26 August: Massages and Chocolate Making!

Today was another good day. I was very tired from the night before but still managed to get up for my appointment at the massage parlour with Maud and Erica. I've never had a massage before and seeing as they're so cheap over here I thought why not. OMG it was amazing, if you've never had one, get one! 

We spent half an hour going in and out of the sauna and shower. Had a very funny and embarrassing moment when we first went into the sauna. The light was off so we all sat there in the dark completely naked, then suddenly the door opened and a hand stretched in and switched the light on! We all had to move very quickly to get our towels back on. Was really good and I'll definitely look into getting them in London. They gave excellent butt massages we decided haha.

Later on in the afternoon I went to a chocolate making class with Rosie, Steve and Rachael. Us Brits love a bit of chocolate it would seem. The first part of the session was dedicated to talking us through the history of chocolate and how the Mayans used it in rituals and ceremonies. Then we got to make our own and flavour them with whatever we wanted. I put salt, chilli, mint, ginger, Oreo, macadamia nuts and hundreds and thousands in mine; the only problem being there is no way to differentiate between them all.

Next we learnt three different ways we could use the cacao bean to make chocolate drinks. And I bought all the bits so I can do it all again at home, even the hot plate for the stove.

Mixing the chocolate, of course I spilt it everywhere...

Was such a fun class and I can't wait to make chocolate tea and hot chocolate for everyone when I get back home!

XOXO

25 August: Back to Antigua!

Had a very early start this morning, we had to leave Panajachel at 5 o'clock this morning. In preparation for protests that are taking place across Guatemala on Thursday, towns all over were putting up roadblocks making it especially difficult if you need to go through the capital; which of course we were. So we all sleep-walked to the bus and mostly slept the whole way back to Antigua.

We had breakfast in a cute little restaurant, saw the volcano erupting ha joking it just had a bit of smoke coming out of it. 

Then the rest of the day was spent shopping and mooching around the town. We had our final group dinner in the evening as after today people were either leaving to go home or some of the group were continuing on with the 30 day trek. Was an awesome night and we strolled in at 6am the next morning.

Best photo bomb ever from Gav there 😂

Small door frames haha everyone in Guatemala is so short! Even I felt like a giant

XOXO

24 August: Panajachel and San Pedro

Slept pretty well last night in the little room we were given by our hosts. We got up for breakfast at half 7 and discovered Jorge, our 10 year old tour guide (and the only one that spoke a decent amount of English) had gone to school. Oh fuck. Cue awkward breakfast, with smiles every time someone caught another persons eye. We tried to ask about the political situation here in Guatemala, as they've got an election coming up in September and there's quite a bit of unrest between the government and the people (the Vice President has just been put in jail for corruption and they're trying to do the same with the president), but the family didn't really understand our questions and so we went back to silence... 

We waved goodbye to San Jorge la Laguna and started working our way back up into the mountains. Luckily our hotel was going to be ready when we got there so we could go back to bed if we wanted. I didn't go back to sleep but I did do some writing and watched a bit of Seinfeld, then I met the others to go catch a ferry to San Pedro.

The plan was to swim in this lake but we were advised not to because of the algae you can see in it

After being a complete tourist and getting snapped in front of the volcanoes and admiring the view, we managed to haggle and worm our way into getting a private ferry (for the same price and half the travel time than the public ferry).

It's very hilly in San Pedro and once we'd finished lunch; myself and Kelly decided to explore and see what was about. Fuck me this was exhausting, I was huffing and puffing by the time we got three quarters of the way up haha.

Not sure about other people but I didn't buy anything whilst there, it was more of the same stuff you get everywhere in Guatemala. I spent my money on lunch and cocktails by the lake. Standard.

Around 3 o'clock, we headed back to our boat and decided we'd go for another drink once we got back to Panajachel. We didn't (well we did a lot later) but instead we spent a good hour or so stopping at every single shop and market stall that lines the street up to our hotel. This is where my purse took a battering. 

We did head out for a few beers before dinner (thank god because I needed to be drunk to handle the dinner we had). 

So when we arrived in the restaurant there were traditional Guatemalan tops draped over the backs of our chairs (first warning) being drunk though we all embraced it.

