In which Roz and Layla enjoy a new lake, plan a new holiday, and list their holiday reading

by Roz

We went from sipping mohitos (where we left you last time) to dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant overlooking the lake where we had a truly lovely meal with fabulous bruschetta (with capers which I love but realize I haven't had since leaving the UK a year ago), homemade pasta and nice wine.  We strolled the two minute journey back to our hotel congratulating ourselves on an excellent day.  

Next morning we were awake early again (sigh) and having again rejected the hotel breakfast in favour of pancakes in a pretty spot we contemplated our plans for the day.  Layla had originally been thinking of a canopy walk but I had been such a wuss over the brief encounter we'd had with swaying bridges in Pana that it was time for a rethink.  The lake looked tempting and so we decided that a boat trip was in order (after morning ice creams naturally). First, we had a half hour boat ride to a tiny village called San Andres which was just lovely. Hopping off the boat, our inadequate Spanish and the boatman's inadequate English meant we "agreed" we would see him later, in another village a little bit along the lake shore "next to the water park". We started off by a small exploration of the village, but since this only revealed mangy looking dogs and the odd small child we didn't linger too long, but started off to walk to the next village along the lakeshore. And it turned out to be one of the prettiest walks either of us had ever done.  No cars on the road, brilliant blue sky and water, and just a sort of idyllic-ness that was completely unexpected. The tranquility of it made it all the more surprising when we stumbled across small children swimming in the water - or indeed tuk tuks sitting on the lake edge to make it easier to wash them. We meandered along, contemplating the future and all the fun places we could live. 

Arriving in the village (which was somewhat larger than the first one we'd been to, and with fewer hungry looking dogs), it was time for lunch and we stopped off at a very pleasant cafe for sandwiches and lemonade - and then settled down to read, occasionally glancing down at the lovely lake.  And so a very pleasant hour or so passed, after which we decided to start trying to hunt down the water park and our boatman. This proved much easier than I had feared, and soon we were gliding through the beautiful water en route to our next stop, which apparently had ruins and a pretty look-out spot. Further examination of the guidebook, once we had arrived, revealed that the ruins were in fact not visible to the naked eye (but instead presumed to be there because of the otherwise inexplicable big mound than we proceeded to walk up).  The look out spot was lovely though (and well worth the climb up the really rather high mound) and we stayed up there until we heard the voices of some other tourists when we hastily beat a retreat.  

It was only a short boat ride from there back to Flores - but all in all it had been a very satisfactory excursion.  We then headed to the cool cafe / bar, where we had spent time the day before, to read more. The experience was all the more novel since it was certainly the first time Layla opted for beer whilst I opted for lemonade... Time marched on and we were conscious that we had a mid-evening flight back to Guatemala City and no opportunity for dinner other than a very early one. And so we found ourselves back in the Italian restaurant of the night before, this time watching the sunset as we relished bruschetta and one portion of pasta to share.  From there, we headed to the airport and flew back to Guatemala for our final night.  We arrived late and decided to head out for a late drink. We originally hoped to find Frida's - which we had looked for the last time we were in Guatemala City - but failed again and so ended up in a mad Mexican restaurant near the hotel with mohitos.

We woke up unpleasantly early again and headed out for breakfast in a delightful cafe / restaurant recommended by all the guidebooks but pleasingly not seemingly frequented by tourists (or not western ones) where we debated the merits of Christmas and our enthusiasm (or not in my case) for it over pancakes and fruit.  We then wandered to a lovely bookshop and contemplated their selection of books before settling down for a mint tea in the bookshop's cafe where we wrote postcards and read.  Eventually Layla was too antsy to sit still and we agreed, sadly, it was time to head back to the hotel and to the airport. And now it is from a very comfy business class seat that I write this, sipping a gin and tonic and awaiting lunch - suspended until our next adventure away.  Which, might, I suspect, be a cycling trip to Burma. 

Books read by Roz whilst away: Astray (Emma Donoghue), Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquirel), Bring Up the Bodies (Hilary Mantel), No Highway (Nevil Shute), Dominion (CJ Sansom), The Shuttle (Frances Hodgson Burnett), The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood), plus substantial progress made into The Day of the Scorpion (Paul Scott) and some progress into Merivel (Rose Tremain) - the latter being an audiobook.

Books read by Layla whilst away: The Secret People (John Wyndham), The Vanishing Act (Mette Jakobsen), The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood), French Revolutions (Tim Moore) and the final quarter of Middlemarch (George Eliot), and have just embarked on Shikasta (Doris Lessing).