antigua • 12 comments • It was approximately three hours by shuttle from Panajachel to Antigua. The shuttles are relatively easy to arrange as Panajachel is a town that seems to be made solely for tourism. There is a 'tourist agency' on every corner. Because it was the holidays, many hotels did not have a room for the amount of time we needed. We decided to stay at the Aurora hotel for one night. The room wasn't anything spectacular, but the courtyard was beautiful: Apparently, Antigua is the place to be for New Year's Eve. Due to this fact, and unfortunately for us, people book their rooms for December 31st months in advance. We literally walked into almost every decent hotel in Antigua and they were all booked. Most often, booking accommodations at the very last minute has worked in our favor, but in this instance it might have been prudent of us to makes plans in advance. Oh well!
if you're on the shore, then you're sure not me-oh • 13 comments • While we were at Lake Atitlan, we were pretty disappointed that we weren't able to get onto the lake right away. A lot of people were away for the holidays and there was only one kayak. Also, scuba diving wasn't a great idea due to the algae bloom. So, when we rode into Panajachel on a pick-up, we decided to take a boat back to San Antonio Palopo. We negotiated a price with some men on the beach and got in the boat. Suddenly, some kid hopped in and started the engine. The man who we thought would be with us got on another boat and sailed away. We were a little confused, but the kid seemed to know what he was doing, so we relaxed and enjoyed the ride. We're so glad that we were able to get that ride back because it turned out that it was the only time we got on the lake. I'm sure an opportunity will present itself where we can kayak and scuba (hopefully, soon)!
