8th December – Panajachel, Guatemala

A walk down to the lakeshore this morning and we could see why Panajachel was a definite stop on this itinerary. The town sits on the edge of a massive lake surrounded by volcanoes. The boat stopped at our first village Jaibalito, and we hiked up through coffee plantations to the island for around 30 minutes to arrive at the La Casa del Mundo Hotel and Café for breakfast. This place is listed as one of “the most magical” hotels in Guatemala and we could see why. It was perched on the edge of a cliff with the café overlooking the massive lake. We had a delicious and massive breakfast and then spent an hour walking through the maze of lush and tropical gardens finally finding one of the many hammocks lakeside to laze in for an hour. Our boat them came to pick us up Santiago Atitla which is squeezed between two volcanoes. The main reason for coming here was to see the famous Maximon (pronounced Mash-ee-mon). The Maximon is Guatemalan idol that is housed at a different house every year. The person who houses the Maximon must be elected and able to financially support the Maximon because he is a very expensive idol to keep. He has a new set of the best clothes every week. We receives offerings of rum and cigarettes and he must be cared for including being changed into his night clothes and laid down for a sleep every day. What is a Maximon. Well it is basically a short statue with a wooden mask. He comes out once a year for a parade and is revered by the local community. We had to try not to laugh when we saw the Maximon with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. When one of the girls on the group left him cigarettes his minder promptly removed his cigar and lit the cigarette in his mouth – which looked only slightly ridiculous. However, it is always interesting to see other cultures we agreed. We then visited a church we housed many people when they were too scared to stay in their houses with the political unrest in the 80’s and early 90’s. A helipad was also still marked on the floor outside the church where a large number of people in the community were removed after the devastation of Hurricane Stan. Guatemala had a fascinating history and for all it has gone through over the years some of the most friendly people.We walked back to our boat down through the markets stopping to haggle for some masks and also some photo’s on the chicken bus which we would take later. We then headed to our final town San Pedro, mainly just for a waterside drink stopping by the markets to see brightly coloured chickens. They are coloured that way to show the customers what sex they are!!
It was around 3pm at this time and most of the group agreed that rather than head back to town we would catch the boat back to the La Casa del Mundo Hotel which we had enjoyed so much. Five of us shared a bottle of wine beside the lake and lazed around watching the sun set over the water. A lovely way to end the day. Our boat was meant to pick us up at 5.00pm but did not show up. We end up catching a water taxi at 5.45 pm. The taxi turned up and it was absolutely packed to the point there was hardly anywhere to sit. It was loaded with baggage and only sat around an inch above the water. Alarmingly it’s name read “Titantic” on the side and it had one lifejacket per ten people. It was a great ride back to town though. We later headed out for dinner and a few drinks in town. Unfortunately two of the group had their card swallowed by the ATM so that will have to be sorted tomorrow. We sat up until 1am trying to retrieve photo’s again as our card failed (again). Success though!