Forget the Travel Guide.....What's For Dinner?

Erin Says:

I was awoken at 6am with the smell of fresh baked multi-grain bread and Alyece's scratchy morning voice signing "Feliz Cumpleanos" to me. She neglected to read the candle package (which in English stated the candles were re-lighting). Needless to say, after trying to blow them out multiple times and put them out with our hands, Alyece had to make an emergency run to the bathroom to soak them in the sink. I appreciated her rational for multi-grain bread and peanut butter (which are both very hard to come by here) instead of a chocolate birthday cake, being that it would be a cruel joke to get me a birthday cake that I had to watch everyone else eat and couldn't stomach.

Luckily for me, the parasites seemed dead and I was hungry just in time for my birthday dinner. Alyece took me to the beautiful Cafe Sky, where I scarfed down a whole plate of veggie pasta and NO VOMITING. What a birthday present!

But I think the best part of my b-day was Alyece taking me to Santo Domingo. Jose and Alyece had gone a few weeks ago, but I am certain our date was much more romantic! Santo Domingo is a massive hotel, museum, church and ancient ruin sight all in one beautiful location. All the stone ruins are covered in vines and lit up with little white lights. There are fountains, paths, flowers, statues etc everywhere. The hotel itself is insane - staff dressed to the nines at every corner greeting you and hall after hall lined with hundreds of candles which illuminated all the artwork. Being here felt like being in a different country all together, unlike anywhere we've seen, totally removed from reality. It's basically the most expensive place possible to eat or stay in Antigua and it definitely made for one hell of a romantic evening. After drinking their lime flavoured water out of champagne glasses and stealing the free apples from them, it was time to go back to the homely bliss of El Chillout for a small birthday party.

Funny thing is, when we asked Tops (the stoner bar/hostel manager) if it was ok if we had some people over for a small gathering, he repeatedly said to us "I'm in real trouble here, you are helping me so much, I have to pay my bills, I really need the money...bring as many people as you can to the bar". We were only going to have about 6 or 7 people...but felt like we needed to try and find a party after the pleadings of Tops. When we got home I realized Alyece had decorated our room with balloons and signs and it all felt very festive. When our friends did show up, we decided we had never seen grown men get more excited over a bag of balloons before. Interestingly enough I ended up with very swollen eyes, coughing and sneezing and hacking after I had been touching the latex on the balloons - very typical of me. The party stayed lo-key and we ended up at the bar with a few friends a little later, but all in all and amazing birthday party, solely because of Alyece.

Erin and Alyece say:

On Tuesday we figured it was time for us to leave Antigua as we awoke to Tops arguing with the hotel manager about the power bill... minutes later we were packing our bags in the dark. We hoped a bus to Lago de Atitlan to join a few of our friends we met in Spanish school (James from Scotland and Miles (or Brandy) from Virginia). Lago de Atitlan is a big lake in Guatemala with many small towns and villages surrounding it that you access by boating from the main town Panajachel. We were dropped off at a dock with boats leaving in different directions and all we knew was half the name of what we thought was a hostel or hotel (we weren't even sure) that James, in inebriation, had explained to Alyece the night before.

However, we picked a boat and headed to Santa Cruz. Luckily, when we walked up the dock we could see Miles and James lazily sitting on the patio on La Iguana Perdida. This hostel was waterfront, super laid back and had crazy good buffet style dinners (at which Alyece way over-ate as per usual). We were warmly welcomed our first night with a big party of travelers from all over and most of the staff members. And you know it's been a good night when all the guys and girls end up trading clothing during drinking games. However, I feel like this scenario always ends way worse for the men. (Note: James' later photo) It only got better when the staff brought out paint and we all ended up covered, including the hostel dog, who had his hair shaved into a Mohawk and painted in multi-color - which we unfortunately have to report is still there. The funniest part of the night is when everyone was sitting chilling out and someone put on the song "Everybody Dance Now". Spontaneously everyone in the whole room, stood up, rocked out and dance the duration of the song and then silently all sat back down and continued their conversations and drinking games. I can't even say I felt bad for Alyece when she was forced to wear my sweater (under which I normally wear shirts) and told everyone she wondered why I had only paid for HALF of a sweater. We ended the night with a little sing along of the beautiful guitar stylings of Miles and crazy good voice of James accompanied by the beautiful Alyece. (but just her voice...right Miles?)

Now, after going to bed peacefully we were awoken every 15 to 20 minutes by the huge crashing sound of avocados, lemons and other various tropical fruit, dropping on the aluminum roof of our cabin and rolling down the staircase. It was pretty comical that every single time we seemed just as frightened as the time before when we thought there was a bomb going off.

Either way, after a sporadic sleep we spent the morning Kayaking and swimming in the lake and relaxed in the afternoon in their cozy den to watch a movie. It was about half way into the DVD when we were bombarded with a group of older Americans (who had come from neighboring hotels for the TV) telling us 'we absolutely had to turn it off for the ever important presidential debate'. While Alyece opted out, I found it more comical to watch the Americans' reaction to the debate than watching John McCain calling Obama "that one". After eating way too much again, we all called it an early night and went to our bomb shack for some sleep.

The next day we made the painful 20 minute trek up a 90 degree slope into the tiny village of Santa Cruz. The town was just up the mountain and we went to watch the gang join in a futbol game with the locals. As Miles told us, we instantly fell in love with the tiny town and it's very friendly people and insanely adorable children. For the duration of the game James was injured, as per usual. (Note the already broken finger and stitches in the knee) Miles was having a hard time, with no shoes and bleeding taped up feet which our friend Dalton stepped on a few times. The boys had to watch out for the tiny Mayan girl wandering around the court aimlessly and nearly getting smoked by the soccer ball. (I guess she left that for me, when Miles point blank kicked me right in the face with the ball.)

After the soccer game we went down for another swim, followed by a bitter cold shower (for one of us) and a competitive game of Scrabble. Later in the evening, our friend Saul came to visit just in time for a game of pool and yet again, and amazing dinner (in which Alyece out-ate everyone as per usual). We cracked back into the drinking games and again, clothes were exchanged and embarrassing stories were told.

(Picture of James noted above)

(James seemed less than impressed when Saul - and not one of the girls - was chosen for his lap dance. If his face was not blocked by an overly-excited Saul you could see the sheer terror on it.)

In the morning, as the boys boated away, it took very little convincing to decided what our next travel move was. Bags packed, for Antigua on the way to Tikal, we heard the staff mention the all you can eat curry for dinner that night, and we were checked back in within two minutes, to our "cleaned" room, with the same orange juice stained sheets on the bed (can't even say we were surprised). We were really glad we didn't end up leaving because the day turned out to be gorgeous and I really wished I had my camera as we went swimming with a group of 5-7 year old Guatemalan boys off the dock. This was followed by a nice sunbathing session.

Early in the morning we headed back to Antigua (being that it's the only option on the road through to Tikal). We discussed the extremely long good-bye we are giving this place, but it turns out it's the central hub of transport and there's really no way around it. When the boys got our email that we were staying for the night, they changed their travel plans, left the lake and are currently on the shuttle back here to join us. We are just that impressionable. ha ha ha.

That's it for now, Alyece and I are off to walk through Santo Domingo and score some more free apples.

Alyece Says: Barry I saw this today when I was walking through Panajachel and I thought of you. Just so you know there's always a job for you if you plan to move to the lake in Guatemala ;)

Bye For Now xxx