Woke up reasonably early this morning for breakfast with my Antigua friends before catching my bus to San Pedro. I had an extra hour to talk with Gladys and finish packing. I was also able to say goodbye to her properly, which was a relief. I wish that you all could meet her because she really was an absolute gem. She was kind, had an adorable giggle, and definitely seemed to enjoy helping me practice my Spanish. I will treasure the late night conversations I had with her, the moments I helped her prepare breakfast or dinner, and the way her eyes light up when you say something that surprises her. I was definitely grateful for all that she had done for me.
On my bus was a Israeli couple, what I assume was an American, a couple originally from Japan & Czech Republic, a girl who spoke impressive Spanish, and sad little me. The ride was 3.5 hours long and frankly I was falling in and out of sleep. Although the glimpses I did catch of the roads and views were beautiful. In particular I gawked at the debris remaining on the road from the rains we had last week. Definitely must have been difficult to travel here during that time. In particular the road down to San Pedro was especially in shambles and made for a bumpy journey.
I was also captivated by seeing how the locals live here, in particular how little they seemed to have. There was a little boy bathing in the street and later a woman bathing in her frount yard. Definitely not a typical sight where I’m from. Equally you saw some hardworking individuals collecting firewood and hauling it up the steep hills here. Definitely gave me a new appreciation for how fit and how difficult that work must be.
When we arrived in San Pedro I found myself helping the Israeli couple who happened to miss the drop off in San Marcos. I was their inadvertent translator trying to figure out what they needed to do from here. I then made sure the other couple on my bus got a tuk tuk to their hotel (which ended up being my hotel) and negotiated a “fair price” for them. Fair price for tourists that is.
I ended up walking around, hoping that I could walk to the hotel. In the end though I opted to take a tuk tuk as well and make my way to Hotel San Francisco. At first I was rather...unimpressed. Although the rooms were very similar to the one I had in Antigua, the added bonus was that I was near both the touristy area, the Santiago dock, as well as the local area. Additionally I had a private bathroom and shower. Definitely worth the $3.16 I paid for it.
After “settling” in the 5th room I looked at, I left my stuff and ventured into San Pedro again. In part to figure out the cost to get to Semuc Champey from here as well as how much it cost to climb Volcan San Pedro. Which turned out to be 125Q and 100Q respectively. I signed up for the Volcan San Pedro tour for the next morning at 5am.
Having arranged my tour and feeling hungry I found Jarachik, the other hostel I thought I might stay at. I ended up enjoying two banana smoothies while I wrote down my adventures from this weekend. Then I headed back to my hotel for a nap before heading to eat dinner at The Buddha. I enjoyed my first remotely decent hummus wrap here for a reasonable 26Q. Although I do miss the 4Q tamales already.
I had an early night yesterday, opting to return to my hotel in order to be in bed by 8pm for my early wake up. I ended up conversing with the Japanese & Czech couple before they had their first Spanish class about my impressions of Guatemala and America. An interesting conversation. Then I made my way back to my room to watch part of a movie before falling asleep.
Although I was woken up at about 8:40pm by my guide, Francisco, for tomorrow asking if I had an issue changing the time from 5am to 6am. I assured him I didn’t mind at all. An extra hour of sleep was welcome.
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