Then came the introduction from the restaurant owner, he was lovely but did love the sound of his own voice... He told us we were going to learn about his culture and the origin of all the food and music and there would be the chance to win prizes (second warning). He then went on to say that they were preparing everyone a typical Guatemalan dish and they recommended everybody have it, and then he muttered something about looking at the menu if they really had to. He then asked for the vegetarian to make themselves known (just me) and offered me a choice of lasagne or a plate of vegetables. I took the lasagne.

The restaurant owners daughters providing the music

It was a really good night and I couldn't fault the food, I just felt that it all seemed a bit too money-orientated. Plus I'm a moody sod who likes to eat her dinner in peace and not have to enter tortilla-making competitions and sing songs while the owner waves a tambourine in my face...

XOXO

23 August: Chichicastenango and the Homestay

Had a lovely breakfast in this cute little cafe by the town square before we left for Chichicastenango this morning. Enjoyed it so much we lost track of time and were a tad late, sorry everyone!

We rushed back and hopped straight on the bus and headed off into the mountains.

Toilet break with a view

After a few hours on the bus we arrived in the town of Chichicastenango (thank god for autocorrect because I can barely pronounce the name let alone spell it), we were all pretty geared up for some serious haggling. Neither Egypt nor Morocco could have prepared me for the harassment you get here, literally people are constantly shouting "business is business" and "how much you want?" Just randomly from all angles. I found the women were a lot easier to barter with whereas the men were pretty tough to get down in their prices. This was slightly annoying because I wanted to buy a lot of jewellery and the men mainly ran the jewellery stalls. It's still mega cheap though!

It's so easy to get lost in the markets, it's a bit like the souks in Morocco except that instead of being based around a square it's just rows running off in all angles and everything looks the same. While we were waiting for our lunch to arrive me and Erica went to get some last minute deals and to buy a few presents for our host family and we got completely lost. We ended up in this part of the market where all the locals seemed to be eating and selling the food plus there was a giant church, which we'd never seen before with incense and fire burning out the front. 

A small view of the markets from up in one of the restaurants

After lunch it was time to get back on the bus and head to San Jorge la Laguna where we'd be staying with our Guatemalan families. I think it's safe to say we were a little bit nervous, they mainly speak Kaqchikel, one of 23 Mayan languages, although Spanish is their second language. Time to crack out what little Spanish I know.

When we arrived we were swamped by the little kids playing in the square, who knew we'd come with presents. They were grabbing the toys and sweets we had out of our hands and running riot. I hate children. Haha joking, they were pretty cute.

We got introduced to Juanita, the mother of our family and she walked us down to their house. The setting of this village is absolutely beautiful, it's situated deep in the mountains but high enough that you get a spectacular view of the lake and the volcanos surrounding it. 

Me and Kayley leant our cameras to the boys we were staying with and I've never seen someone take so many photos in the space of an hour. We briefly took our cameras back to get some nice scenic shots when we went higher up the mountain and shockingly found a lot of boob and arse shots! (Little shits). We laughed about it and handed them back as they seemed to be enjoying it, I have to admit Jorge (the boy from my house) took quite a few nice photos and seemed to be getting a bit artsy with the camera. Will defs be putting them up when I get to a computer. 

Kelly and Eva in their traditional outfits (shots of me Erica to come)

So we returned for dinner and chatted a little bit and I got practising with my Spanish again, I definitely got a conversation going and managed to communicate with them. Then came our turn to dress up, Juanita came into the kitchen carrying a big load of material and beckoned us to follow her into the bedroom. I honestly don't know how they cope in this weather wearing such thick material and the men don't have to do it! It's so unfair! 

Not the best quality but Jorge killed the battery on my camera.

After we were dressed up we helped Juanita and Carolina make tortillas in the kitchen, it's a lot harder than it looks! I started to get the gist of it and then I dropped my tortilla -_- plus my rings kept getting stuck in the dough. Urgh I hate tortillas. We made so many too! We legitimately could have fed the whole village with the amount that we made and I only managed to eat one. They gave me spaghetti in tomato sauce with carrots and what looked like potatoes (they weren't and I have no clue what they were) I tried to spoon the spaghetti onto the tortilla so I could eat more, but realised this was ruining the spaghetti for me haha. It was just in the homestay that I didn't like the tortillas, I've become sick of them ever since Belize. 

After dinner we signed their guestbook and played a few games with Jorge and then headed off to bed as we were exhausted.

XOXO