1600 And it all started so well.
At El Rancho overlooking lake. Wanted to go for the same as yday for lunch but La Mano de Dios was shut when got there 2ish. Tried to ask waiter for salad without dressing and he was completely unable to understand me; thought I didn't want salad. Fuck knows. I said it about twice as slowly and as simply as I could and in the end I hope I managed to get the idea across that just forget I said anything. Getting grilled chicken with rice and salad etc; various sizes available and I picked second cheapest at Q30. Litre of brahva is only 20 and coffee 5 - am getting coffee with food, may stay for litre and more coffees if food OK but want to eat before I commit to drinking and food just may be inedible though probably fine.
Had a look re accommodation/onward travel tomorrow back at hotel. Not a fucking clue. Hostelworld.com denies San Marcos La Laguna even exists. booking.com has one cheap-ish place and I may even book it but it would be very un-social I think, and it's far from clear there's anything to do in San Marcos. Wondering if I should stay here another day.
Oh, and booking.com sent me an automated email this morning (5th) saying spider hotel says I didn't check in on 3rd - which I fucking did, and I paid for three nights, and I've replied to say this, but now concerned they're going to try to fuck me over on this. Need to try not to worry about it. Didn't get a receipt of course, because most places don't give one.
I was planning on a quiet evening in but I need to mull over what the fuck I actually want/can get from my remaining time. Toyed with having a Skype Spanish lesson but phone is uploading gobs of photos from 3 day hike, there are 300+ to go and if I turn the sync off to avoid it caning the probably crappy wifi connection I worry it will never work again or will lose its place.
Trip up San Pedro volcano this morning was on the whole good but subsequent events have pissed me off as above and so want to mull instead of writing about it.
Going to read book on phone until food comes and is eaten anyway.
Coffee just came, has sugar in unasked but not end of world.
1625 Very generous portion of decent grilled chicken. Salad fine, 5 tortillas, some black beans (cold but not refried so not so bad). Shame about the red sauce on side which contaminated most of the rice and the guacamole, though the latter less of a problem. I might well come back here another time (if I am in SP) and just ask for no sauce and no guac, if my Spanish proves up to it.
I gorged on a bag of tortilla chips after getting back to hotel earlier so think I'm sufficiently well dined to have a litre of Brahva. It's much later than yday but although a little bit iffy looking the new hotel is actually v close down some alley (the alley looks iffy, not the hotel).
1703 Incomplete musings, not finished beer yet. I don't have anything I desperately want to do round the lake. I am not ruling out paragliding, but I'm not *that* fussed - I've done it elsewhere, I may go on a course in UK in summer, I'll probably be back at some point. I don't object to a hike (around the lake or up Indian's Nose) but I'm not desperate. I *do* want to do Acatenango from Antigua and see my Spanish teacher there, but that only needs 3-4 days and I don't really want to spend more time there than I need. I am sort of up for spending a couple of days in Guatemala City but if I don't that's not the end of the world.
Within moderation it's nice to sit over a beer/coffee and stare at the lake. Given the absence of any other pressing activities, it kind of feels like I might as well stick round the lake until next Mon/Tue-ish. I can then go to Antigua, do the Acatenango tour (booked in advance) and if things go tits up I have a few extra days in hand (possibly ditching GC) to try to reschedule.
Given I am sort of saying I'll stick round lake but have no really "must do" activities, I wonder if I should experiment and try to check into a hostel (dorm, even) for a couple of nights here and see how the social scene works for me. It might be useful experience. If I meet someone who wants to do IN or even San Pedro volcano I could join them. If it's shit I haven't lost much, I can always go into some other quieter hotel or at least somewhere with a private room (in SP or another lake town, eg I wouldn't mind trying Pana's nightlife). It's all experience, it might be useful to experiment before starting trip after Christmas and I'm not passing up anything to do it. OK, I could maybe visit Hobbitenango or whatever near Antigua, but I'm not desperate and I could probably do that anyway.
