We left El Salvador yesterday morning at 7am and made it to San Pedro lake Atitan, Guatemala in one piece. The border between El Salvador and Guatemala was very quick and inexpensive. It actually cost us only $1, which was a small tip for a guy who gave us a quick hand sorting out our vehicle papers.
I should back up; Remember last entry how we talked to the local who lived part time in Texas and spoke English fluently. He ended up getting $40 bucks out of us for “tips” to border officials, other guards, and guys running around getting photocopies of things. We now think we were stupid for paying him so much but we have learnt. We also nearly got talked into paying another $35 dollars for exiting which raised the red flag. He was in our car (again probably not the best idea) and we got him to the gas station he needed out at then told him there was no way we were paying to exit El Salvador while entering…. It just didn’t make sense. Now we know we made the right decision.
Lake Atitan is really a magical place, active volcano’s and high hills surround it. Its unfortunate that local villages are so poor that environmental considerations aren’t taken into account. People don’t realize the impact on the lake when there are so many communities around it (sewage goes right in untreated). The lake is formed in a gigantic volcanic crater and has risen due to lack of drainage; and the black bass (an invading fish) eat everything including the birds that nest in the reeds and water plants. I wouldn’t eat the lake fish or go swimming although some people do.
Shopping around this lake has got to be some of the cheapest, with the best selection of goods in all the places we’ve been. Locals take a real pride in hand making things, which they price exuberantly, but barter until the item is less than half the original asking price. This makes shopping here fun as well!! We just finished a day in which we could hardly carry everything back to our hotel…. We spent the morning in San Pedro, which has better pricing; in the afternoon we took a ferry over to Panajachel for the gigantic selection of goods. On the ferry we met some other people from Vancouver Island who actually have some mutual friends in common!!!!! It’s a small freaking world. That or Vancouver Islanders just love to travel. Greg and Angie live in the Cowichan Valley and are doing a three-month trip, however they flew down. It was so random we went out for drinks with them, showed them around Pana and had them help us lug our day’s prize of a couple rugs, couple hammocks, a purse, two winter jackets (cheap here but probably not necessary to use here) and a large beautiful bag back to the boat for us. It was wonderful meeting them here.
Tomorrow we are just hanging out and going to a (famous around the lake) barbeque. I’m excited but now exhausted.
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