San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala.

The short:

Lake Atitlan is stunning. It is truly breathtaking how beautiful it is at every time of day, and we were lucky enough to see it at pretty much every hour (due to a rather early start one morning, which I will go in to in more detail). Early in the morning the water is flat as a pancake and the sky crystal clear, allowing some much welcomed warm rays to beat down on our bodies. Around lunch time the clouds begin to move in and waves form on the lake. My favourite time though was late afternoon/early evening, when the clouds were low and foggy over the tops of the mountains and the evening sky and moon lit up the lake in an enveloping midnight blue; it had a very mystical feel to it. We stayed in the village of San Pedro, 1 of 6 around the lake which, from what I understand, is the most "Gringo" inhabited and tourist frequented of them all. Naturally, it is therefore also the one best known for a good party, and I can assure you that it delivers on that front. On a deeper note, however, it was awesome to stay in San Pedro as it gives great vantage points of the most famous mountain, "Indian Nose", so named due to its shape being akin to that of the side of a man's face lying down, with a deep furrowed brow and large nose, and is also home to the San Pedro volcano. If we had had more time I would have liked to have visited some of the other villages, San Markos in particular, which is known to be very chilled and draws in the yoga lovers and hippies; if nothing else, just to see the cultural differences between them and the lives of the locals that reside there.

The long:

Friday:

After surviving the 4-hour bus to Panajachel, it was a treat to travel by others means to San Pedro. You can get there by car, but we thought we would opt for the local boat and take a scenic tour of the lake. I was not disappointed. We arrived just as the "mist" was setting in, illuminating the lake in my favourite colours. 

45-minutes and chilled to the bone later, we got dropped off in San Pedro. A short walk took us to our hostel, which we chose for its great Tripadvisor reviews and reputation as guaranteed to deliver "traveller fun". It lived up to its promise; we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, however, I cannot speak as highly of the rooms, which really don't bear describing... (just try to imagine a dirty prison cell with cold water and dim fluorescent lighting and you've pretty much got the mental picture). Obviously, minimal time was spent in our room. The view was pretty damn unbeatable though.

After a quick freshen up we put our party hats on ready for "Quiz Night", the hostel's busiest and most famous event of the week. As you can see, Michael was very excited at the prospect of winning US $100.

At this point, I would like to inform you that that bottle of beer provides one with 1l of alcohol at a price of £1.50... I'm surprised they're not all blooming alcoholics! It goes without saying that a lot of beer was on our tab by the end of our 2 day stay. Back to Quiz Night - the place was absolutely rammed and it was so much fun meeting new people; I actually found it slightly surreal how many like-minded people there were to ourselves. Sadly, we were too pre-occupied socialising to win the quiz (but obviously if we had been concentrating, we would have had it in the bag).

Saturday:

Waking up in the death pit with a very fragile head was not preferable. We quickly ventured outside to get some food in our bellies and soak up the morning sunshine. A friend that we had made the night before (from Bedford may I add; small world or what?!) came and met us for a kayak trip. We had grand plans to kayak to San Markos and back, which failed miserably when we made it about 1/3 of the way there and realised the journey would take many hours to complete in God knows what weather. The views from the lake were, however, spectacular.

Out in the middle of the lake we made some friends from San Francisco, who were absolutely lovely and I intend to keep in close contact with in the lead up to my trip there in 2 weeks! Once we'd had enough kayaking (it actually really hurts your hip flexors for some reason), we returned to shore and Michael and I went off to explore the more local parts of San Pedro on our own.

I'm still not sure what this whole cowboy thing is about... Anyway, I was quickly transformed in to a giddy little girl when I spied some fresh coconuts calling out to me. I set a fast pace back to our hostel armed with my favourite good so that it could be consumed the "proper" way, i.e. with a spoon! I couldn't help but continue to lap up the views; you honestly don't tire of them as the light continuously changes the way that the lake is framed.

We were provided with much amusement when the owner of our hostel jumped aboard a small speedboat to run some errands elsewhere, and his dog absolutely lost the plot, howling and pacing back and forth on the dock. 

^ His dog waited like this for over half an hour, only to go mental again when he eventually returned. I must admit that I was slightly jealous that I don't get the same treatment from our dogs back home, but it was so incredibly sweet to watch and really proves that dog's truly are are man's best friend.

We had planned to have a fairly relaxed evening in preparation for "THE BIG DAY", in other words, my wonderful boyfriend's birthday, which we had decided to begin celebrating by waking up at 03:30am to hike the Indian Nose and watch the sunrise (seemed like a great idea when we booked it; obviously my idea). But once I announced to our new found friends that it was his birthday in just a number of hours, the beer started to flow, and then the rum, and then the shots, and before I knew it, a hangover from hell was a sure bet. Then again, you only live... or turn 24, once (not that he appreciates being reminded of this may I add... how on earth is he going to cope with turning 30?!) It was worth the pain, we had such a fun night with great people in beautiful surroundings; you can't ask for much more than that!

Sunday:

03:30am. Alarm sounded. BIRTHDAY TIME. After an hour's drive we were at the base of the Indian Nose with a 30-minute hike ahead. It was absolutely pitch black and the climb was incredibly steep; there were a few slips and tumbles in our group and plenty of panting rests en route. Our personal favourites were 3 French girls who were literally on the verge of vomiting on the way up, only to reach the top and start sucking on fags; oh, the French. I can happily say that the hike was worth it. The view was utterly magnificent. We got to see the entire transformation of darkness to light and its effect on the lake.

BIRTHDAY BOY AND I MADE IT!

Very tired but happy we made our way back down the mountain, which we could now enjoy in full daylight. It turns out that a young boy (presumably the son of our guide) had been with us for the whole  trip, and was now running back and forth beside us brandishing a machete like it was an every day regular toy; slightly unnerving but it is a different world after all. Once we reached the bottom, Michael and I plodded into the surrounding town to await our shuttle pick-up to the airport and for a spot of burrrrrday breakfast. I had imagined that there would be some nice tourist spot with a great view serving waffles and bacon to treat my boy with... I must live in a dream world at times because the only place open so early was a very, very local small Guatemalan haunt serving purely "comida tipica" (their traditional breakfast), which consists of eggs, pinto beans, tortillas and a touch of hot sauce.

Incredibly tasty but not quite the same standard as the Pantechnicon... Not a Bellini in sight! At £1 per person though I could hardly complain about its toll on my purse.

A rather long wait at the "bus stop"/(side of a deserted road lined with corn fields, in front of what turned out to be a home), we hopped on board our shuttle bus to begin a highly undesirable birthday journey to Mexico City.