence indicates, this simply did not happen. Not to put too fine a point on it, I've been had. Edmund the shuttle driver with all the well practiced sincerity of a professional confidence trickster convinced me with depressing ease that for only a little more than the chicken bus i intended to take, I could arrive in Panajachel with ease and comfort in his van. Edmund was such a charming and gregarious driver, such an expert liar that i have a hard time remaining properly annoyed with him, even after i had paid him double the fair price and took three times as long to get there as i should have.
Riding through Guatemala city Edmund pointed out various local landmarks and chatted amiably. Guatemala city, except for the proliferation of signs in spanish, could be mistaken for the poorer districts of any american city if you didn't look to carefully. the impresssion begins to fade as you reach the outer limits of tyhe city and corrugated steel and cheap plywood become more prominent construction materials. by the time you are past the city limits there can be no doubt you arew in a foreign country.
When we reached Antigua, Edmund decanted me and my luggage out front of an anonymous looking travel agency, instructed me to pay the clerk and announced that the connecting shuttle would arrive at exactly 12:30 in the afternoon before disappearing from my life forever.
Left with four or five hours i did not expect to have to explore Antigua, i got to be well aquainted wit the town. If you must be needlessly stranded in Guatemala, see if you can arrange to do so in Antigua. This is the city that tourism beauraus use to convince people it's a good idea to come to Central America. The narrow, neatly kept streets are lined with small concrete houses with tile roofs in paintbox shades of mustard, rose, salmon, tangerine, easter egg blue and pea green. as you meander the avenues of small shopfronts locals nod to you politely and greet you with a muttered "Buenas". Guatemalans are generally compact in build with wary choclate colored eyes. the men depending on age dress in t shirts jeans and baseball caps or as though they were auditioning for an extras role in a western. women are either in casual clothes or in delightful woven rainbows of mayan costume. Antigua's main square is a riot of flowers and stately trees. the square is presided over by several stately colonial buildings left by the Conquistidors. slightly off the square is a ruined cathedral and a lemon colored archway topped with a candy confection of a clock tower. i was able to sketch this building relativly undisturbed but for a few locals who took a polite interest and left with a small compliment. The opulence and vibrant colors of Antigua were a pleasant shock after the arid subdued pallate of the Southwest.
I made certain to arrive in the travel agency with ample time to spare. i was rewarded for my punctuality by the shuttle arriving a mere forty minutes late, which i was assured by a passing German is amazingly short by Central American standards. i failed to appreciate this point properly. i also failed to appreciate the driver's need to drive around Antigua for an additional hour and a half looking for the other passengers who had booked this van. I think if i had more than three hours of non consecutive airplane sleep, i might have developed a more philosophical point of view. i take conselation in the fact that by the time we had all been collected the rest of the passengers were as hot, uncomfortable and cranky as I was by the time we left Antigua. we barely spoke to one another during the entire ride
Guatemala is possibly the most vertical country in the entire world. Mountians have been crimped to make room for additional mountains, all of which are unbelivably steep. If you drop a round object in this contry, chances are remote that you will be able to catch it again before it is unceremoniously dumped into the Pacific hours later. Still, locals somehow manage to farm the slopes without the aid of rappelling equipment. I have been told that the entire nation is roughly the size of Louisiana. If somehow someone managed to unwrinke the contry it would probably rival Alaska in size! I don't mean to give you the impression that there are no flat surfaces in Guatemala. this would be false. There are, after all, several tables.
After several hot cramped hours in the shuttle where we alternatly sulked and prayed under our breath that the driver didn't attempt to jump the next cliff, We were finally decanted into Panajachel at around 4:30 in the afternoon. This is the largest city on the large and mountain rimmed Lake Atitlan, formerly the crater of a tremendous volcano. Within minutes i had found my way onto a Launca, the blue and white fiberglass ferries that transport passengers to the various towns around the lake. Bouncing across the choppy and impossibly blue waters, and feeling the spray and wind waft refresingly over the bow, I knew i was only a short distance from San Marco, my final destination. For the first time that day, I was enjoying the ride.
