Monterrico

Yesterday we made our journey to Monterrico on our shuttle bus. It was quite new, and roomy with only six of us in all on the bus. The driver did chat a little as he drove at 100 km an hour down the highway. I remarked to Geordie that 100 km an hour here is similar to 30 km an hour on a highway in India. Not quite as scary, come to think of it.

And yes, Monterrico is hot! The thermometer on our clock only shows 30 celcius, so it´s not as bad as I thought it might be, but it´s plenty hot enough. The people here wear shorts and tshirts - they are not formal as they appear to be in Antigua - where only the tourists wear shorts. The town has one long paved street which runs from the Pacific Ocean to the lagoon on the other side of the peninsula. At that side there are barges lined up waiting for vehicles to get over to the highway on the other side. While we were there, a truck pulled up, pulled onto the barge and then sailed majestically up the lagoon, with a little outboard motor providing the power.

When we arrived at our hotel, we were greeted by a guy who wanted to offer us a morning tour of the lagoon - which would start at 5:30 am. Hmmm! It would last about two hours and the guide would be poling the boat so as not to disturb the wild life, which includes plenty of birds and even a four-eyed fish. We have not yet decided whether we want to be knocked up at that early hour - this morning I hauled myself out of bed at 9:00 am - which felt a little early.

Our hotel is similar to a motel, with little buildings parallel, facing eachother across a pool. To get our view we have to head up to the restaurant where there is a palapa roof, some nice breeze, a row of hammocks on either side of the table area, and of course some ranchero music playing constantly. The room is very basic, as you might imagine, with two beds, four walls, a thin plywood ceiling with a palapa roof above it, and a fan which creates a major strobe effect with the light which has been installed above it. It was impossible to read with that strobing so Geordie sent me out to ask for a stand up fan which I got. English is not well spoken in this area, so we are lucky that we know enough Spanish to get around.

We met a couple from Mendocino County in the USA on the bus and had dinner with them last night. They had planned to study Spanish for a week here in Monterrico, but when they went to the school, it had no record of them and no teacher available. So scratch the idea of taking a week of classes impromptu, which had been one of our options.

We also did a wander of the beachside restaurants yesterday. The sand is black here and thick so it´s not easy to walk on in the heat. We stumbled down the beach until we couldn´t take it anymore, then went inland to the sandy road, which is almost, but not quite, as hard to walk on.

We are staying here four nights in all - I imagine it will be all about where we will eat, how much time we will stay in the pool, how much we will read, and how much we will sleep. Pretty basic stuff. We have discovered that noone around here takes Mastercard or Amex, only Visa - the card we left at home. And there is no bank machine either, so we will have to ration our money. We were able to use MC last night at the Swiss-Guatemalan restaurant after about 10 minutes of them on the phone to get the right confirmations. But it worked so we may eat there again soon.

We are now considering our next move. Originally our plan was to go back to Antigua, take a shuttle to Guatemala City then a bus to Rio Dulce. But after tallking to Joanna and her husband, and considering the heat here, we are thinking maybe we don´t want to spend more time in the heat and humidity filled lowlands, so we just might to to Lake Atitlan, which is higher so will be cooler at night even though it is still quite warm during the day. There are many villages around the lake where one can visit and stay, so we are weighing our options right now. We´ll see.

One thing I must say about Guatemala. The people are really so very charming. In the restaurants you are welcomed the moment you enter and the service is always with a great smile. And the phrase "at your service" sounds so very genuine. On the streets people greet one with a smile, a buenas dias, or buenas noches, and everone seems genuinely pleased to meet you. We love that part of Guatemala, and the incredible scenery makes it that much more desirable to travel in.