Sun 1055 Having coffee solo at hostel (La Iganua Perdida) in Santa Cruz La Lagune, very nice views over the lake. On the whole things have been interesting and gone surprisingly well.
Just checked out, was Q302 - they run a tab system here so it was a bit scary, but that's OK. I think about 65 of that is for the dorm bed for one night, 65 of it is for the barbeque last night and the rest is drinks. Not a super cheap night but OK. Oh, 8 of that will be for unlimited coffee yesterday and I payed another 8 cash after checking out for unlimited coffee today, hence sitting here now. I have lost my water bottle (an old Coke bottle - not a huge loss) but if that's all I've lost I'm happy.
Struggled to get up (cold/fearful) on Saturday so got up a hair before 7. Went over to terminal, slight effort to find it but not too big a deal. Put backpack (small, just my daypack) in front of chest as advised by teacher, felt a bit stupid but whatever. Struggled to hear anyone calling "Pana" but wandered up and down and maybe 15 mins later a chap (not the first) who came up to me showed me onto a bus. I was super dubious but went with it. Bus got super rammed later though I only had one guy next to me. A preacher got on and started on at us (in Spanish; I mostly understood him for better or worse, but decided not to be able to speak Spanish if he spoke to me (he didn't) and stayed on the bus as well pulled away.
When the guy came round to collect money I handed him 20 and said "Pana" and he only took 10 and said something like "Los Cuchillos". I had expected to pay 20 so I got worried I was going to have to change bus an extra time halfway there. Getting a bit antsy, when we got to 4 Caminos I looked at Google Maps and decided to fight my way off the bus. I then dithered and asked driver and he said not to get off here and he'd tell me when to get off. So fought my way back on, very embarrassed, and sat down again. Eventually told to get off, everyone very helpful really, and by sheer luck there was another bus (these are the big ex-US school buses) at the apparently middle of nowhere junction at that point, the driver pointed at it and told me to take it. So I dashed over and said "Pana?" and got on, which was lucky.
This bus had a guy in a suit get on with a portable PA round his neck who did a spiel about a dermatological cream, including coming round the bus offering sample squirts from a bottle (I didn't take one, so can't say how good it was). They also appeared to take only 2 or 3 Q from the 10 I handed over, and they only went as far as Solola. I was feeling better (not that I'd ever felt terrible) at this point as I knew where Solola was, in a pinch it is walkable (8km?) from there to Pana and I felt I was mostly there. I asked a guy at a Claro booth where to get a bus and he told me to walk three blocks down one road, which got me to the (scenic; would be nice to spend a day or two in Solola some time) main square and I managed to get another extra-rammed big bus to Pana from there, which cost an inexplicably high 5 or 8 or so.
Once in Pana I knew where I was. It was *way* busier than when I was there a month-ish ago and much hotter, but I kept my fleece on all the same. I found the terminal and hung around hoping to spot a public ferry (I still am not completely clear how or if this is done; I think they mostly look the same as the private boats) and by sheer chance spotted another guy from the school who had left on Friday heading down the pier. So I followed him and got on that boat, and it turned out he was going to the same hostel as me.
We checked in - I was able to get into my dorm straight away, and luckily got bottom bunk and (as it turned out) the two guys I was meeting were in the same room. Then had coffee and a chat in Spanish on terrace while waiting for other two to come back from a kayaking trip. (Not a new observation, but I probably couldn't have joined in with that even if I had been here. I really do need to learn to swim when I'm back in the UK.)
We - and some other people they'd met - then got a boat over to IIRC San Marcos and had lunch (an very slowly served and pricey at Q45 but nice vegetarian curry for me) and walked round a bit, including a mini hike up Cerro Tzankujil - there was a 7ish m high diving platform part way up, two or three people from our group did in fact do the jump, which I was pretty impressed by. I have no idea if I ever would do such a thing even if I could swim - I could see being torn - but again, I really do need to learn to open my options up.
Got the boat back - it was really rough waiting at the dock to leave , I didn't get sick but worried I might get sick, but better (though bumpy - that "hitting a stone" feeling as went over the waves) on the way back. We bought a few bottles of Quetzalteco and a few beers at little kiosk outside hostel and "sneaked" them in so watched sunset-ish (it actually set behind a big hill to the right, but nice colours etc) from terrace and/or out on the docks. Two of the people we'd met were a Californian couple did a bit of swing dancing (on the dock - brave!) and the two guys (as said other day, actually bloke and woman but easier to write this way) I was with were into salsa (bloke is cutting his Spanish down to 4h a day and taking up intensive private salsa classes) and we ended up with that couple leading an impromptu dance class on a different terrace inside the hostel. I felt a bit awkward but as it would have left one woman without a partner I did join in, and I sort of enjoyed it and also sort of felt really crap. A bit like the whole awkwardness of pair work thing I used to get doing Wing Tsun.
I sneaked away towards 7 to go have a shower, as did other people. We had signed up for the barbecue earlier and also found out there was a fancy dress party afterwards - the hostel has a whole small room with old clothes in, and we had picked out some costumes before we went over to San Marcos. Again not the sort of thing I'd perhaps normally do but the thing about being with a group was I was able to join in taking advantage of peer pressure and sheepyness (not sheepishness, hence making my own word up). I contented myself with an apparently hideous women's top ("Girl in the saddle") and a fetching mob cap with a feather in; I wore my regular cargo trousers and that was fine. Several blokes wearing dresses but I didn't go that far.
