Pedro and Maria Motorcycle South America!: Panajachel (Lago de Atitlan) to Antigua, Guatemala, 80 miles

We woke up to someone scraping away at the roof early in the morning. It wasn’t too bad considering we went to sleep so early the night before… Mike took a walk along the lake and I slept for another hour. The town slowly got a start in the morning as by the time we packed up the bike, most of the shops were still closed; maybe because it is Sunday. Although Panajchel is a really beautiful spot among giant volcanoes and a beautiful lake, there wasn’t too much there for Mike and me so we were off to our next destination, Antigua.

We originally had heard that Xela is a much better town than Antigua to take Spanish courses in, which is why we decided to do so for a week, but to our surprise Antigua has become quite a gem in our trip!

The road out of the lake was amazingly beautiful; a lot of grassy hilltops, pine trees and giant mountains. Not long after we hit the road we came across a road block on the main highway. Strange, there was no other way than around the road block, so we continued. It was an amazing new highway, some of the best roads we had been on forever, until it dead ended with a dirt road that eventually lead to nothing but a hilltop; the construction must have been cut short. Making our way back, not knowing where we should have turned, we somehow weaved through a little town and found ourselves smack in the middle of Antigua. We stopped, looked around and Mike said “I think we are in Antigua”. The town reminded us of San Critabol right away and we were very pleased with what we saw. Cobblestone streets, beautiful churches, parks and great little shops and cafes. We were bummed we hadn’t chosen to take courses in this town instead! Mike said that this is his favorite town yet on this entire trip. I’d have to say this and San Critabol are on par.

We met a couple of Brits at the hot springs that had been hitching across Central America for the last 4 months and had spent quite a bit of time in Antigua. They both said that on separate occasions they had been robbed in Antigua. The boy was robbed by a few little kids at knifepoint (who actually attempted to stab him with their little knife), and the girl by a drunken couple threatening her with an empty bottle of tequila. Because of this news, and the fact that hitching across all of the other Central America countries hadn’t brought them any troubles, we are on high alert in this town. I think the combination of the rich tourists and very poor folk has obviously caused the crime to rise. There are plenty of gringo tourists here, but not enough to be offensive; it’s quite a pleasant town. Mike wanted me to draw a fake tattoo coming out of his neck/shirt to make him look ‘tough’ in hopes that any little punks wouldn’t want to bother with us…I talked him out of that one. My technique is to carry the can of bug spray around which serves two purposes: mace and mosquito killer. It’s brilliant; if any little punks approach me, they will receive a fury of strong bug spray directly in their eyes!

One of the biggest observations we made today, and something that was quite astonishing is this is the first time we have seen any locals with money. There were some really nice cars and motorcycles in this town. After driving through all of Mexico and most of Guatemala, we haven’t seen any nice bikes or cars; all day long you could see them here. KLM, a couple V-Strom’s just like ours, and plenty of BMW’s all lined the streets. Quite a site from what we have been used to.

We’re going to stay an extra day here. I’m going to take my camera out for some great photographs and bring in the great ambiance of Antigua! Our hotel, $20/night isn’t anything special, but has a hot shower which has become so hard to come by…I couldn’t be happier.

Good Morning Lago de Atitlan