Olle and myself are there to see the Semuc Champey waterfall and we go to a tour company that handed out a flyer for one when we were looking for the hostel. The price isn’t too bad, 7am start, 7pm return for £15 I think (breakfast included)

When we return to the hostel we find an awesome Aussie chick and a French guy in our dorm. The Aussie chick is awesome because, she’s a tall beautiful blonde, a yoga instructor, doesn’t speak as fast as most Aussie girls I’ve met and had lives(d) in Cambridge for 5 years. The French guy is like model hot and is tall and fashionable. He’s not like other French people I’ve met, he’s also laid back, a little quite and down to earth. Not too chatty but says enough when he needs to which is fine by me.

We all hang out in the room for a while and then decide to go out for dinner. The Aussie chick is adamant on finding a really local comedor to eat as she doesn’t wanna pay much for dinner. We find a really local place, its like an ex car garage turned into restaurant. We have chicken with potatoes in an excellent stock, some beans and tortillas. This chicken was one of the most tasty dishes I had eaten in a while. This was because it had juicy sauce! Most Mexican or Guatemalan food has a modest serving of sauce, but this dish had chicken stock with potatoes in it! It was amazing tasty. I wolfed it down quickly.

We kind of overstay our welcome at the restaurant as after we finished eating we hang around and chat for about 45mins, eating some monkey nuts that the French guy bought on the way. Some kids start skateboarding near where we’re wasting and it turns out that they’re the owners kids. They’re a nice bunch. The owner starts talking to the French guy and Aussie chick as they speak more Spanish then myself and Olle. After a while we take our leave and head back to the hostel.

In the middle of the night I hear someone get up and go to toilet and throw up. It turns out that Olle was ill. Food poisoning! Thing is, we had the exact same dinner and lunch the day before. I felt fine but was paranoid about what might happen to me later. Olle was supposed to come with me to the waterfalls but said I should go without him and ask if he can go another day. Its a shame that, the more the merrier I think.

Along the shore of the lake a waiter sees that I’m looking for food and shows me his restaurants menu. It looks decent enough so I head down. Turns out I’m the first customer of the day. Not great as I don’t like eating alone. But then that’s not a bad thing as I don’t have to feel self conscious while eating. I have my tablet withnmemso I read my book while waiting for my food. The view of the lake is amazing. I have in sight, 3 volcanoes and a pristine lake without anyone on it. I savour the moment by taking many photos but I only need one to take my breath away and remind me of how magnificent the view was.

A couple of locals come into the restaurant trying to see their keychains and bracelets. 1 particular kid doesn’t take the hint. He hangs around despite my negative attitude. He can’t sell very well as he asks me to buy his animal keychain for Q5 but then asks for a can of Coke instead which is Q12. And then he goes on to ask for a hamburger which is even more money! This kid has a lot to learn about sales…

After breakfast I head back to the guesthouse, stopping off at a bookstore to get a cheap book in case my tablet runs out of battery while travelling. Also reading a paperback book means that I’m not ‘showing off’ my tablet for potential muggers to see. I pick up, Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne. I don’t normally reading fiction but this seemed quite nice. I’ve seen the movie adaptations of his novels but haven’t seen the ATWIED movie. I also manage to pick up a map of central america, something I already own because I bought one but left it in my room in London. I liked the idea of carrying a paper map as I needed to get bearings of the countries I’m visiting. Also I spy a Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoe string book, but after I do the conversion its almost double the price of a new copy back home. I can’t afford it and the weight of it will make my pack worse.

I book a shuttle to Coban and it is very expensive. £30. But I couldn’t see a clear way there as I couldn’t find a decent chicken bus schedule. I decided this would be my last shuttle as I can’t be spending that type of money just to get from city to city. I don’t think I spent that much in Mexico so I shouldn’t be spending it in Guatemala.

I have lunch at Pollo Campero, on my own again, but I had to use the internet. I download some many a as I’ve been reading that in my room to kill time. Afterwards I go to a coffee shop and chill there for a few hours, figuring out my expenses for future destinations.