So got fancy dressed and went into bar for drinks and the barbecue (pretty good, though I feel a bit pricey at 65 even with seconds on the side dishes) and quite a lot of drinks. The atmosphere was quite nice; staff making an effort to create a fun atmosphere, slightly artificial but still kind of fun drinking cames round a table with a local guy in drag, etc. Bar shut at 1 but I ended up sharing a pre-purchased beer with an American doctor (female) from the mid-west and a middlingly interesting/maudlin/slightly-aggressive drunk guy on the terrace where we'd been dancing earlier. We helped staff clear away a little bit and then despite/because of a moderately animated discussion about politics and feminism I ended up back on the terrace cuddled up with the doctor looking out at the lake (volcanoes silhouetted on the opposite shore), just the two of us.
We went to bed (separately) at some point; I wasn't sober but wasn't pissed either. I was probably (presumably, given it had just been us two on the terrace) the last one into the dorm but I felt my way over to bed in the dark and slipped my shoes and trousers off - left them on floor, nothing super valuable in them and most of people in dorm were known quantity at this point - I had had the foresight to leave my battery pack and cable on the bed so I went to bed with phone charging under my pillow. I didn't/couldn't get properly under blankets in the dark without disturbing everyone, but I didn't feel cold just sleeping under the top cover sheety thing.
I woke up and didn't check the time but eventually my alarm went off at 1030 and checkout was 11. I got up - no one else in dorm - and went off to shower (cleaning teeth with no water, just saliva to make paste foam - not risking tap water) and put clean uw/top on and checked out and that's where I am now.
Nadia (I should give people names really) chatted me on Whatsapp, saw her on terrace relaxing in hammock, Joel has gone off hiking and might be back 1ish, hence my coming over to this other terrace to write this and have coffee etc.
There's no wifi here - they make out it's so people connect with each other etc, this may be true but it also feels a bit of an excuse for not providing it even in common areas - but I have mobile data on phone so that's OK. They have some computers you can use, and apparently the restaurant next door charges Q50 for an hour's use of their wifi!
Feel the usual qualms after a night drinking but ultimately I don't think I did anything wrong. Not sure I will remember everyone I met yesterday but just have to keep working on that.
Not hungry but not not hungry. I will assume we're going to eat together some time 1ish when Joel gets back.
I could maybe see myself trying a couple of nights here on my way back through Pana/Lake Atitlan, but I do also feel it would be harder to meet people on my own - OTOH, I should try. I assume this would be classed as a "party hostel" so I shouldn't *always* shy away from such places.
A couple of people told me I looked 35ish, and they weren't apparently trying to borrow money. I don't take this too seriously but it's nice to hear regardless. I guess wearing a cap (either my baseball cap or that fancy dress one) hiding baldness helps.
Oh, it also helps because I skinned my head on the luggage rack as I was sitting down on the Solola-Pana bus. It didn't bleed but did hurt a bit; I put cap on so I didn't have to plaster sunblock on the wound, and I washed it with some antibacterial soap in hostel bathroom. It has a weirdly sunburny large-liver-spot appearance now but I'm sure it will be fine (it is absolutely *not* sunburned).
2344 Freezing nads off after shower. We left about 2 (not too sure), had lunch in Pana (think I'd eaten in same place on last visit) then got bus about 3. We didn't have to wait for any buses, but we had to change in Solola, then Los Encuentros, then somewhere else for a connection to Xela (our bus wasn't direct; in future may be worth asking this before getting on, though it's such a stressed and pressured environment may not be worth it) then we got dropped off at some point not too far from centre of Xela but not terminal so we got a taxi (I could have walked but WTF). Journey seemed interminable but also somewhat cool; very strong centrifugal forces going round some of the winding mountain roads, I felt I was getting the hang of squashing onto the seats when already full and I also heard the song "No te sientas tan importante" on one bus which I have listened to several times on Youtube tonight and which makes me smile almost against my will; there's something so jaunty about it.
We are meeting up with the doctor tomorrow night at El Cuartito at 8; I think it's her last night in town before she goes back to the US. She was probably going to travel back with us but when we got to Pana she realised she'd left something at the hostel and had to go back for it. (I am not mentioning her name out of slightly illogical privacy concerns, as usual.)
Bit late to bed really but not terrible. Didn't enter Friday's vocab in phone but did write something about the exchange on Friday (even if a bit hastily). I went and got a pizza from Pizza Ricca on way home; half the city seemed to be queuing up outside but got a 'special' IIRC pizza for Q55 eventually, have eaten about half and it's pretty nice, will eat rest tomorrow. Bit lardy to have the pizza as well as the (not-huge) restaurant lunch but was promising myself it as a treat when the bus rides seemed interminable and it's the weekend so WTH.
Some minor self-doubt creeping in re Saturday night be on the whole I think it was a good and fun experience.
Let's go to bed. Final note - some of the "games" at the party last night required you to make up a fake identity. In a lack of imagination I simply nicked Bill Bryson's - which isn't a good idea when it turns out I am completely incapable of saying "Des Moines" correctly, even after being corrected multiple times. :-)
Got back to flat about 1915 BTW, though I'd probably have been here 15-30 mins earlier if I hadn't faffed with the pizza.
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