I start the day having the gigantic egg burrito for breakfast and an extra long hot shower as I don’t know when the next time I’ll be able to have a hot shower. Apparently all countries south of Mexico don’t have hot showers. I guess I got lucky in Xela. I have the directions how to get to the farm and I’m paranoid I’m gonna get lost or get my bag stolen. I’ve heard horror stories where backpackers have had their stuff rummaged through while on top of a chicken and another time where someone who was still on a chicken bus see their entire pack taken by someone else and was too late to get off the bus to chase.

All I need to do is get to the west side of the lake and then get a 20 minute tuk tuk to the town of Tzununa.

I get told from reception that if I walk a few streets away from the hostel I can get a local bus to the bus terminal and get a chicken bus to the lake. I walk out, turn a few streets and then literally lose my bearings. The map shows straight roads but I’m seeing a turn that isn’t on the map. Street names are hard to distinguish so I stand around on the corner looking for buses coming down the road. Apparently there should be “bus conductors” shouting names of destinations and all I need to do is tell them “boos terminale” (bus terminal). I wait for a few minutes and can’t see any buses. I guess I’m in the wrong place. I carry on down the road and see something that might be a bus. I’m hesitant to ask the guy shouting as I still lack the courage to speak the little Spanish that I know. After a minute or so manage to pluck the courage to as the conductor.

Turns out that was a bus and I was just too chicken to ask. We make our way to the bus terminal, a route I know already as Naz and I have walked it pretty much. We get dropped off at the market next to the bus terminal. Now the bus terminal is on the other side of the market and I need to navigate my way through. I’d been through the market before as when we finished our volcano hike we went from the bus terminal to the local bus stop, so I’m doing the reverse journey.

A few minutes in the market and i realise I’m lost. I don’t recognise any of the stalls around me. I come to a junction and don’t quite know which direction to go. All I remember is that the road we walked on last time was wide so I try to see which route leads to a wider path. Sod it, let’s go straight on. Down some steps that I don’t remember walking up but pow, I get on the wide path that leads straight to the chicken buses.

The chicken bus terminal is hectic. As a backpacker you stick out like a sore thumb and I get paranoid I’m gonna get ripped off. The names of the destinations are written on the front of buses, the routes are fixed for the drivers. I try to find one for San Pedro but all of a sudden some random dude comes up to me as asks, “Pana?”. He means Panajachel, which is on the other side of the lake. I tell the guy, no and say “San Pedro”. He replies with what I think was “you can get to San Pedro from Pana”. As I don’t know any better I say OK let’s go. First mistake. He either gave me an up sell or just wanted the fare as he saw I was a little disoriented trying to find a San Pedro bus. I realise I got done over as while I’m on the bus I see other chicken buses going the opposite way that read Xela – San Pedro. I’m quite lucky Lake Atitlan has good boat connections as I probably would have been sent the wrong way.

So I end up at Panajachel, the other side of the lake. It just means ive already past my destination and going slowly further away from the town i need to get to. I can get to San Pedro but it’ll cost more and take longer but I’ll get there in the end. I’m still the ropes of travelling solo. If I had a buddy to stop me going the wrong way I wouldn’t be in this situation.

At Pana, a fair load of people are heckling at gringos if they need hotels. I’m one of them but reply to some guy that “I need a boat to Tzununa” in English. The guy replies in pretty good english and tells me where to get a boat, but I’m also dying for a piss. The guy explains that there are two places but they’re restaurants. No problem, I can get lunch too. I go to a chicken restaurant. Its quite an interesting one. There is a drive in type window to get quick service from outside, a normal counter for takeaway service and if you sit in, there is table service. Kinda makes everything more efficient! Everyone is catered for.

I get a standard chicken burger and drink and make a beeline for the toilet after I’ve devoured the burger. Lunch now done and toilet emergency taken care of I have time to double check the directions Shad, the farmer, gave me. I leave the restaurant and make my way down to the dock to catch my boat.

When I get to the dock, immediately a tour guy comes at me and offers me which destination I want. I tell him where and he walks me to the boats. Along the way we have a brief chat, he says something in Spanish and I don’t get it, so he something again and I hear “INGLES” so then I reply, “oh where I’m from”. I say “Chino” as I think that’s how you say Chinese in Spanish.

I get to the boat and I get told the fare and was asked if I could pay upfront. I find this a little odd as if I lied and you took me to my destination, where on a dock could I get money out? I pay upfront, thinking I’m getting screwed over, as a tour dude introduced me to the boat so he’d get a kick back. Turns out I actually paid normal price. I’m really not sure how these guys get money.

I share the boat ride with locals and an american dude who works at a hostel near my town. He tells me a bit of history about the lake and what life is like here. The guy, who’s name I can’t remember, has been here for 2 months and really sells the area well.

I reach my town after about 15 minutes on the boat. The view is amazing. Its like Sumidero Canyon all over again. The lake doesn’t have a shore as it’s basically a volcano creator filled with rain water. I take a couple of pics as I like the scale of the nearby volcanoes behind the lakes.

I make my way up a slope after leaving the dock and ascend to check into the only hostel in town.