J
Riding through Guatemala city Edmund pointed out various local landmarks and chatted amiably. Guatemala city, except for the proliferation of signs in spanish, could be mistaken for the poorer districts of any american city if you didn't look to carefully. the impresssion begins to fade as you reach the outer limits of tyhe city and corrugated steel and cheap plywood become more prominent construction materials. by the time you are past the city limits there can be no doubt you arew in a foreign country.
When we reached Antigua, Edmund decanted me and my luggage out front of an anonymous looking travel agency, instructed me to pay the clerk and announced that the connecting shuttle would arrive at exactly 12:30 in the afternoon before disappearing from my life forever.
Left with four or five hours i did not expect to have to explore Antigua, i got to be well aquainted wit the town. If you must be needlessly stranded in Guatemala, see if you can arrange to do so in Antigua. This is the city that tourism beauraus use to convince people it's a good idea to come to Central America. The narrow, neatly kept streets are lined with small concrete houses with tile roofs in paintbox shades of mustard, rose, salmon, tangerine, easter egg blue and pea green. as you meander the avenues of small shopfronts locals nod to you politely and greet you with a muttered "Buenas". Guatemalans are generally compact in build with wary choclate colored eyes. the men depending on age dress in t shirts jeans and baseball caps or as though they were auditioning for an extras role in a western. women are either in casual clothes or in delightful woven rainbows of mayan costume. Antigua's main square is a riot of flowers and stately trees. the square is presided over by several stately colonial buildings left by the Conquistidors. slightly off the square is a ruined cathedral and a lemon colored archway topped with a candy confection of a clock tower. i was able to sketch this building relativly undisturbed but for a few locals who took a polite interest and left with a small compliment. The opulence and vibrant colors of Antigua were a pleasant shock after the arid subdued pallate of the Southwest.
I made certain to arrive in the travel agency with ample time to spare. i was rewarded for my punctuality by the shuttle arriving a mere forty minutes late, which i was assured by a passing German is amazingly short by Central American standards. i failed to appreciate this point properly. i also failed to appreciate the driver's need to drive around Antigua for an additional hour and a half looking for the other passengers who had booked this van. I think if i had more than three hours of non consecutive airplane sleep, i might have developed a more philosophical point of view. i take conselation in the fact that by the time we had all been collected the rest of the passengers were as hot, uncomfortable and cranky as I was by the time we left Antigua. we barely spoke to one another during the entire ride
Guatemala is possibly the most vertical country in the entire world. Mountians have been crimped to make room for additional mountains, all of which are unbelivably steep. If you drop a round object in this contry, chances are remote that you will be able to catch it again before it is unceremoniously dumped into the Pacific hours later. Still, locals somehow manage to farm the slopes without the aid of rappelling equipment. I have been told that the entire nation is roughly the size of Louisiana. If somehow someone managed to unwrinke the contry it would probably rival Alaska in size! I don't mean to give you the impression that there are no flat surfaces in Guatemala. this would be false. There are, after all, several tables.
After several hot cramped hours in the shuttle where we alternatly sulked and prayed under our breath that the driver didn't attempt to jump the next cliff, We were finally decanted into Panajachel at around 4:30 in the afternoon. This is the largest city on the large and mountain rimmed Lake Atitlan, formerly the crater of a tremendous volcano. Within minutes i had found my way onto a Launca, the blue and white fiberglass ferries that transport passengers to the various towns around the lake. Bouncing across the choppy and impossibly blue waters, and feeling the spray and wind waft refresingly over the bow, I knew i was only a short distance from San Marco, my final destination. For the first time that day, I was enjoying the ride.
J
Having been stranded more than once in antigua, I agree that there is no better place in the world in which to spend a lay-over. Enjoy the lake too, it's absolutely amazing!!
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