I left off at Lago Atitlan, where I spent a week visiting the different little villages around the lake. After a day in Panajachel, which is nice but really has nothing unique besides a nice location, I went over to San Marcos. San Marcos is a small hippie village with winding paths that reminded me of the Oregon Country Fair at first glance. I spent a few days here swimming in the crystal clear water and hopelessly trying to catch the ratty little fish that meander about, but then got tired of hearing about magnetic healing and yoga every day, so I went over to San Pedro, a slightly larger town with a larger local population. San Pedro was beautiful and laid back, but the ATMs there were not quite as nice, so I had to live on about $5 a day, which turned out to be kind of fun. I found a pretty awesome hike up one of the volcanic ridges called the Nariz del Indio (Indian Nose) as well.During my time at Lago Atítlan I had been asking around about San Andrés Itzapa, where I was to do my volunteer work for a month, but couldn´t find a single person who had heard of it despite the fact that it is only about 20 miles away from the lake. This actually increased my excitement because perhaps I would finally be able to leave the tourist track, as nearly every other tourist I have met so far has lied about doing. Finally I found out how to get there from various bus drivers and headed up the hill. As it turns out San Andrés Itzapa is a small community in the hills above the lake (out of view unfortunately) with absolutely no tourism besides the other workers at MayaPedal and one other guy who filters water.
Working at MayaPedal has been a nice change from the constant traveling. I get pretty much unlimited freedom to play around with all sorts of machinery like welders, angle grinders, drill presses, and power saws, so the days go quickly. So far I have been redesigning and reconstructing a bicipicadora, which is a bike powered compost mulcher. This has been teaching me all sorts of new spanish words, such as flywheel (volante), pedal (pedal) and cable (cable).The accommodations at MayaPedal are slightly below my standards. There are some filthy mattress´ on the floor and a few barely functioning appliances. One cool thing though is that almost every piece of furniture is built from old bike parts. There is not much to do here after work, so I spend a lot of time reading and cooking. Luckily Antigua is close by, so on the weekends I can bike over and spend the night without inhaling mold and listening to dogs barking from rooftops.
I am really enjoying being immersed in the Guatemalan culture. And although this line may be cliché, the people here are unbelievably friendly. For example, I went to the post office the other day to send some letters and as I was leaving the guy behind the counter yelled at me to come back. It turns out you can´t send a letter without sharing a few cups of homemade alcohol with the employees, so I happily abided. I enjoyed the stuff so much I made a batch when I got home, and it just finished fermenting today. It is called Fresco de Súchiles, and made from pineapple, jocotes, corn, and a bunch of spices. I made a lot of it so I think tomorrow we will be having a Fiesta de Súchiles as well.
My plan is to remain here for another two weeks, then head back to the tourist route to catch some more sights.
Adios.
