Panajachel is a pretty lazy place which is really nice when you've been to five different places in nearly two weeks (tomorrow will mark stop number six and exactly fourteen days.
Whitney and I got up to run some errands this morning while her friends slept in. These errands where finding breakfast and the best deal of bus tickets to Guatemala City for tomorrow. Breakfast was easy. I wanted pancakes and had seen a place that had them yesterday so we went there. The pancakes were gigantic -- just the way I like them -- AND they were unlimited. I wasn't able to even finish the initial plate I was given but knowing that more were simply one poor request in Spanish away made me happy. Shuttle tickets were also pretty easy to find but we did some shopping around. We found that nearly every other store here has offers for shuttles that are all basically all exactly the same but we were able to find a group that would take us straight to Guate City instead of stopping in Antigua like the rest do. Who knows if it will be any better than the shuttle experience we had getting to Pana but it was worth a shot. The downside of the shuttle was that no matter where we went, they all left at 5 an, which means that we have to leave at 5 am. It isn't as early as we had to get up for Tikal but hey, maybe we'll actually get to see the sunrise tomorrow. (There are also a lot of shuttles to Tikal from here which I don't get because it's like an entire day of driving away but whatever).
We went back to the hostel to wait for Katlyn... Yup, the spelling of her name has been confirmed. I was rooting for a spelling that included the number 8 in it but nope, out of all of the different spellings I tried in my last post, I still messed it up. Either way, soon we were off to the ferry to San Pedro, another village across Lake Atitlan. On the way, I made a very interesting discovery. I found a hostess cupcake-esque snack called pinguinos (with some accents over a few of the vowels). Now, this would not be a big deal for a normal person, in fact, the normal people I was with did not understand why I wanted to take a picture of the package. I wanted to take picture of it because there were penguins on it; pinguinos means penguin in Spanish and when I was touring Aladdin, I would always get the penguins' attention with a Spanish lesson and call for "los penguinos," so I was excited about something that would only ever excite me but it's cool.
Whitney and I also got mango. They sell cut mango on the street here and we've been living on it. I barely tolerated mango in the States but I'm obsessed with it now. It also costs less than $1 US! I don't know how I'm going to get my fix when I get home, mainly because I don't know how to cut a mango... that's what YouTube is for, I guess.
The ferry was supposed to be a twenty minute ride but surprise, we ran out of had hallway through. They had extra gas so we were only floating aimlessly for about five minutes but it was still a moment of culture shock. San Pedro is very similar to Panajachel but it was something new to look at. Katlyn's friend, Clark, came with us and took us to a hostel/restaurant/pool for lunch so we got food and lounged for a few hours. Whitney and I went off on our own for a bit and Whitney got a hair wrap which is something she had been looking for for a while (she'd also been desperately for "street corn" aka corn that you buy on the street and since she found that last night, I guess it was only a matter of time. Side note of the corn, lime! They rub slices of lime instead of buttering the corn and it is wonderful). She got two fish charms of the end of the wrap which she didn't even realize was symbolic of us until I pointed it out, I guess she knew subconsciously but it's cool that the hair wrap represents our #SisterTrip (Back story: I'm the big fish and she's the little fish and the whole thing is based on a typo in a Facebook post from years ago).
We met back up with Katlyn and Clark got the shuttle which did not involve the engine shutting off mid-ride but the might have been better than what actually happened, because storm clouds were brewing and the water was getting choppy. Whitney and I were in the back of the boat so we were ok but a few of our fellow passengers arrived in Panajachel looking like they'd just stepped off of Splash Mountain in Disney World.
We split up for a short bit with Whitney heading to the market with Katlyn to buy supplies for dinner (we're cooking at her place tonight) and me going to buy myself a snack. I went with ice cream because it's National Ice Cream Day back home and I will not disgrace the name of my country by being unAmerican and not celebrating! Also no one was out selling mango...
Whitney is now back at the hostel with me. Everyone is cleaning up for dinner (actually, I was writing this post... semantics) and then we're going to make some pasta. And then it will be an early night for us because 5. AM. SHUTTLE!
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