Lago Atitilan / Birthday

Day 350.

It turns out we made it to the lake just before a two day storm set in, right in time for my birthday. Limbster being Limbster however had prepared for such contingency and booked us a very non guatemalan Airbnb, nicely settled amongst the trees on the base of a Volcano, with a perfect sunset view over the lake. A waterfall hot shower, clean towels and a hammock never felt like such luxury post trekking!

Our one room cabin had it all and could not be cosier when the rain hit, and oh were we prepared, stocked up with Birthday pancakes, the local Don Peron rum and plenty of free fruit collected from the grounds. All you could eat avocado's, passion fruits and oranges - its not understatement to say I alone ate at least 35 passion fruits in 3 days. Quite the achievement. Sweet potatoes were an option too but we try to forget that expierence.

So happy in our relative luxury we extended an extra night, deciding to venture out into town solely to experience the volcanic thermal pools at the lake. For a mere £5 a sweet Guatemalan lady will fill a volcanic rock bath full of piping hot water overlooking the lake, let you bring in your own beer and then leave you in peace for 3 hours. Being the only ones there it also happened to be a private bath - lucky us it seems and perfect with the rain rattling the forest all around.

Under the overarching excuse of it still being my birthday treat we might have also indulged in a bottle or two of Chilean red whilst whipping up some gigantic homemade burritos. We didn't quite manage to nail the passionfruit puree recipe however and ended up instead with a rather sour concoction made of the fruits.

If it wasn't already obvious that food and wine had had a negative effect on us then it certainly was when the lovely and rather sturdy looking hammock snapped in two under our combined weight... Maybe a few less frijoles manana.

Come day 3 we opened the curtains to sunrise over the lake, deciding against spending a sunny day on a 6 hour chicken bus we jumped on a boat and headed over to the hippie town of San Marcos. A secluded lakeside village with crystal clear swimming spots and all the vegan organic food you could ever desire. Wasting no time after checking in we headed straight for a swim, although it seemed the quickest way in was a rather large jump into the unknown. I had to hold Ellie back at one point, and concerned for her safety I insisted I went first. It was rather high but given all eyes around were on me I managed to withhold the loud scream I would typically want to let out.

The weather kept on giving, maybe even too much with Limbster taking on some early sunburn to the ankles. After eventually entering the water we managed to have a picturesque swim together with all 3 volcanoes as our backdrop, rarely will we get to swim somewhere so unique again! In San Marcos we were also reunited with Mark and enjoyed the best Puspusas at a local cooperative along with a belated birthday beer around the hostel bonfire that evening.

Waking up early on our final day and the weather was perfect once again, after a morning swim in the lake (that we seemed to have all to ourself) I opted to partake in a Paraglide in nearby Panajachel. After some quick organisation from Limbster we were on a boat and one hour later I was jumping off the top of a nearby mountain. I was incredibly lucky with the weather, my crazy acrobatic pilot but most of all for having such an amazing girfreind to organize it all.

Note maybe not super lucky with the pilot, his love for sharp turns and cloud sucks certainly didn't sit that well with my stomach...

Once my hands had stopped tingling from the adrenaline we located the local chicken bus to Antigua, it would seem we were in for quite a wait. Little did we expect the 3 hours journey to in fact take 7, but hey we were back in Antigua!!Les mer