Having grown up on a lake, I’ve always felt a certain amount of tranquility on bodies of water. When I first tried to explain this to Vrinda, she definitely gave me some funny looks (even more than normal). Of course, after spending a week at Lougee Lake, she quickly came to see my point of view. While traveling, we have often planned our route to hit as many lakes and rivers as possible. In Guatemala, we more than fulfilled our water-fix on the gorgeous shores of Lake Atitlán. With three major volcanoes dotting its landscape, Atitlán easily makes the list of one of the most amazing waterfront views either of us has ever seen. We spent nearly a week parked near the water’s edge, enjoying slow mornings with coffee and books, kaleidoscopic sunsets, and ample parking space as we made some modifications to our van build. (Our bed had been at risk of collapsing every night in the weeks prior! We suffered some curious gazes as we cut, sanded, and re-assembled our bed slats to rectify this.)
We came for the views but stayed for the friends. As we arrived, we noticed two other camper vans (overlanders as they’re known in the biz) in the parking lot and parked near them (“Don’t park too close to creep them out. But if you park far away it’ll be weird. Oh my god, you left too big a space between the cars so now it’s awkward, but don’t get closer.” -V. Note that it turned out just fine and the little bit of extra space was perfect for building our bed). Within a day, we had befriended our neighbors - C from Colombia/Canada and R & N, a couple from Spain and Mexico respectively - over wine, love of the water, and most importantly, our dogs, as R & N had an extremely well-behaved companion that exacerbated Arya’s craziness even more! Quickly, each dog developed the routine of visiting all five “residents” each morning to see who might have the best treat of the day; Arya occasionally enjoyed some meat leftovers (while, I imagine, cursing that she grew up in a vegetarian household) while we introduced Akela to peanut butter for the first time. With our new friends, we were able to pool together for a boat tour of the lake one day, visiting different towns - San Juan was our favorite thanks to its very interesting weaving, coffee, chocolate, and honey cooperatives - and relishing the time on the water. We appreciated the patience shown to us as we conversed in Spanish (and improved quite a lot!) and swapped stories of all of our travels. Several days in, we were joined by another Canadian couple who were just as wonderful and we enjoyed several meals with them. After having gone much of the first two months of our travels largely without running into many other #vanlifers, it was nice to make so many friends so quickly and start to feel as though we were part of a community.
Just like that, we were an adventuring group. To be honest, we weren’t even sure if we were liked at first or if they just kept us around because they took pity on us as we tried to navigate in Spanish. Soon, however, everyone was making plans to move to Antigua and we had all heard that the police station there offered free parking for camper vans near the middle of the city, a pretty hard deal to pass up. Neighbors for a second week in a row, we grew even more comfortable; several mornings were spent in (Colombian) C’s van watching soccer matches (and one American football evening too) - we all cheered as Albacete (R’s hometown) upset Real Madrid in La Copa del Rey - and we cooked an approximation of Gobi Manchurian for all one night, with everyone pitching in with cooking supplies since no one person had everything to create a meal at that scale. We got so boisterous that the police - whose office was literally 100 feet away - told us not just one night, but two, that we had to quiet down. One evening we sauntered over to Antigua Brewing Company to watch the warm glow of Fuego’s lava in the distance and enjoy live music, including some salsa dancing by those with better moves. As it was finally time to leave the city for our next adventures, everyone was pretty down to say goodbye to such quick and steady friends, with promises of Nos vemos pronto (V’s Vomit), and assurances of future rendezvous. (Note: It is fitting that, on the day I was writing this, we ran into our friends again in El Salvador, completely by accident. It was - as you might surmise - on a lake and a rowdy night followed with more good food, drink, and conversation.)
Independent of our friends, Antigua Guatemala itself was also a very cool town, if a bit on the touristy side. The second, and longest lasting, Spanish capital for the entirety of Central America from 1543-1773, the town is awash with history and culture. Designated as a UNESCO heritage site all the way back in 1979 (only the second year of the program), many of the old buildings and churches (and cobblestone roads) are still in place, and most are still used as government offices, museums, markets, banks, coffee shops, and more. As a tourist destination in coffee country, cafes appeared on every block, many with gorgeous traditional courtyards filled with detailed art and lush greenery; we had to try very hard to stay within budget while wanting to spend many afternoons enjoying delicious drinks and postres and working or reading. Other highlights included a walk to the mirador above the city for a sunset, perusing a book fair in central square, and, of course, people-watching. While we were a bit ready to move on by the end of our time there (between our original stay in the city, a week working at a nearby restaurant, and our Fuego hike, we were in or near the city for over 2-1/2 weeks), it also felt as though we could easily spend another week finding more cool restuarants, cafes, and hikes if we weren’t ready for a slightly different adventure.
(For anyone reading this and considering a shorter trip (aka, not in a camper van) to Guatemala, I would recommend Antigua due to its charm and convenience as tour companies use the city as a launch point for volcano hikes, Lake Atitlán, and other cool adventures.)
