San Lucas Tolimán & Sololá Guatemala - MyShadowProductions # 128

Hola y Feliz Febrero (kind of like Favero? :)

Hello and Happy February!!

Sunday, January 29, was kind of a day off so to speak. Did a lot of walking around Old Panajachel, finding the old church, Iglesia San Francisco from the 16th century surviving multiple earthquakes with repairs.

 I found a place to buy deodorant, not as easy as you would think:

Monday, January 30, I took a boat to the village San Lucas Tolimán, it seems to be a little separated from the natural flow of travelers from Panajachel which is nice for less people but the stalls selling goods and the few restaurants must struggle. There are some cool broken ceramic tile mosaics scattered around town. Also made a stop at Cerro de Oro, hill of gold, supposed to be an ancient volcano, has some obvious volcanic rock spread about.

CLICK HERE for the movie/video created from my photos in San Lucas Tolimán and Cerro de Oro.

Tuesday, January 31, I made a random decision when I woke up that it was going to be the day to try a Chicken Bus ride. Sololá is a city up the mountain from Panajachel about 25 minutes away, perfect. The bus stop is about a 10 minute walk from my hotel. The bus was arriving just as I got there so there was no time to change plans etc. I got on, found a seat and immediately heard the song “Under Pressure” playing, felt appropriate and cool.

Chicken buses are usually old USA school buses, I swear the one I was on used to be Springfield School District 186 (took me to high school 1971) or PORTA Schools :)

The ride up the mountain seemed fast and curvy and back and forth but enjoyable. As the bus moves along, the driver’s helper walks by to collect the fare, Q5, that’s right, about 75 cents each way, amazing.

I departed the bus right in Centro by the Parque Centro and started walking and exploring. The Market was especially cool.

Click Here for the Sololá Day Trip movie/video, I hope you get a feel for what was a truly enjoyable day.

While in Sololá I spotted a Granizada vendor heading to work. She setup shop in front of the church and I tried a Granizada de Limón (shaved ice, lots of spices, too much salt, spicy tomato juice, crunchy snacks, lime juice, etc.). It tasted kind of like a virgin Bloody Mary?? Cost Q10 about $1.25.

I asked if I could take a video while she made the Granizada and Clique Aqui to view it :)

When I got back to Panajachel I walked down to see the Lake and buy some piña (pineapple).

Walking back to the hotel I saw these guys :)

They stopped for an impromptu song and the VIDEO IS HERE.

That’s all for now, but more is coming whether you like it or not :)