When it starts to get dark, I head back to the guesthouse to put on more clothes as it gets cold and windy on the lake. I head out to a restaurant for dinner. Armed with my tablet I go searching for a noodle place. I haven’t had noodles in a long time and I have its taste on my mind. I see a place buts empty. Was I too early for dinner? I find another place that served Guatemalan food and eat there. I get 2 dishes as I’m dying of hunger. Mushroom soup and a beef dish with salad, plantains and watermelon. Nice, watermelon on my main dish.

Not many people are there and I’m a little anxious but I finish my meal leave. I wonder what you’re supposed to with the time when you’re just eating. Eating seems like a multitask as I can talk, watch or read whilst doing it. Mainly talk, but no one was around to talk to. So you eat and stare at your food or around the room? My mind boggles at the idea. Though at least I’m actually doing it. I have no choice anymore.

So I end up going to a local guesthouse for the night, hoping to catch the next mornings bus. Its a shame there isn’t internet at the guesthouse as it was really cheap! I think some local guesthouses are cheaper as they’re not backpacker oriented though they lack some amenities. When I’m in the room, I look at a tourist guide freebie book on Antigua. I was gonna stay there to check out the place and maybe do another volcano hike. But while I’m reading the guide, I see it has a few pages dedicated to ‘must see’ things in Guatemala. Tikal, volcanoes and Semuc Champey waterfalls. Jon, who I met in Xela said he was gonna check them out. I regret not going with him and if its one of the must do things then really I should go do it!

As I have no internet I need to go to a place with WiFi and where I can have dinner. I end up going to Pollo Campero, a chicken place that has WiFi and serves pizza too! Pollo Campero is a saving grace. I can eat without being too self conscious and I can use the net. The place serves fried chicken but also sells pizza, has table service, has a delivery service, a takeaway counter, a outside counter if you don’t wanna go into the restaurant AND a security guard to open the door for you. Wow. McDonalds and Burger King need to learn from these guys.

Dinner on my own, one of my worst fears. I dunno what it is, but I just hate it. Its a weird feeling I get when eating alone. I NEVER do it back home but I’m now doing it abroad. If there is a situation where I NEED to eat alone, I just won’t do it.

I look up that will have to get a shuttle to Coban which is the nearest big town to Semuc Champey. Its too late to find a tour company so I have to wait til the next day.

I stood by and chatted to everyone about general stuff. By now it was 7:30 or so and we decided to go back to the hostel for breakfast. We walk down the rocky road and stop by a tienda to buy eggs, bananas and potatoes to make hash brown type thing.

We talk for about stuff and we establish that I probably won’t be making a website and that everyone is a little tired of working on the farm and living in the hostel which has basically nothing.

This is where I really regret signing up for woofing. My high expectations and hopes where brought down to reality. Sometimes an advert on a website might not explain everything in real terms, such as the state of the hostel or whats type of work you’ll actually be doing. I suppose its not Shads fault but its something I will take with a pinch of salt in the future.

We’re expected back on the farm at 5pm or so as Shad is having thanksgiving with his friends and the employees on his farm and will celebrate with the volunteers later.

I find that the guy who lead me upto the farm is a chef and has bought food to cook for us to eat. So we spend the next few hours peeling potatoes, sweet potatoes, dicing garlic and generally assisting the chef to prepare the food. I’ve never had thanks giving food before and we make mash potato, sweet potato mash with marshmallows, runner beans with mushroom gravy soup and vegetable gravy.

It come to 4pm and we start to take the food up to the farm. When I get there, Shad’s guests are all pretty drunk and there are leftovers from their first thanksgiving dinner. There really isn’t any electricity so we have to use candles and torches to see what we’re doing. We warm the food we prepared in Shad’s oven and have our dinner. Shad made sausages from the goat intestine and meat, and it tasted pretty good! A few of the volunteers have brought instruments to play for everyone and all the Americans have a sing along. I’m not too versed in their music so I just enjoy the ambience.

