Leaving the Lake

The wind has been blowing for two days and the lake is white capping. The locals tell me this happens occasionally, but not usually this time of year. We sadly pack our bags, and leave Aaculaax before breakfast, trying to get across the lake as early as possible. We don't really know how we're going to get to the coast, but will figure it out poco a poco (little by little, or step by step) and hope to put our toes in the salt water this evening.

We stop, briefly in San Pedro for breakfast, and catch a tuk tuk to the other pier, where we'll catch another boat to Santiago, on the southeastern side of the lake. The southern road from the lake twists between three volcanos, an easier route than trying to leave from the north shore, because we're heading a little south and west.

This is the Santiago dock. Just in the left corner of the photo you see a brick wall. That's the city park. It's under water, along with all the stalls for the vendors who normally sell here. The dock is also not the normal dock; the normal one was swamped probably pretty quickly after the late summer rains. There are a few buildings along the shore here, too, that have water washing against their front walls.

The lake is so churned up by the wind, we almost decide to not board. I threw our bags to a man on board, and another man held tightly onto each of us as we boarded the lancha. There was a big step down from the shaking pier. The trip to Santiago was very rough, and one woman was sick. Thank goodness the 'windows' were screened with plastic, otherwise we would have been more soaked than we were. The four men sitting on the front bench held a blue tarp over the front of the boat for the one hour, rough ride. Their arms must have been tired, but they all declined to let me take their place. Machismo is alive and well in most Central American countries! All the bags, in the floor at our feet, got wet. We were all splashed, but there we no complaints. It is a beautiful day. The captain did a good job of steering into the waves, but our destination was almost sideways to the wind and the waves, and eventually we had to turn. It was a slow trip.


  Santiago. It's the most developed of the villages on the lake, pop. 32,000.
















I couldn't resist taking this photo...a sign on the street, across from the bank in Santiago, just a little way from the town market. We waited on the curb there for about 20 minutes for the bus to leave...

"It's prohibited to urinate, defacate, throw trash anywhere in this place. By order of the government of Atitlan". So, there!








I don't know what this man was hauling, but it was heavy. The big baskets covered wtih nets of some kind are used a lot around the lake. I saw many people carrying goods like this. If the women were carrying the baskets, they were usually on their heads.

The bus originates in Santiago, and even though there is no bus station, everyone knows what time the bus leaves for Cocales. It's parked beside the bank. I watched the driver's wife leave a bag of lunch on his seat, while he was busy in conversation with someone else. Luckily, we were the first ones on the bus, and had the front seat with a good view. No crowd. Yet. We drive around the southern edge of the lake, climbing and giving picture postcard vistas, past miles of coffee plantations and a few very small villages, eventually turning more south and west. As always, there is very little vehicular traffic. At one little village, a tuk tuk driver had left his tuk tuk parked on the narrow street, blocking traffic. Not usually a problem, since there is so little traffic. But, the bus couldn't pass. The driver leaned on the horn for a long time, no one appeared. The conductor and the driver, with great disgust but much patience, got out of the bus, and lifted the tuk tuk to the sidewalk. We drove on...