A day in Pana complete with a chiropractic massage

Trip Start Apr 22, 2009

Trip End May 15, 2009

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Where I stayed

Homestay

Flag of Guatemala San Jorge La Laguna, Sololá, Guatemala
Friday, May 8, 2009

We had set our alarms for 730am as brekky was at ocho (eight!). We didn't have showers as there were huge buckets full of water sitting in there so a quick face wash it was. In the kitchen we offered our help but go a lot of no no no's so Lucy and I sat down and waited. Maria cooked us up some scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onion with tortillas. After cleaning up we got ready to head down the street to see what Julia and Teryn were up too. They were deciding pretty much to do what we were thinking so well all set off up the hill to catch a chicken bus into Panajachel. One came along soon enough so we jumped on board and set off down the hill at breakneck speeds, honking the horn the whole way down. We hopped off at the main street and went to the bank followed by the bookshop. Teryn and I both picked up a Spanish phrase book hoping it would help us with our respective families.

We walked down the main drag of Panajachel and checked out all the shops - I actually found a dress to wear at the Trump National G.C in Los Angeles in Tuesday night! Lucy found it near the bottom of a pile of clothes and it fitted OK so for about $30 I had something. After a bit of shopping we stopped for some morning tea at the Paris Cafe before walking down to find the masseur. It was this German guy who practiced out of his house and he opened the door in a pair of Harry High pant trackies so at that moment we all decided nope.

It was about lunch time by now so we walked all the way down to the waterfront of Lake Atitlan to a place Julia and Teryn's friend had recommended. It was pretty good - the staff were a little over attentive but our ensaladas were really yummy. We decided to go for a walk along the lake front and ran into one of the family members of Julia & Teryns home stay - Julio! He works down at the kayak shop. We chatted for a bit and took a short-cut back to the main street via this posh hotel - it had a water slide and a pool - comfort plus compared to what we have been in. There were hammocks that lined the walkway which we though we'd put to good use for a little while - most of us nearly falling asleep.

Time to press on and find our other massage place we moved along and found his offices. It was a chiropractic shop and there was only 1 guy so we took it in turns for a 30 minute session each - alternating our time between the internet cafe and the coffee shop. The massage was sensational and you could tell he knew what he was doing - I definitely could have had an hour. After we all had our turn we headed back down the street to get our chicken bus home and ran into the other group of people along the way. Our bus was totally packed and there was 4 people on my 2 seater chair. Us gringo's were scattered everywhere and we enjoyed interacting with the locals.

Back in San Jorge we rushed back to our families to get dressed for our traditional Guatemalan clothes for dinner. We got given a colourful shirt (mine had to get unpicked so my biceps could squeeze through!), then a tube like skirt was wrapped around us. A colourful belt was the final touch and this was pulled very very tightly. Hard to breathe and even harder to walk (we turned into Geishan Guatemalans!) we trottered off up the hill - everyone looked fantastic! We sat down and the local men blessed us some alcohol and we all had a shot of the local tequila. Some church incense was waved around and then we were served a bowl of chicken drumstick soup and a corn thing - I've forgotten what they are called! It was really good though. The men sat together and the women on the floor. They played a bit of local music and everyone was up and about asking the locals to dance. We were all dancing around in a circle when someone accidentally hit the table and knocked over a couple of beers - it stopped the party pretty dam quickly!

It started pouring rain and we were all trapped. The local kids entertained us by playing under the table and being cute.. Our hosts managed to find some brollies so we could walk back and not ruin their clothes. We said a lot of gracias for your hospitality & headed off to bed... back to Antigua tomorrow..