I felt quite out of place while having dinner. So I decide that I wanna leave the very next day, to go to Panachel and then to where else I pick. It was a little fun celebrating with the Americans but as they’re all tired of working on the farm, I saw little point in staying any longer.

Some you win, some you lose. In this event, I lost money and gained a few days as I was supposed to be here for a week.

The next day we just chill out at the hostel and sun bathe. This is when I receive my “local” tan colour. The sun in that area was hooot. But not too hot that its not tolerable. In the afternoon I tell everyone I’m leaving and pack my things in preparation to travel.

In the end, I used my debit card to buy his ticket as I told my bank I was using my card overseas. This took a while to do aond it wasn’t til the late afternoon where we left the hostel for some food. We found a cheap as chips burger place. There were some locals in there already so it couldn’t be bad. 2 burgers for only Q20! Thats £2 for 2 double burgers! I saw another deal for 3 chorizo burgers for Q20! We got them and chips and we were stuffed. So much so I coulsdnt finish my 3rd burger. There was one thing about the burgers, they didn’t seem to have been cooked properly. Like the meat was a little pink inside. The patty was thin but it seemed, ‘normal’. We left the burger place and went to purchase Naz’ shuttle bus to Mexico. A homeless guy was outside so I have him my burger. After Naz’ bought the ticket we went outside and the home guy was still there. He didn’t finish the burger! A mouthful was left! Maybe even he knew it was a bad burger!

Naz leaving hit me quite hard. Partner in crime, best bud leaving me to venture central america on my own. I know this trip was supposed to be mine, but it was more enjoyable with him along. We’ve done south east Asia together and 4 weeks of Mexico and Guatemala. I didn’t really want him to go, but ‘you gotta do what you gotta do’. We all have our own agendas and it is a pity he had ton leave early.

It is very true that I will meet other travellers, but having someone you know so well travel with you and share experiences is awesome. Its like when you’re back home and you go out for drinks. You wanna share the experience with your friends. Likewise I wanted to share the future experiences with him too. The reason why you share your photos is to show people who couldn’t be there what you were doing. ‘Wish you were here’ means you want that person there with you, sharing the moment.

Still, now I’m back to what I originally planned on doing: travelling round central america on my own, being uncomfortable, learning from my mistakes and showing the world that travelling makes you a good human being. That’s the most important aspect of this trip. Proving that by going to foreign lands you find patience, humility and respect to others, that make you a better human being than if you stayed at home. Someone I know has travelled the world, yet is the total opposite of what I thought they would have become. I’m here to prove that travelling makes you a better person. To prove her wrong.

We tried figuring out if was cheaper going their ourselves or getting a shuttle to the springs. Ole, a German guy who stayed in our dorm before Jon, told us the costs and timing doing it yourself but in the end we figured a tour company would be much simpler.

Jon found a place in his lonely planet guide for a tour and we heading off to find it. We found the street the place shoulda been join but couldn’t find the office. We musta gone up and down the street 3 times and still nothing. In the end we found the tour company, it turned out it was a local cafe which offered tours. Very bizarre that!

It cost about Q110 which is about £8, for transport and entry to the springs. We were told by a guy Naz was chatting to at our hostel about a “secret spring” at the same place but wasn’t quite so advertised to the public. When we arrived we made a beeline for it. Go down the steps right of the main area, avoid the angry black dog tethered by a chain and trek for about 5mins down. Eventually we found it and no one was there. Perfect.

Jon and I thought the water was too hot, but Naz took the plunge and went it. He said it was pretty good so we all went in. It was really hot, but not so much that it was uncomfortable. There were two pools, one that had water fed direct from the spring outlet(?) and another next to it that had water pouring in from the first pool. The second pool was a little cooler but we didn’t go into that one.

We started taking photos and Jon and I managed to coerce Naz into doing a model photoshoot. I have a set of images that I need to combine that shows off naz’s “flair” shall we say?

