In which Layla and Roz cycle round a pretty lake and visit Maya ruins

By Layla

We meandered out and up the Main Street for dinner in Circus, a very cool little quirky cabaret bar where we dined on pizza and wine, and listened to various musical efforts, followed by some G&Ts at the bar. Roz mocked me for being shy of the place - have I become too mainstream??!

The next day we were up early and - to our delight - enjoying a delicious hotel pancake breakfast, before our cycle tour around the lake. Now, those of you with an eagle eye will have noticed that on our bicycle tour of the Antigua countryside resulted in Roz falling off her bike and injuring her arm. We decided to gloss over that... And off we set with our bikes and a cheery guide on the local ferry across the sparkling lake, along with some Mayan girls, a house painter, and assorted other locals. After stopping at several tiny, pretty landings, til we reached ours. We vaguely helped heave our bikes onto the tiny wooden jetty, then found ourselves on the road that goes all around the lake. Sadly, my enquiries in Spanish as to the flatness of the road before we booked the trip must have been flawed - never did any road go up and down so dramatically or so often. If it hadn't been for the astoundingly beautiful views over the lake, and the charm of the villages we cycled through, it would have been hard to forgive. Especially because Roz's arm proved unwilling to endure either steep slopes upwards or downwards. And of course, I'm not fit enough to go uphill for more than 5 seconds. I suspect we were a great disappointment to our guide. At San Paolo we visited a women's weaving cooperative and I bought a scarf, and some horrible chocolate. Then at San Pedro we wheeled our bicycles over another little wooden jetty and climbed aboard another ferry for a beautiful half hour cruise back to Panajachel.

After changing our clothes to make ourselves presentable, we made a beeline for a pretty-looking deli in a courtyard garden for a tasty lunch, over which we lingered with our books... And then we went for a stroll along the waterfront, culminating in mohitos at the aptly named Sunset Bar, where we enjoyed a glorious pink sunset over the lake and volcanos. 

But enough of that and down to the serious business of dinner. We walked up the street and after much indecision, chose Casablanca, where I incongruously had French onion soup and Roz had pasta. And then ice cream. Punctuated by my jaunt to a local pharmacy, as Roz mentioned she was in agony post-bike ride. And then G&Ts at Circus. Other than the aforementioned agony, a really excellent day.

We got up early the next day, because we had a shuttle to Guatemala City Airport booked for 11.30 and wanted a morning activity. One look at Roz's grimaces told me that kayaking was out, so after another delicious round of breakfast pancakes, we caught a tuk tuk to Atitlan Nature Reserve. This pretty much deserted park was really beautiful. We went on an hour-long hike along well-maintained tracks with the added excitement of several suspension bridges which were nearly the end of poor Roz, as she shook, suspended on rickety wooden slats above a waterfall far below, unable to use her arm to hold on. But the views were excellent... 

When we got back into town, I deposited Roz in the Deli Llama del Fuego where we acquired licuados (sort of fruit smoothies) and take away sandwiches, and I went on a hunt and acquired a sling for her. Feeling a tad worried, I emailed doctor friends to enquire as to whether I ought to be doing anything more serious. Luckily the diagnosis: dunno, but prescribe painkillers and mohitos. Not cycling or kayaking though.

And thus with sandwiches in hand and arm in sling, we boarded the shuttle minibus to Guatemala Airport, destination Flores. However, a journey that usually takes 4 hours took only 2 hours. We ended up being dropped off in Guatemala City where we left our luggage at a random hotel, and went for a little wander in Zone 10. Our quest for a bar marked in our guidebook was in vain, and after wandering the streets which mostly comprised large hotels and bars that would be popular later, we found ourselves in an incongruous, posh little design shop (there were no other shops around), as their only customers, drinking giant jugs of pink lemonade and eating banana cake with chocolate sauce, sitting on their posh for sale chairs. Quite surreal, but both cheery and tasty.

I made Roz go to the airport too early (as usual) so we spent the next while in the charm-free departure lounge (a particular treat was when it got dark and the airport didn't switch on lights...), but our flight was on time and after an hour of flying, we found ourselves on the pretty island of Flores. 

By the time we checked into our less than glamorous hotel (I'd like you to note it was number 1 on Tripadvisor!) it was sufficiently late that restaurants were winding down. Nevertheless, having purchased shuttle ticked for the next day's trip to Tikal, a Mayan ruin, we settled ourselves in a nice restaurant, drank mohitos, and had a quick dinner, then some wine, til it was bedtime.

Noting sadly that every day is an early morning day, Roz and I sloped downstairs for a quick hotel breakfast before our 8am shuttle today, only to find that the hotel breakfast was so rubbish that we had to go elsewhere. Cue a mad dash to last night's restaurant where we inhaled emergency pancakes and orange juice, in time for the bus. I'd got myself in a flap about the bus as I'd heard it was subject to an armed robbery a couple of months ago, so had left all valuables at home, which was rather inconvenient, and thankfully the trip was absolutely fine. 

Tikal is thought to have been the capital city of the Mayan empire, and is the most impressive Mayan ruin, we were told. I'd been once before, 9 years ago. It was lovely to go back. The site is deep in the jungle, but in a civilized way that requires lots of walking up nicely cleared paths through the jungle to the various pyramids and temples scattered around a large site. We visited pretty much all of them, including the more obscure ones, and climbed a couple for cool views over the jungle. But of course, true to form, while we enjoyed the Gran Plaza and such, we really liked it when we were the only ones there so we could feel like Indiana Jones... And thus we enjoyed one out of the way temple complex, a 20 minute walk from the others, til another pesky couple appeared, which spurred us to leave our explorations and continue along the road.

About 15 minutes into the 25 minute walk between temples, we suddenly froze. Just ahead, we heard the most bloodcurdling roars and snarls you can imagine. We clung to each other in terror - what on earth could it be? We looked at our map/guide to the site for lists of animals that resided within. Could it be a jaguar? It sounded more like a lion... We decided to move forward, then heard it again, louder than ever. And again. And thus Indiana Jones became Indiana Wuss as we lurked, willing the other couple to come round the corner. Eventually they did. With anguish we indicated to the ongoing roars. At which point they tittered: "howler monkeys". And sheepishly we walked on, to the next temples...

We had a lovely four hours of exploring this really excellent site, before having sandwiches at the visitors' centre, and catching the shuttle back to Flores. Again, no bandits: phew!

Having watched the sun set over the lake with an ice cream in hand, and wandering round the promenade that circles Flores, we are now installed in what can only be described as a funky cafe, with mohitos. Medicinal, you know...