We wanted to have breakfast at ‘Y Tu Pina Tambien’ but unfortunately it was closed. So we went looking for another cosy place. On Sunday it seems this is quite a challenge though so there was nothing else to do then have breakfast in a touristy bar at the central plaza.
Filled up on energy we walked back to our campground as we wanted to go and see the city from a view point up in the hills. The tourist police is known for taking you up there but today they didn’t have any vehicles available. So with nothing else to do we headed for ‘Panajachel‘ (or ‘Pana’ as it is affectionately known in ‘Guate’). The town is situated on the east side of the ‘Lago de Atitlan‘, a lake surrounded by 3 volcanoes. Aldous Huxley said that this lake is like Lake Como in Italy, but then with the additional benefit of having 3 volcanoes decorate the surroundings.
On the road over we were stopped twice by the police. After showing our papers we could pass through without any problems. At one stop they didn’t even ask for our original documents. Sometimes we wonder what they are looking for when they do these controls…
The lake is very calm in the morning, but in the afternoon the winds set in and make it more rough. The Mayas said that these winds blow all the sins away, so we made sure to stand outside for a bit. We had planned to go see the butterfly sanctuary, but it was closed for maintenance. Our plan B was to walk around town for a bit, have a coffee in a café with wifi. That all worked out fine! In the meantime, the street was being transformed into a river due to the heavy rainfall.
As we were feeling a little hungry we headed for ‘Jose Pinguinos’ described by our guide to be the best dining place in town. As the streets were quite flooded we couldn’t reach it unfortunately (this seemed to become a bit the theme of the day…). So instead we went to ‘El Ultimo Refugio’ which turned out just perfect (also the theme of the day, hurray for plan B! :)). They were very friendly people and the food was simply de-li-cious!!
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
Keep Calm and Drive South 