KIRAN GOES PLACES
Day one: coffee, a solo horse ride, and the wall we signed our names on
We arrived into San Pedro La Laguna the night before and grabbed great food at a pita place nearby, then woke up in our Airbnb to panoramic views over the town. First stop was Vista de Pájaro, Spanish for bird's eye view, bright painted stairs tucked away in a local neighbourhood leading up to a lookout run by an artist named Walter, who's painted the steps, the viewpoint and the whole room himself. When you leave he asks you to write your name and where you're from on the wall, so if you ever end up there, ours are somewhere among the hundreds of others.
Vista de Pájaro, painted entirely by an artist called Walter, one of the best views over San Pedro.
Even just wandering San Pedro is genuinely enjoyable, colourful backstreets that feel properly local, street art everywhere, tiny tuk tuks buzzing past. First coffee stop was Cotuc Mayan Specialty Coffee, apparently the best cup in town and grown on their own farms. We went for a bourbon blend on the owner's recommendation, one of the best coffees we'd had in Guatemala so far. While walking into town we popped into a travel agency to book the Indian's Nose sunrise hike for the next morning, a group trip with pickup at 4am felt like the easier option over sorting a taxi and entrance fee ourselves.
Fuelled on coffee, lunch was an almond croissant at a spot with serious hippy alternative energy, which sums up San Pedro's vibe pretty well, backpacker meets naturalist. Sam went for a massage that afternoon after some brutal DOMS from our Acatenango hike, which left me with some free time. On the way to get a smoothie I'd passed a guy offering horseback rides into the forest, and with time on my hands I went back to find him.
Pedro the horseman set me up with a horse called Romina and sent me off with his niece as a guide. We wound through San Pedro's tight streets on horseback, honestly felt like being in a western, before reaching the edge of town. That's when his niece turned to me and said I looked like I could ride, and that I could just go off on my own if I wanted. So I did, alone on a horse, riding around the lake and through the forest with genuinely no one else around.
Somehow I ended up with this horse to myself, riding through San Pedro's back streets.
No one else around, just me, a horse called Romina, and the lake.
Back in town, Sam had got her nails done for the first time in six months, and it was time for food again, this time at Anafres, an unexpectedly wild Indian fusion spot. We had a cheese fondue made with Indian spices, a beer ramen that came with tacos, and two lassis, pineapple and passion fruit. One of the tastiest, least healthy meals of the whole trip. On the way home we checked out a bar called Sublime, hailed a tuk tuk that already had two people in it who let us jump in anyway, and went to bed early to be ready for a 4am start.
Anafres, an Indian fusion restaurant that made absolutely no sense and worked perfectly anyway.
Day two: sunrise on Indian's Nose, then the colours of San Juan
Waiting outside our Airbnb at 4am, we could still hear music from town, San Pedro is very much a party place, and we'd fallen asleep to the sound of it the night before. A shuttle took us to the head of the lake where everyone else on board was already asleep, and we set off following our guide William up the mountain in pitch darkness. No one really spoke, just headtorches and steps zigzagging up in the dark, one of the strangest hikes I've ever done. What kept spirits up was our guide carrying a big bag of pastries the whole way.
At the top, benches faced out towards the lake, everyone sitting in the dark a full hour before sunrise, handed bread and hot chocolate while we waited, like something out of Middle Earth. Slowly the lake came into view, little lit towns dotting the shore, volcanoes emerging as the light came up, and then the sun finally broke over the horizon.
An hour of sitting in the dark for this. Worth every minute.
Back for a quick shower, then out again to San Juan La Laguna, technically a separate town but only a five minute tuk tuk ride from San Pedro. First stop was Nativo for brunch, an Oreo latte I'd never seen on a menu before, and a genuinely excellent honey and spice breakfast, waffles included.
Breakfast at Nativo, fuel after a sunrise that started at 4am.
San Juan itself is unbelievably colourful, buildings painted in wild colours, murals everywhere, even the floors are painted, to the point you almost feel bad walking on them. In a gym on the main street we caught a game of Pok-Ta-Pok, a traditional Mesoamerican ball game once linked to religious ceremonies, where you're only allowed to hit the ball with your hip, thigh or forearm.
One of San Juan's murals, a town where even the floors are painted.
Pok-Ta-Pok, hip, thigh or forearm only, once tied to religious ceremony.
We wandered through a string of art shops, my favourite being Alix Arte, an artist with genuinely abstract interpretations of corn, which is painted everywhere around town. Last stop was Mundo de Abejas Mayas, a sanctuary for Mayan bees, domesticated and stingless, though our young guide (who looked about twelve and had apparently been bitten every single day) informed us they can still give a nasty pinch. We tasted twelve different honeys and a honey wine, which in hindsight was a lot of honey for one visit.
Stingless Mayan bees, some of the tiniest bees I've ever seen.
Our first stop on Lake Atitlán delivered on every front, hikes with views, a wild west style horse ride, incredible food and coffee, and colourful streets that made the indigenous culture around here genuinely easy to feel. Next up, we were heading across the lake.