Casa del Mundo to Xela

So, as Iff mentioned, we went from San Pedro La Laguna to Casa del Mundo, a wonderful retreat also on Lake Atitlan. (I suppose it's a hotel technically, but it consists of really nice cabin-type buildings spread throughout gorgeous gardens on the side of a mountain.) We'd heard it was a welcome break from the touristy aspects of San Pedro, a place to chill out completely.

And that's exactly what we did. We slept a lot and read a lot. I finally got to try a book by Jodi Picoult, which I really liked. We enjoyed the lovely view of mountains, volcanoes, the lake itself, and all the retreat landscaping. We could have gone swimming, kayaking, hiking, etc. But we didn't bother! We simply enjoyed not having to study, do homework, have set meal times, entertain a two-year-old, or think in any sort of productive capacity. We had one night in an economy room and one night in a more luxurious en-suite room. Lovely!

But soon enough, it was time to get back to the real world. We got a boat back to Panajachel, where we first arrived at Lake Atitlan. We then got a chicken bus to Xela, a few hours away to the west. Upon arrival here, we were a bit baffled. We'd gotten used to being in small villages or towns. Even Antigua had a small town feel to it. Xela (or Quetzaltenango, its full name) is huge. It's big enough to be split into zones. We actually had to get a taxi from the bus stop to the hostel we chose from our guidebook. Mental!

We'd heard that Xela is a good base for hiking and volunteering, both of which really interested us. A funny thing happened, though. Since we've been here, we've felt pretty lethargic. We've spent a fair bit of time chilling in our huge, very comfy hostel room. There's not much to see in the city itself, but we have found some excellent food at various cafes and restaurants. We're writing these few days off as recharging our batteries. We've both been a bit run down (and bruised, in poor Iff's case) lately, so it's been really nice to take it easy. Really easy.

We did venture out for a half-day tour yesterday, though. We wanted to see a Mayan archaeological site called Abaj Takalik, not far from Xela. It's famous for being older than (though much less restored than) Tikal and for including stone heads with Olmec features. Reading about stone heads being unearthed in coffee plantations really piqued my interest, so off we went. We were the only two people on the tour, so we got loads of attention and information. Good thing we learned as much Spanish as we did!

Getting to the site was educational. We drove for about an hour along windy, mountain roads past fields with every possible fruit and veg growing. (The fresh produce is amazing in Guatemala!) Then we had a few hours at the ruins themselves, and they're fascinating. There's so much left uncovered still, but what they've unearthed was well worth a look. There are huge stones carved a couple centuries BC. The Mayans living there liked to have statues of big, fat frogs, people, and even an owl. There are no big temples restored there, but that was OK with us. One cool thing was seeing people working on the site. One guy was cleaning dirt off a huge altar stone with water and a toothbrush. Talk about dedication!

So we did do one productive thing while here in Xela: we increased our respect for the ancient Mayan civilisations. And my respect for them was already high!

Today we head for Huehuetenango and then possibly to Todos Santos, depending on the availability of public buses. Perhaps there's some hiking in our near future...we'll see what happens!