Holidaying with Family... | Antigua | Lake Atitlan | Monterrico |

Family Sharples were due to arrive from the US just after lunch, the boys amused themselves in the hotel playing hide and seek with the staff and entertaining anyone that would listen to them. After a traffic delay they arrived to the joy of all, the boys had been camped out the front for the previous hour! Quick turnaround and we walked into centro, had a look around the square, the cathedral, the cobble streets, the beautiful yellow arch, stopping in a cocktail bar for refreshments and for Spencer and Lilly to have a legal beer and cocktail as they were outside the US and the 21 year old restriction.

Then on to dinner, typical Guatemala food for all, Archie was moaning about not eating and feeling sick, at first thought it was usual Archie eating antics but when he said desperately to me that he really was going to be sick and we needed to run... we ran. He made it to the bathroom just in time to vomit up his strawberry smoothie. Turned out he was really sick and we spent all night up with him on the toilet and vomiting everywhere, poor thing haven’t seen him that sick before. The return back to the hotel from dinner was an experience to remember for the Sharples as it was their first tuk tuk ride in the dark, in crazy traffic weaving in and out, I think most of Antigua would have heard Jo’s screams and laughs on the 5 min journey.

The following day we were up early, Archie and I stayed at the hotel as he had only stopped vomiting at about 4.30am, the others went up to Cerro de la Cruz for a view of the city and a smoothie. We packed up ready for our first bus trip and popped out to stock up on food (via the amazing artesian market). Just after lunchtime we were on the bus headed to Lake Atitlan.

We had booked a house on Airbnb close to San Lucas Toliman, it took our breath away when we arrived. The house and gardens backed onto the lake, the views were incredible. Jaime the housekeeper showed us around, the spa, the wood fire sauna, the private boat jetty, kayaks, board games and ample bedrooms. We knew we were going to have an amazing week.

Lake atitlan is at 1500m above sea level and is made up of a number of little villages around the lake that are far easier to get too via boat than by road! It also has 3 volcanoes. Being so high meant the evenings were cool and for Tim that meant building fires on the amazing deck/lounge. We were also reminded that we are in the rainy season with the daily storms, incredible thunder storms that rolled around the lake and huge amount of rain that fell.

First day we caught a boat from our house to panachecal the main village as we needed to buy some meat and get a bit orientated. The ride across with Captain Colon was incredible, the volcanoes huge, the weather beautiful. We got a little accosted in the village as people saw 9 gringos walking down the street with not a clue where we were going, its low season and pretty quiet. Thanks to Jo’s guidebooks we knew about the nature reserve that was on the outskirts of town, hopped on another boat to drive round the corner to get there. Here they had zip lines, spider monkeys, raccoons!!!!! And a butterfly sanctuary. Rich and the teenagers headed to the zipline which involved quite a hike up the hills and 7 zip lines across the jungle and the lake. Jo, Tim, myself and the boys went for a walk to the waterfall, via spider monkeys and raccoons - that were so tame and hunting for food they were a little scary. Then it was off to the butterfly sanctuary, so many beautiful butterflies we all had fun trying to take photos of them all, the best was the bright blue one landing on Archie’s hat. Tuk tuk ride to the shops and then another squeezing all 5 of us in and the shopping to get back to the boat. The trip home wasn’t as tranquil as the storm was coming the waves made for a bumpy ride home!

The following day we chilled at home, boys on the kayak and jumping in the water from the pontoon. The water was crystal clear and not polluted, helped by the fact we were so far from villages and houses, it was great to see as we had been told by lots of people that we wouldn’t be able to swim. It was pretty cold though! Jo, Lilly and I walked down to the local village, as the guidebook states it’s not the prettiest and rarely included in village tours that people do but it’s pretty large and very traditional with the little tienda’s, tortilla stands and motorbikes whizzing around. We stopped for a drink on hotel toliman and quickly decided we would be back with everyone for a lunch on the stunning balcony.

We went on a tour of the villages the next day, Captain Colon was back and we set off early before the storms would set in, San Antonio was first where we saw all the ceramic work, from moulding to painting to glazing. Then onto textiles and learnt about all the natural plant dyes they use for all the vibrant colours. The boys tried a bit of weaving and the ladies of the co-operative dressed Lilly up in traditional clothes for some photos. Few more souvenirs later and we were back on the boat, Jo had also managed to attract the attention of a lady selling scarfs who had chased her down the road to buy the red scarf she had made a comment about, as I was sat in the boat I felt a scarf draped across me, and bueno bueno being shouted. Jo bought the scarf thanks to the efforts of the lady for that sell, and the laying of the scarf over my shoulder through the window of the boat....

Next stop Pana, quick dash for food and back on the boat to head to San Marcos. This is a small hippy village with lots of travellers and some great restaurants. We had a lovely lunch and a bit of an explore before heading to the final village of Santiago Atitlan. More souvenirs including Jo buying a rug after another lady had again chased her down the street to the boat after she had shown a tiny bit of interest in a store up the hill.....