Behind the pools, around some rocks, there was a waterfall. It was about 15 feet tall and the water was cold! Though after being in the hot spring that didn’t matter. We took turns standing under the waterfall. The feeling of the water crashing on your head wasn’t painful or irritating, it was strangely nice. I guess its a type of massage, the pressure of the water hitting the scalp, and the temperature of the water strangely making us feel something we would never experience back home. I can’t vouch for Jon but Naz and I have never been under a waterfall so we were buzzing from the experience.

After a while we went to the main pools where everybody else were at. The main area had 3, 1 large and empty one, 1 medium which had water feeding from the large, 1 medium that wasn’t fed from either pool. We decided to dip into the large pool as there were already people in the other pools.

Jon brought his aerobie with him and threw it to me. I missed it and it went into the waster. I jumped in the get it. The water in the large pool was extremely hot. So hot you could only last a few seconds in there before the body’s survival instinct kicks in and tells you get out. I though my skin was on fire. There was a reason why people didn’t go into that pool. We chilled out in the first pool as we couldn’t tolerate the heat of the large pool. That pool had the largest feed of hot spring water so it was extremely hot. We played with the aerobie for a bit and we eventually tried throwing it on each others head. After a while we went back to “heat up” in the large pool. We dared each other who could last the longest in the water. There were stairs leading into the pool and we kept going further in. Eventually I decided to right in and dip my head under water for a few seconds. Boy it was hot. Moving while in the water was uncomfortable. There is a tingling feeling all over the skin as you move any part of your body in the water. Whats affected me the most were my legs, walking up the stairs to get out. It was like they were in shock at the temperature and the muscles couldn’t believe my brain was telling me to exert myself.

Jon and Naz took the plunge also and went underwater. I took a video of it as I knew it would be funny watching them scream at how hot it was. Time was almost up so we packed our thing and went back to the shuttle. On the way back to our hostel, we noticed that street lights used energy saving bulbs! They were not as powerful as the amber lights we have back at home, but using an energy saving bulb makes sense as these lights are on all night.

I’ve never been to a hot spring and I really enjoyed it. I prefer showers than baths so the idea of sitting in a hot pool, like literally just sitting there, was interesting to me. If I encounter more hot spring on my journey you can be sure I’ll give them a visit.

We come back to our hostel after spending the day shopping for gear so we’re prepared for the volcano hike. We come back to the hostel and find a new guy staying in our dorm, Jon. He’s a Brit and comes from I can’t actually remember. He wants to do a volcano hike so we suggest using the same company as us as we can all get a discount. Naz goes with Jon to the tour company and they haggle a deal. They both come back without paying as Jon needs to get money. We all go back to the tour company and end up doing a sort of good cop bad cop routine to secure the deal. We actually get quite a lot out of those guys: discounted rate on tour, packs so we don’t have to use our own, wind breakers as we don’t have our own, hiking boots as we don’t have our own and tents and sleeping bags as we don’t have our own. Lots of additional extras for the same price!

We spend the night getting prepared and get to know Jon better. A girl booked the volcano hike on her own and paid for 2 people but was doing it solo and we wondered what she would be like. Turns out she was a pretty outdoorsy person as she hiked for three days before arriving to our city and only had a days rest before doing another hike! Her name was Katie but I remembered it as Kate, I’m not sure if she was annoyed at that or not, but saying that I remember hearing everyone call me Wayne because I tried telling our guide my name and he kept saying Wayne so I let it slide, hehe.

We start the morning at 6am. Naz is pretty excited as he bought a watch the day earlier and kept boasting he now had the time. We were all pretty groggy but we got into the shuttle which took us to the city’s bus stop where we loaded our packs with the camping gear and food. We get on a chicken bus and we all chat to each other as we’re gonna be spending the next day and a bit together. Everyone is really friendly and we all get on fine. There are the momentary silences as we exhaust the topic we’re talking about, but Katie has the energy to continue talking. I think I mainly talk to her about travel experiences, something I find fascinating as there are things I wanna experience but never quite remember what they are.

