After getting off the lancha, we made our way along the lake shore to the Hotel Casa la Rosa. We had to walk on wooden catwalks built above the water because, as we soon found out, the lake has risen four meters in the past two years and all of the pretty stone walkways are submerged.
Hotel Casa la Rosa is the second property away from the boat dock, so it was not a long walk. We made our way along some stone and cement paths through a very lush tropical garden, and were greeted by a young man named Lucas. He explained that Rosa was away for the weekend visiting her family in Guatemala City, and he would be our host for the weekend. We signed in, and noticed in the sign in book that two women from Greece were the only other guests, and they were leaving the next day. We took our bags to our room, and then set out to walk around the property.
Hotel Casa la Rosa is nice, but needs a little spit and polish. The room is clean and fairly large, but vines are growing into the ceiling from the plants growing on the terra cotta roof tiles. The gardens are beautiful and lush, but everything could use a good trimming. The white covers on the furniture on the very nice covered dock set up for dining and resting could use a good bleach and tumble dry.
Being in the lodging business in this part of the world, we fully understand that this is the down season - that's why we are traveling now, after all - and we expect that a lot of this cleanup will happen before the high season hits. We have also found ourselves a little disappointed in the food, but we realize that having just come from superb food in Antigua, we may have our standards set a little high for a remote village. However, our search for good food here led us to our favorite experience here so far.
We had heard of a good restaurant associated with the local trade school up the hill in the village. We decided to walk up the hill yesterday to check it out for lunch. The walk up the hill was fascinating, as we wandered what seemed like straight up on a cement and shale sidewalk through a town built into the side of the mountain. We suddenly understood how whole towns in Guatemala are wiped away by mudslides when hurricanes hit.
We finally found the restaurant,only to be told that it is closed of the weekends when the school is closed. As we were standing there no doubt looking hungry and confused, a little girl approached and asked if we were looking for a place to eat. We said we were, so she told us to come with her. We did, and had only a moment of hesitation as she opened a big metal door to a cement building built into the hillside, and told us to come in. Tom and I compared notes later and found that we had both gone through the same thought process, wondering if they were trying to trap us for something, but then deciding that we didn't have anything on us worth taking. We were very glad we decided to go in, because we ended up having a delicious lunch of local fare - banana liquados, rice, beans, and salsa - in the company of other travelers who had been invited in by Lily, as the 11-year old girl eventually introduced herself. We talked to Lily and her brother Mario, and their friends and cousins, and learned what life is like for children in this remote village...and found that it is about the same as it is for kids everywhere. When we left, Maria, the woman who was the cook, told us the charge for the two of us was $56Q, or $7US. Tom gave her $100Q, or about $12, and asked her to put it towards her children's schooling. She thanked us profusely, and we wandered back down the hill.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the lakeside veranda, chatting with adult wanderers who were taking extended vacations from their "real" lives. They were a different animal than the twenty-something backpackers, and much easier for us to connect with. For dinner we split a plate of nachos and a chicken salad, both okay, but definitely not up to our Antigua standards.
We are going to walk along the lake to San Marcos today and have lunch there, and then take the lancha back to Santa Cruz this afternoon. We have also become brave again, and have decided that we will take the chicken bus back to Antigua on Tuesday, and then only have to get from Antigua to Guatemala City for our meeting on Wednesday morning. This will not only make our trip back into Guatemala City much less stressful, but will also give us another day's worth of good food in Antigua before we head home on the overnight bus on Wednesday night. And,we will still have all day tomorrow on Lago Atitlan, and we just have to make the decision as to whether we just want to chill, or be real adventurers and climb Vulcan San Pedro. We will decide on that after our trek to San Marcos today.
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