The next few days were filled with sunbathing, kayak racing, yoga, board games, poohead cards, hot tub and even getting the wood-fire sauna up and running. I was getting plenty of Spanish practice speaking with Jaime the housekeeper when we wanted to get a tuk tuk, boat or just check in on how we were doing. Apart from the fact that the stomach bug was working it’s way through the family it was a lovely relaxing week.

Then we were loaded back on the bus this time headed for the beach. Now when Jo and I were researching where to go in Guatemala we had looked for ‘most popular’ Monterrico had come up a few times and that is where we chose. Critical learning for me about choosing Airbnb is to pay closer attention to location and proximity to shops/restaurants, more on this on upcoming blog about what makes a great Airbnb stay. We had chosen for the house, a beach front property with enough bedrooms for all, pool and plenty of hammocks. Only problem is it was a km down a dirt track from the main road, and 20min drive from Monterrico. We didn’t have a car.

But we solved this through the housekeeper Mariela who said she could arrange for her friend to pick us up in a bus and bring us home. We later released that they were taking one of the local buses off the road and using it just for us! The black volcanic sand was very different on the beaches, the waves and rip tides prevented us going in the ocean too much as we needed to wait for low tide otherwise we would have been pummeled by the waves completely. It was fun, everyone took a few tumbles. The worst thing about the beach and most of the streets in Monterrico is the pollution, plastic bottles, bottle tops, straws everywhere. Dexter was horrified particularly as the area is known for all the sea turtles. The boys collected 4 bags of rubbish that morning and we all committed to daily pick up of the rubbish we could see.

Monterrico is a small town that comes alive at the weekends with all the people coming from Guatemala City and Antigua to the beach. There are a few beach side restaurants, turtle sanctuary and a mangrove lagoon. The weather was super hot and the storms even more epic that at Lake Atitlan. One bolt of lightning and thunder crack hit the house, knocked out some of the electric and was the loudest thunder I have ever heard. The boys both slept in our room that night!

The turtles, iguanas and crocodiles were a favourite from the boys and from there we booked a sunrise tour of the mangroves for the following day. We also met another tour guide wanting to take us on a night time walk to see turtles laying their eggs. We were the only gringos in town - easy pickings.

The three trips we did, sunrise on mangroves, turtle night walk and trip to La Barra beach all have hilarious stories attached. My Spanish was improving but telephone conversations are still difficult and trying to explain where we lived, and ensure we really knew what we were about to do was difficult, but adds to the adventure!!

We were up at 4am to walk down the dirt track to the road to wait for our pick up truck lift at 4.50am. At 4.45am Jo was sure she saw the truck go past in the opposite direction. 30 minutes of challenging phone calls and messages we finally managed to communicate where we were and they came and got us, ironically we were standing next to the truck drivers house.... getting to the water we soon released the lancha boat was a paddleboat (good for wildlife) we all squeezed in and managed to see a few minutes of red morning sky before the sun came up. The mangrove tour was very tranquil, we saw lots of heron, great views of the volcanoes - hilarious to watch the truck, car and passenger ferries that sped past. To be honest we were all in a morning daze, probably expected a little more wildlife but it was lovely on the water so early. Then back in the back of the pick up to head home for breakfast made by Mariela.

Next came the night turtle walk, basically we paid a guide to walk with us on the beach in pitch black searching for turtles coming out of the water. We learnt that turtle egg laying time is from August so chances of seeing anything were pretty low and we saw it as more of an invest in the community - easy gringo dollars....

Mariela had recommended going to ‘La Barra’ which is past Monterrico where the rivers meet the ocean. It was a interesting drive as we went through many different villages, always spotting tortilla tienda’s and people watching as they play with kids, swing in hammocks or just chat with friends in outdoor kitchens. The pollution, particularly litter is devastating. Watching people throw plastic bags, fast food wrappers out of car windows as they are driving is terrible. Tourism is beginning to grow in the area and there are more and more signs about dangers of trash to the turtles, but there is a long long way to go.

La Barra was a lagoon area and ocean on the other side, whilst safe to swim from a current perspective the lagoon had too much trash and yellow foam to make it enticing. The boys dag holes and ran in and out of the ocean, we also managed to body board for a bit on the ocean side. Mariela came with us so I got to practice my Spanish some more talking about schooling and kids, I’m pretty sure she’s not much older than me and has 5 children and 8 grandchildren!

The rest of the week passed with chilling at the house, pool time, kids watching movies, nightly games of poohead, fun mealtimes, reading and hanging out. After the storms earlier in the week we had quite a few days of just sun which meant the temperatures where super hot. We sadly said goodbye to family Sharples in Guatemala City, but we will be seeing Jo in a few weeks for birthday celebrations. We have just landed in Costa Rica where we are spending a month in Santa Teresa - this months challenge is learning to surf and the return of homeschooling....