I doubt I'm going to meet up with any of the 3-day hike people in San Marcos. Slim chance of meeting some of Spanish school people when they arrive next Monday but I think that has to be *if* I am here; not going to stay here solely on chance of that. (OTOH, asking Sean where they plan to stay might be a way of finding somewhere interesting to stay myself Mon/Tue night in addition to the chance of meeting up with them.)
I would like to get some chat on - locals (Spanish speaking) would be cooler but seems pretty unlikely here or in Antigua, just maybe in GC, but other tourists would still be good. I would be pretty happy to have that chat in a low key way over maybe a beer or two, I am not looking to "party" in the extreme sense that word seems to be used but I need to steer a course a bit more in that direction I think.
I am a bit dubious about staying in a dorm, but of course have done it before. In moderation it would help keep costs down, and I think the key thing - I've discussed this with various people - may be that it is actually helpful wrt socialisation, it's not solely that it's cheaper. Not sure to what extent my age matters, but I think it's worth an experiment. Gut feeling right now is that after beer (not finished yet)+coffee will have a poke on web back at hotel for something suitable here in SP. I don't see any real attraction to San Marcos, I've already been round the Cerro Twhatsit park that weekend with guys from Xela school. And a quick flick through guidebook suggests none of the other lake town look amazingly appealing to me. As I said above, maybe Pana, but I might as well give SP a bit more of a try first. If nothing else I can always do pollo encebollado at LMDD and a beer+coffee combo overlooking the lake for the afternoon if I stay here. SM seems expensive and new-agey and in the absence of people I already know recommending a hostel etc I see no massive attraction.
1802 Just had decent chat with anonymous American at nearby table who has been here studying Spanish for 8 months. He noticed my meditative stare at lake.
Finished beer but going to get some coffee and continue to mull.
1821 Got my sociable head on today. Just had chat in Spanish with one of the staff; if I got it right he is from Coban, has only lived here 8 months and had to learn Spanish here. He speaks 3 Mayan languages but not the one spoken by the locals here.
None of this is fundamentally relevant to my earlier waffle but it does mildly seem to point towards staying in SP a couple of days and trying experiments with hostel. The American told me it was safe to wander round town at 2am off your face. :-) Not out of town, but still. I don't intend to do anything of the sort but after a few beers at night it's good to feel it's probably OK to walk home.
He also said that the family in one of his homestays could speak Spanish - but spoke a Mayan language over dinner, which wasn't much good for his immersion.
1838 Quite a lot of tables occupied in last ten or fifteen minutes. Just an observation. Will get one more coffee then home for the mildly stressful chore of picking a hostel for next couple of nights and maybe doing something re prep for Antigua and Acatenango.
1903 Finished coffee. Quite busy. Let's pay and go home and try to sort shit out.
1919 hostelworld.com has two (count 'em) hostels in San Pedro. WTF? Both have frankly borderline verging on shit reviews.
2025 OK, spent an hour flipping out at my fucking domain registrar but also have booked in for two nights at a nearby hostel in a dorm. It has a terrace so I can experimentally hang out there. It's only a whisker cheaper than this hotel (but a private room at the new place would be quite a lot more) so it's not really saving much money but it's an experiment. I can always move back here or whatever after the two days are up. If this works OK it may help me save a bit of money and/or socialise more on future trips. Absolute worst case is I write off the sub-Q100 I am paying for two nights and piss off somewhere else.
2150 Bed. Not exactly tired but was an early start, I have an awkward 1200-1400 homeless period tomorrow due to checkout/checkin times, I hope to be up 10ish so I can go over to LMDD for early lunch before changing hotels. Will write up this morning's volcano trip tomorrow. Feels like I've been running around a bit too much lately, which might be ridiculous, but a couple of days doing nothing and seeing if I can scrape acquaintance with anyone may be welcome. I might clear off to Antigua early if I feel I've had enough after that, we'll see how it goes. Cut my fingernails as overdue and won't really be able to do that in dorm. Not shaved but meh, can do it tomorrow with a hopefully decent sink. "Don't touch the sink!" is my mantra whenever I go into the bathroom here.
No comments:
Post a Comment