On our way to Santiago for X-rays

So my leg is all healed up, skin stitching together and swelling almost eliminated except - something is wrong. There is still some glass in there, a souveneir so to speak.

So we went back to the health center, and visited the nice people there. To check this out, we were sent to Santiago to get a radiografia, which I am pretty sure are X-rays. I was a little doubtful that glass would show up, but google approves, so we are on our way today.

First we took a motorcycle taxi to the San Pablo docks, which cost 20 quetzales. This is a minor local dock frequented by fisherman and local routed between the towns around the lake.

After chatting with the locals our boat arrived and we were off to San Pedro. Cost: 30 quetzales.

The boat ride culture around the lake is really interesting. According to all my sociological surveys, its really gotten built up around the lake over the last decade - so there is constant traffic floating around the edges of the deepest lake in Central America: Atitlán.

After a brief stop in San Juan, we got off in San Pedro and grabbed another motorcycle taxi across town to the Santiago docks. This cost another 20 quetzales but it was worth it because San Pedro seemed like a total maze.

At San Pedro's Santiago Dock, we found the right boat and paid the total tourist price of 50 quetzales to get a spot for Santiago, there are no time slots, but the boats leave every time there is 15 or more people ready to go. Suffice it to say, its a lot easier in the morning, and we waited less than 10 minutes.

Riding in a boat across the water, together with the locals, who I can only assume are going to work or at least going about their daily business, I contemplated the fact that we are, indeed, on vacation. It hasnt been very present in my mind lately, but today, today I felt it.

After arriving in Santiago, at about 7:35am, we felt like it was finally time to stop for a coffee, and we grabbed a nice "tradicional" guatemalan breakfast at a place called Don Cangrejo.

I like that the breakfast almost always includes beans and tortillas, and in this case a necessary coffee.

From here we took another 20 quetzal motorcycle taxi across town, but this time our driver was a local tour guide. He had us hooked from the start talking about the history of his pueblo and his people; we got his number and (if everything goes well) we will likely call him after my surgery to learn more about the history of Santiago de Atitlán, the oldest, largest and most historical town on this lake.

Its been quite the adventure already, and it seems we have arrived an hour before the local surgeon - so we have some time to relax and enjoy the wait.

After all - this is vacation!

Freedom and Friendship