When we get off the chicken bus, Katie finds that her camera is missing and it must have been the baggage handlers on the chicken bus that took it! Extremely disappointing and tragic that. She has her phone on her and calls her insurance company straight away. Despite that set back we carry on to catch the next chicken bus to take us to the bottom of the volcano.

After what seems like an hour on the bus, we get off at a tiny settlement at the bottom of the volcano. We strip off our jackets and stuff and prepare ourselves for the behemoth day ahead. Katie goes off to the toilet, which is an outhouse pretty much. A also go and see her returning back to us. A crazy dog starts barking like mad at her as Katie is walking near the dog’s puppies. She actually gets bitten, on the ass of all places, as she walks by. She isn’t hurt and was luckily wearing 2 trousers so the teeth didn’t penetrate. I try going to the outhouse too, but the dog barks so ferociously I chicken out and pee by some bushes. I didn’t get my rabies shot and don’t fancy going to get hospital treatment for bite wounds.

With us are an Israeli couple climbing the same volcano as us. They start before us and have a good 20min head start. We eventually start climbing and begin on a brick road. I think to myself, if its brick road all the way then its gonna be a piece of piss. Boy was I wrong. The hike is steep, rocky and tiring as we have our massive packs on our backs. I totally forget that I have a heart condition where one of my valves doesn’t fully pump blood out, and forgot to tell the tour company, though I don’t think they asked.

I end up taking more breaks than everyone else. I think Naz kinda waited with me at times as he wanted to have a break too. Everyone else where okay with the pace of the hike. We walk for about 20 minutes but it feels like an hour with our gear. We realise a scrawny black dog is following us. We laugh it off as we think the dog is just bored, but it turns out the dog is following us because we have food! Apparently this dog knows that hikers have food and will eventually give it to her if it hangs around long enough. Katie suggest we call the dog Claire, but everyone else wants something better. The name sticks but only cuz we were too lazy to think of a new name!

We start the hike at 10 and stop for lunch at 12. Picnic. It consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, boiled egg, water and whatever other snacks we had. They had some amazing mayo that tastes so different and good compared to the stuff back home. We were on a slope and we had an amazing view of the countryside. So many different colours of green, made up from different trees, grass and bushes. The sky looks incredible, the clouds have so many shades of grey from really dark storm looking ones to wispy cotton like and almost brush stroke like ones. You get to see the huge shadow the big clouds are casting over the land. Its some I never really experience back home as I don’t do walks or hiking in the countryside. The weather is good, sunny and hot as we’re at high altitude. After lunch, we continue to forest and walk up to a peak. We can see how far we have to travel and it doesn’t seem too far away, but we don’t account for the steepness of the terrain.

Everyone has eaten too much and our progress is slightly slower than before. Even our guide ate too much and was sluggish. We have two guides with us. Alex, who didn’t speak a word of English but totally understood us, and I think the other guide was called Rico, who spoke pretty decent English. Rico was a guide on another volcano and was accompanying Alex on this hike to get to know the trail.

Claire is still following us at this point. We did give her some food and we thought she’d probably reach a point then turn back. Naz doesn’t like her too much. He refused to pet her on the grounds that she is probably dirty and she’ll contaminate his hands and he won’t be able to touch his face or something.

One thing that happened on this leg of the trip totally made the hike memorable. Since Naz and I started travelling together, I introduced him to ‘That’s what she said’ jokes. I’d usually say them under my breath as not many people know it, but as Naz was around I could make the joke and at least someone would laugh. I managed to make so many That’s what she said jokes I can’t even remember them all. Everyone eventually started doing it. I established that back home I know some who I work with who is like that and I would feed off that. As that person wasn’t around anymore I’d have to start the ball rolling. So then Jon turned into the person feeding off my dirty sense of humour!

