taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

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DAY 48

Week 7

PANAJACHEL (Sololá, GTM) to SAN JUAN LA LAGUNA (Sololá, GTM)

Wednesday May 1^st, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 51 miles / 82 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 19,787 miles / 31,844 kilometres

The original plan was to leave Panjanchel around 3:30PM to cross Lake Atitlán by boat and land in lakeside town of San Juan La Laguna for a local family home-stay for the night. Those plans changed when Sonia suggested a stop along the way, which facilitated a 9:30AM departure.

Carved directly from the soaring cliff face, La Casa del Mundo in the adjacent Jaibalito municipality is a 58 kilometre (36 mile) and a 2+ hour drive along winding mountain roads, but for 20 GTQ ($3.80 AUD) each we rode for 15 minutes in one of the local lanchas (regular ferry boats).

The stop ended up being 6 hours long, with views out over the lake that made for a stunning lunchtime dining experience and allowed me to complete my Cuba blog entries, as well as getting a good start on my new David Baldacci novel.

Around 3:30PM we were met at the dock by another lancha and ferried over to San Juan La Laguna, a town of around 11,200 that would be our stop for the night. This leg would have been 19 kilometres (12 miles) and a 1+ hour drive, but took the lancha only 20 minutes.

We would be down to a group of 5 as Lila took such a shine to La Casa del Mundo, that she decided to spend the night. No dramas, we’ll collect her in the morning on our way back to Panjanchel.

We were met at the San Juan La Laguna dock by a representative of the local Mayan tourism concern, who introduced us to our respective home stay family members. A short 10 minute walk saw us dropping our gear off at our respective local homes and then met up at the local park to go on a walk of the town.

We visited the Iglesia Católica church, the Codeas Women's Weaving Cooperative, Qomaneel Plantas Medicinales, Licor Marrón Chocolate and an art gallery thrown in for good measure.

It was just on sundown as we headed back to our respective homestays, I dropped my camera off and headed out to do a bit of exploring before dinner. As I was starting to feel like a long-haired friend of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus, I decided to resolve that via 20 minutes with a cutthroat razor in a local barbershop and boy howdy, I felt like a new man after that - do you know any???

On my meanderings, I ended up way out along the shoreline when I got WhatsApp messages from both Coco and Sonia that dinner was ready. I’d completely forgotten about it and said for them to continue without me, as I was literally miles away. I ended up grabbing a pizza at Restaurante Rostro Maya, which to be honest, was a pretty decent offering.

Upon arrival at my local accomodations, we got to chatting with Raul and his wife Maria and got to hang out with their 5-year-old grandson Francis, who’s taken a real shining to me. Loved sharing some quality time with him.

No shower for me tonight as when I was heading off to bed, Raul informs me that the city turns the water off between 8:30 PM and 5 AM to conserve water from un-repaired plumbing and water systems. There’s a big lake at the doorstep – skinny dipping anyone???