San Pedro The Party Village of Lake Atitlan Guatemala

this report covers our time in lake atitlan guatemala i left the usa in 2007 and i've lived in and traveled to 65 countries so far we just completed six months in quintana roo mexico in the riviera maya it was time to head south into one of my favorite countries in central america guatemala i'd last been in guatemala in 2012. back in 2012 i had heard about beautiful lake of titland but had elected to visit only antigua samuk champay flores and tikal since we were in the middle of a pandemic on this visit i decided to forego bus travel on this trip as this trip and focus only on locations that i thought would be best for my followers to retire cheap in paradise those two places lake atitlan and antigua in guatemala but first i want to share how we got to lake atitlan we flew from cancun mexico to guatemala city guatemala during the pandemic so we had to show a negative antigen test for coronavirus before they let us board the airplane the flight with voleris cost us 276 usd for the two of us when we landed in guatemala city there was no atm machine and no sim card sellers in the arrivals area of the airport we were worried that meant we had no internet to order an uber taxi and no local money to pay a taxi driver probably because the airport had been closed for the better part of a year so those services were not necessary luckily chung had the idea to go upstairs and check departures we both we found an atm machine and a claro sim card uh cellar in the departures area thankfully that would never have happened before the pandemic the sim card cost us 150 q or 20 u.s for 30 days included seven gigabytes of internet data and a local telephone number in guatemala once you have the sim card you can recharge the next 30 days for only 70 q which is 9 usd the atm machine let me pull out local money of about 2 000 q which is 259 usd so i didn't have to exchange my any dollars for local money i had never spent any time in guatemala city but cheng wanted to spend the night there before we grabbed an uber to lake atitlan chung had booked an airbnb for just one night the airbnb was listed at 22 for one night but after paying all the fees it costs us 33 dollars total we used our smartphone to order an uber from the airport to our airbnb for 25 q or 3.24 cents by that time we were hungry so we shared a falafel at this restaurant link provided in the building on the first floor below our condo for 35 q or 4.54 cents plus a 10 tip it included a drink and the food was good after lunch we got an uber taxi for 18 q or two dollars and 33 cents to the grocery store and purchased some food supplies uh for 339 q or 43.95 we thought we thought we might be it might be cheaper uh there since the lake is relatively remote and and then we grabbed uh an uber home to our airbnb for 24 q which is three dollars and 11 cents that evening we walked to a funky fun walking area near our condo and had a beautiful dinner at a peruvian restaurant league link provided the food was spectacular as you might expect because it was very expensive the two entrees cost us 178 q or 23 us dollars guatemala city is a big city so we were getting gouged everywhere we turned the next morning after our egg mcmuffin meals for two including coffee and hash browns for 72q or 9.33 for the two of us we took uber to the to the town of uh pana at link atlan for 640 q which is 82. did you know mcdonald's is considered an expensive foreign meal in some parts of the world normally we wouldn't have paid eighty-two dollars to get to lake titillon heck the chicken bus is only six dollars per person uh but we are keeping a lower profile during the pandemic so we spent the extra money the uber driver took us all the way to the dock in pana where we immediately boarded a public water taxi for 35 q or 4.53 cents per person to san pedro village normally it would be a little cheaper but they were charging us extra for the 20 kg of luggage we each had in our addition to our backpacks every village around lake atitlan has a public dock where the public taxi drops you or picks you up we started our exploration of lake ettitlan in san pedro village okay san pedro village our airbnb landlord meta is at the public dock in san pedro village and walked us about 200 meters to our accommodation he had asked us to text him when we jumped on the boat and on the panaside and he was there we stayed there three nights at 25 us per night but the total including airbnb fee was uh 85 including all utilities and internet while we were in san pedro for three nights we walked all around the village and took day tours of two of the nearby villages san juan and santiago i'll discuss san pedro first though things to see and do in san pedro village san pedro village is home for original mayans for centuries and one of the 21 mayan ethnic groups of original people live here about a hundred thousand of them live around lake titillon in total more recently the lake has become better known by visitors from all over the world over the last three decades local expats described san pedro as a drinking and partying village which seems to play out mainly in the restaurants and bars along the lake front every night of the week each of the villages has a different character which i'll discuss separately as we go visitors enjoy hiking the san pedro volcano and mayan face they enjoy studying spanish volunteering learning local arts and crafts and partying in the bars and restaurants along the lakefront if just a few of you decide to hike the volcano make sure to bring along a local guide there have been some reports of tourists having their cameras and other valuable possessions