The other thing that made the hike was farts and burps. Jon would fart a hell of a lot, not quite so much in front of Katie though but in front of the guys we’d hear it. I was doing the same but more discretely. Also I was burping loads too. We figured out that as we were going up the volcano, we must have been inhaling lots more air as the air is thinner at altitude. So we must have been swallowing air instead of breathing it. Jon did a previous hike somewhere else in Guatemala and he said he kept it discrete as there were lots of chicks in his group. He’d let them pass before letting rip so he wasn’t considered a ‘smelly’ guy. I guess he made an exception for Katie. I can’t quite remember if Naz was farting but he never mentioned it.

We get to base camp at like 3:30pm and we need to collect firewood. The area is quite flat and we see others have made campfires around us. I’m pretty sure that there were some camps with charcoal there for us, but everybody said it was and old campfire. The supposed campfires were black, looking like a BBQ. I’m sure when wood is burnt it turns grey! Nonetheless, we all gathered a shit load of wood as we wanted the fire to last a long time. After sunset there’ll be no light and warmth and we wanted to relax together for a while longer. We bought marshmallows to cook on the fire, that was something we did earlier in Mexico and that was fun. Naz had never been camping so everything was new to him. It was around the bonfire where Jon farted the most and I made the most That’s what she said jokes. Some where borderline acceptable and others where totally crap but That’s what she said kept coming out of my mouth. And I’d also say things which let it open for someone to reply with That’s what she said.

I dunno what time it was but it was pretty cold and pitch black around us. Jon and Katie warmed their bums on the fire and it was a perfect opportunity to slap both their asses in one around the world swing. Katie said she’ll break my nose if I did but I didn’t pay any attention to that. I didn’t do around the world slap as I didn’t want any awkwardness. I only met those guys a few hours earlier, didn’t wanna offend anyone as they would be around for the next day. It woulda been like a big brother situation where people might pair off differently. It wasn’t like that with the 5 of us. Everyone got on evenly and everyone respected each others boundaries. Its these type of backpackers I like being around.

We have hot chocolate and roast marshmallows over before the fire before we have our dinner. Bit if an odd way round but no one cares. Afterwards we have dinner, mushroom spag bol. We chat around the campfire and relax after dinner. Jon is still farting and I’m joining in too. Much That’s what she said jokes follow too. When the firewood starts running low we turn in for the night. Naz is scared Jon will stink this tent up while I’m sharing with Katie. Ah man, Katie thought she’d have the tent to herself as she didn’t think there was enough space, but in fact there was plenty! She laid her sleeping bag sideways thinking that was all the space you could fit. I think she was scared of sharing a tent with someone else. Naz and Jon are tall guys and there was no way I could fit in their tent.

The night was a rough one. I didn’t get much sleep as it was pretty cold and the sleeping mat provided little comfort. I managed to figure out a technique where I tucked my entire body into the bag and scrunched the opening together and tucked it in to make a sort of pillow. I ended up being pretty warm but the surface I was sleeping on made it hard to fall completely asleep.

We got up at 4am, which gave us around 1 hour to reach the summit. I wanted to take water but the guide said, the summit is only 15mins you don’t need it. The guy was totally wrong. It was an hour or so hike and we were knackered when we got to the top. The trial was very rocky and it was steeper than hiking through the forest.

When we eventually got to the summit we were painfully cold and desperately wanted the sun to appear to warm us up. The view at the top was amazing. We could actually see Mexico from where we were as well as several volcanoes in Guatemala. In the far distance we could a smoke plume from Sanmeguito (sp?), one of the active volcanoes in Guatemala. There was much cloud all over but eventually the sun popped its head out for dawn. It was a beautiful sight to see. I haven’t seen anything like it in my life as I’m a city boy.

It was all worth it. The pain in my heart hiking up, the freezing temperatures at night and the morning, carrying the heavy pack up 1000 metres. I spent the hike with some amazing people. Doing it just with Naz woulda been jokes, but we both knew that more people would make it even better. I’m really grateful that we decided to do the trek with ‘some random girl’ and really fortunate that Jon stayed in our dorm and came with us on our hike. I’d say it was of the best experiences I’ve had. I can’t wait to do more.

