Sailing Trip on the Volcanic Lake

We started the day early with a trip out to the volcanic lake. For 100 quetzales each, we hired a boat just for ourselves, which took us around to two small villages along the lake. It was a perfect morning—clear skies and no wind. First, we sailed over to Santa Catarina, where we hopped off right by a school that was having gym class. The kids were playing soccer, but the goal was positioned a bit awkwardly, facing the lake, so they kept kicking the ball into the water. On one side of the lake, there are underground hot springs, so the water was absolutely wonderfully warm. We also stopped at San Antonio, where we got to see some women weaving. They claimed they made EVERYTHING themselves, but it’s a bit hard to believe. Others say that some of the items are factory-made... Finally, we sailed out to the middle of the lake, where we could enjoy the view of the volcanoes and the tranquility. It was perfect. It was still early in the morning, but it was already quite warm. Later that day, we realized just how strong the sun had been, as we ended up getting pretty red. At noon, we had to catch a bus to Antigua, so we just had enough time to grab breakfast before leaving. We walked down to a little café where we had sandwiches and banana pancakes. We shared the bus with a mother and daughter from Chile, a lady from England, and a couple of guys from the USA, so we got to practice our Spanish since the girl from Chile was keen on correcting our grammatical mistakes :) Once we arrived in Antigua, we found a cheap hostel, Dia Verde, which cost 40 quetzales per person. Antigua is known for its volcanoes, one of which is active and always has a bit of an eruption going on. We’re really looking forward to seeing that. I had completely run out of cash, and Honny barely had any left either, so it was important for us to get some. We headed down to the area with the banks. There were long lines outside all of them. Everyone was short on cash, both locals and tourists. It’s no joke when they say that every time you come across a working ATM, you should withdraw money. Sometimes it’s just impossible to get cash here, and today was one of those days. We had to go to several banks before we found an ATM that worked. Honny’s VISA card didn’t work, which was strange. Luckily, I could use mine, so we withdrew three times to be on the safe side. In several places, you can only withdraw a maximum of 1000 quetzales at a time, and we ended up getting 2500 quetzales total. Like most places in Guatemala, you have to be cautious in the evenings. We were lucky because there were some nice and cozy restaurants right near our hostel. It can be hard to explain what the dishes consist of down here, so sometimes we take photos of our food. A picture says more than a thousand words, right? :) Anyway, we ended up paying about 180 quetzales for two large main courses, strawberry daiquiris, yum, water, and beer.