Living in San Antonio Palopo

Months ago when my Mexican visa was about to expire and I needed to leave the country, I looked at Guatemala as a possible place to live. I found an ad on Craigslist for a little cottage at an affordable rent on a lake in the mountains. I promptly emailed the owner but never heard back. It seemed too good to be true anyway, so I forgot all about it. In June when our apartment in Playa del Carmen was rapidly falling apart (leaky roof, broken A/C and Microwave, intermittent hot water and internet) and we wanted to move I just happened to look at Guatemala again and spied the same ad on Craigslist for the country cottage. This time I got a response. The landlords, who live six months of the year in England, and I worked out a few details by email and I agreed to take residency as of August 1st.

Before I left Mexico I looked up as much information as I could about San Antonio Palopo and the area surrounding Lake Atitlan. San Antonio is one of several villages that flank the shores of Lake Atitlan. The  Cakchiquel Maya are indigenous to the area, but each village has its own tribe (?) that wears their own special huipal colours. My landlord described the village to me as: "San Antonio is a very special place that takes you back 100 years but with all the mod-cons, if you can afford them".

The lake is the second largest in Guatemala, has been around for donkeys years (84,000) and was formed in a crater after a volcanic eruption. It is surrounded by mountains and 3 thickly forested volcanoes, all around 10,000 feet. Atitlan is still considered active. Lake Atitlan is quoted to be "The second most beautiful lake in the world" by Aldous Huxley, one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time, whatever that means. He said "It really is too much of a good thing". Which is the first?

How many ways can you say "awesome"? I've been waking up to the view of the lake and volcanoes for a month now and can't ever imagine getting tired of such a vista. One really has to see it to believe it. I sit in the hammock and watch the lake from my rooftop for hours. For one thing, I've calculated that I'm roughly 12 stories above the lake, so I can see a great distance. The fishermen in their dugout canoes take to the water early every morning. I haven't figured out exactly what's going on yet with them because I never see any fish being caught, so I must be missing something. I need to buy a pair of binoculars. We're 5,000 odd feet above sea level so the weather patterns are quite something to witness. The sun at this time of the year creeps over the top of the mountains at around eight o, clock and the whole places lights up and warms up dramatically too. It's quite nippy here when there's no sun. Around ten or so, this huge cloud that looks like a dragon spewing fire (the one from "Paperbag Princess") rolls in from the southern end of the lake between the mountains and hovers for most of the day and just after that the Xocomil wind picks up and creates white caps on the surface of the lake. 

In the afternoon, all is usually sunny and calm. It has rained almost every night since I've been here but not too much during the day. I have a feeling this will all change now with autumn upon us. Sunset happens across the lake about 10km away over Santiago Atitlán, a Tzutujil Mayan village. Every day it looks as though the Gods part the clouds and shine a spotlight down upon the village.

The garden behind the house going down to the lake is spectacular and every day I find something delightful about it. It is a very steep drop to the lake but someone landscaped it perfectly by laying a series of winding stone steps with handrails all the way down. The garden is filled with flowers and fruit trees. I have already eaten avocados and the tastiest limes ever. I have some green bananas waiting to ripen because I was too impatient and picked them too early. There are two very tall trees that have bunches of yellow fruit called Mapil. It's the size and colour of smallish apricots with 5-7 seeds inside. It is delicious. There is mint, lettuce, tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries and oranges that we don't get at home. They are seedless and not sectioned like the oranges I know, but they are sweet and tangy at the same time. Our neighbors to the left and right have corn planted on the side of the mountain. I'm sure I'll discover more in the days to come. Bartollo and Maria, who are the guardians of the property, come and tend to the dozen or so chickens every day. Maria and her family also come to do their clothes wash in the lake a couple of times a week. They carry the rinsed and folded clothes up to the street on their heads. It blows me away how adept they are. Mucho respect. Oh, and I am now burning my trash in the garden, selling my waste aluminum and generally becoming more green - rapidly. Still don't know what to do with the plastic yet.

The village of San Antonio is less than a quarter mile away. Going into town is no problem but coming back is still a bit of a trial for me. It's all uphill! The other day I hitched a ride with the police. They dropped me outside my front door and we all had a good laugh at that.

I know very little about how the town works yet. It's a big mystery to me. There is a church and a market beside it that sells fresh produce seemingly on a daily basis. All the usual veggies and quite a few I have never seen before. There are a lot of tiny stores (tiendas) which sell convenience items and not much more that I can tell. The language barrier is a huge problem for me but it is also a cultural barrier I think. As I said it's all a big mystery, yet.

To buy groceries we take a taxi from a local hotelier Terrazas Del Lago to Panajachel which is 12km around the mountain. The big grocery store Despensia Familiar is owned by non other than Walmart - can you believe it? It looks nothing like Walmart, more like a small WinDixie or Loblaws or the Tesco in Torquay and carries most of what I need except olive oil, cheese, plain yoghurt and anything imported. There are plenty of other specialty shops in "Pana" for those items. I've also found a decent pharmacy. It's very easy to shop here. And the tourist shops which sell the Guatemalan textiles and pottery are phenomenal. More about that later.

If anyone was expecting the A-Z aspect of my blogs I apologize. Life just got more interesting and I've got to tell it like it is!