While unpacking I realise that none of the other Woofers are around. I guess I’ll have to wait so I can chat to someone. Some people were actually in the hostel. When they emerge from the room I introduce myself and tell them what’ll be doing with them. It turns out people who volunteer are seriously into farming for a future! When talking to them it feels like I’m the white elephant in the room. I’m so out of my element I don’t know what to do. After talking with a few people I establish this. Shad isn’t an organised person and has had little or fairly little teaching to the Woofers, he has no electricity in his house and has no internet connection too and that the people working there are a bit fed up of the living conditions and wanna leave soon.

I can’t be in a place such as this! No organisation and little contact from the boss means I won’t be able to make a website for Shad. I mean, I’m supposed to making a website in exchange for stay, but I’ve already paid. So much for that.

I spend the entire evening in my room, contemplating how bad this situation is. I came here to do a job on site, thinking I would have plenty of contact with the owner, but it turns out I’m living down the road away from the farmer and the farmer isn’t around very much. When i mean down the road, i mean 20mins hike up steep slopes and walking on rocks! I’m not sure how I fit in the grand scheme of things as Shad barely remembers who I was when I saw him on Sunday.

I feel like I’ve been done over with high expectations and poor delivery. This could happen anywhere around the world so I’m not too bitter about it. Its just so happened in a place where I’m travelling instead of freelancing.

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.

Our journey in Mexico to the border was fine. We had no problems. We stopped at a petrol station with a restaurant next to it. I think this is a practice that most tour companies do, take tourists to specific restaurants along the way to somewhere so the driver or tour company get a kick back. Everyone got a breakfast but Naz and I didn’t have any money as we’d spent it the night before as we thought we weren’t gonna need it anymore as we’re leaving the country. Oh well, we got a nice coffee as that was all we could afford. We had pot noodles as backups.

So we get to the border, things look really shabby here. We queue to get our passports stamped, or in this case nothing was stamped as we had use a departure form which was part of our entry form. So then I never really arrived in mexico only left it according to my passport.

After we left immigration we travelled on the road for another 20 mins before hitting the Guatemala immigration office. I read there was a fake tax to pay and it was true. 20 pesos. We could have argued it but I didn’t bother as it woulda been hassle.

The border divide was literally a vehicle barrier. Security in terms of police or army was little. The only guns I saw were from the dodgy money changers, they had massive wads of cash the size of your fist but also had a large hand gun with an extended clip. If I had the balls I woulda taken a pic!

After the border we travel through some really poor areas. Kids selling petrol on the side street. Kids selling sweets on the street. I never grasp the fact that I pass through rural areas and not metropolitan areas of the country. I haven’t yet experienced a metropolitan city in central america. Last time I was travelling I hit major cities but this time I seem to be avoiding them.

Driving in Guatemala is pretty ropey. People tend to overtake recklessly and they don’t have a problem doing it around corners. Es mucho dangerous! Our driver was pretty pathetic as he kept trying to overtake cars and lorries but never managed to do so as he was either too slow or the minibus was too weak to get past the vehicle. There are still tonnes of speed bumps here too!

We finally get to the city of Queztaltenango, or Xela as the locals call it. We unpack our stuff and jump on another minibus. The original minibus was going to Antigua so they carried on but we had a local minibus take us to our hostel/hotel(we were travelling with some French retirees).

We get to the hostel at 6pm having left at 7am. We were told the journey should take 6 hours! A German guy is staying in our dorm and he and recommends we go to the local market as they sell some cheap enchiladas. They’re veggie, soy based mince, but dirt cheap. Like Q5 for 1 which is 40p! We end up getting 3 each as we were starving. Once again we were eating with our eyes. Waaay too much food. Also the woman put sprinkles of cheese on it so I couldn’t stomach it all. Still excellent value for money and very tasty albeit cold. We ate in the Parque Central which made us feel sort of like at home when you get a munch from a kebab shop and eat outside. No one else seemed to be doing though… We go home and relax as we’re set to book a volcano hike for the following days!