taken away from them on the isolated paths up to the volcano just a few hours walking around san pedro village will give you a survey of not only what the visitors are up to but also the daily lives of the local people it is best if you take this walk and see it with your own eyes but here is where i recommend you visit while in san pedro village there's a google map here it's interactive you can add and remove places just click the link and start walking uh on your smartphone okay you'll start at the main public dock this is the dock where the public taxi will arrive from pana if you click this interactive google map it'll take you to each destination i'm suggesting the first destination is a catholic church the catholic church of san pedro was built in about 1902 the garden out front is beautiful and there are often locals playing traditional mayan music in the garden the mayan population is both protestant and catholic but many also practice ancient mind traditions and rituals along with their more recent faiths minds believe both good and bad spirits inhabit the earth the central market once you walk from the catholic church to the next stop on the map google maps will walk you by the largest locals market in san pedro it's not on google but the path will take you by it you'll see fruits and vegetables and meats along with some arts and crafts the next stop is mini super andy this market has many surprise foods from various parts of the world that you might not expect to find in a village of this size next stop is the public dock to santiago i've added the public dock where you can catch the public water taxi to santiago village while you're staying in san pedro so you will know where to go if you decide to visit santiago village next there's a mayan museum on the map we'll teach you about the original people of lake attitlan their arts and crafts and spirituality it's also some early photos from this area and other information about the geology of lake atitlan even if you decide not to go inside the museum leave this stop and the public dock to san diego on the walking tier tour so the interactive google map will walk you through some of our favorite neighborhoods of san pedro village okay next on the enter the map is bar sublime this is where expats tourists and some locals enjoy the view of lake atitlan as they listen to great music in the evenings especially during happy hour next up is saba restaurant this is where we had our a few of our favorite meals while we were in san pedro village now that you have walked this map and seen most of the cool areas of this small village you'll be able to know how to appropriately allocate your time lake etitlon at san pedro okay next up is our favorite restaurants in san pedro village we'll cover those before we visit the next two villages i explained to you here are our favorite restaurants in san pedro village yes you can click the google map the map has the restaurants in geographical order but the restaurants are ordered by our favorite meals on top in the link below this youtube video after we take you on this short video tour of our favorite meals we'll take you on a short tour and hike of nearby san marcos our number one breakfast on the restaurant list for san pedro is listed as israeli breakfast with a link to the actual restaurant french toast i kind of never had before for 38 q was four dollars and 92 cents and shakshuka uh for 45 q of which is 5.83 you can divide those numbers by two because they were both large enough to feed two people favorite restaurant uh on in san pedro our second favorite restaurant was lis is listed on the restaurant menu as vegan sushi rolls with a link provided to the actual restaurant we had vegan sushi rolls on a special two servings for the price of one of 45 q or two servings for four or five dollars and eighty-three cents plus one order of kimchi for 15k or a dollar 94. love the place our third favorite meal is listed as indian restaurant on the restaurant list chung had a veggie teriyaki and i had a veggie curry each disc dish costs 32 q which is 4.15 cents number four on our favorite restaurant list was a mexican burrito we shared a nice mexi burrito for 35 q which is 4.53 which included a nice cup of coffee our sixth favorite meal in san pedro was jakku restaurant the lo local restaurant had a nice vegetable dish for 35 q or four dollars and fifty three cents the chang that i shared and chum also had a grilled chicken dish for uh for chum only at 15 q a dollar ninety four and then number seven the best street food in san pedro uh was uh 20q chorizo tacos which is 2.59 located on the main street parallel to the lake shore just up from the public dock i brought this boat from the street with chorizo 20 q is about three dollar two dollars something to three dollar that's good well we've run over on time here so stay tuned for a future video and we'll show you the various villages here in lake atitlan hey if you liked our video please like comment or subscribe any of that would help our business thanks so much thank you so much thanks for watching our video click the link in the notes below this video to get a copy of this content plus grab a free copy of my ebook how i fired my boss and traveled the world for 13 years while you're there check out our catalog of retired cheap reports all over the world and our hobby income course that we just released thanks so much

Channel: Vagabond Awake

Views: 3,520

Rating: 4.9566789 out of 5

Keywords: lake atitlan, lake atitlan guatemala, san pedro laguna (city/town/village), guatemala travel 2021, retire guatemala 2021

Id: bKtFZyvdk9k

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 21 2021