Recharging on the restaurant circuit

Forty-eight hours on the road will do it to you. Well I lie. There was a window of six hours in a cheap hotel in San Salvador, but the other 42 were spent on the bus, five tedious border crossings to keep us occupied. This is the cheapest way you'll get from Panama to Guatemala and, as seasoned bus travellers now, we thought we'd brave it. But after a two-day supply of Burger King, fried chicken and little sleep, we needed food, we needed rest, and we needed them pronto! And I must say we certainly went out of our way to address these needs and amply did so, this post almost entirely dedicated to our week of culinary outings in Antigua and Lake Atitlan. As I maintain, sometimes you need a little splurge, a holiday from the holiday.

Once in Guatemala City we immediately sought out one of the infamous 'chicken buses' in order to get to the once capital, Antigua, another colonial city. These things are absolutely priceless, enough to earn themselves their own post (in progress). After a good hour of stopping and starting, in between some major seat clinging, we reached what at the time was heaven on earth for a worn out traveller. It came to us in the form of the 'Casa Amarilla', a hostel complete with private room, cable TV, wifi and, best of all, a daily breakfast spread of eggs, porridge, pancakes, fruit, beans, potatoes and bread. In the hostel world, anything more than bread and jam is unprecedented so this we welcomed with open arms. And thus begun our week of recharge and restaurants. In between indulging in some telemovies (something we rarely do), we examined the guidebook and planned our time around the local eateries.

Antigua

First up was the 'Rainbow Cafe'. My review? Well the chicken fajitas and the Israeli falafel out did the adjoining bookshop where, among the ancient book collection we surprisingly managed to find a handy and very comprehensive Spanish verb book. It was nice to eat some hummus that sort of resembled the real thing and we ended up going for a second time that night, I having been lured by the Greek chicken fillet. The stuffing was good - bacon, raisons, spinach and feta cheese - but the chicken was dry and its breaded exterior extra soggy, presumably because it was covered in the rich cream sauce I'd asked to have on the side. Guess they didn't hear me. Further to our disappointment was at about 10:35pm when our sweet toothes kicked in and we asked the waitress if we could have the signature Banoffee pie to go. Apparently this was completely out of the question as the kitchen had closed...five minutes before. Talk about flexibility!

We soon discovered Rainbow has some stiff competition on the cafe circuit. There's 'Cafe 2000', which was the unfortunate location where we bore witness to Australia being slaughtered 4-0 by Germany in the World Cup. We didn't let this impact on our lunch orders however, my simple Greek salad and Bec's tastey hamburger, but at goal number four we did sneak out anonymously. 'Cafe Sky' was next on our list, its main draw card being proximity to and view of one of Antigua's surrounding volcanoes. We enjoyed our hearty vegetable soup and garlic bread much more than the volcano itself, which was for the most part completely covered by clouds. Next stop was 'Cafe Rocio', our tastebuds were craving something oriental and one guide book had described this place as 'a palace of Asian food delight' - honestly, I sometimes wonder who writes these things. This cafe is more a humble family kitchen than an Asian palace, but the meals were healthy and hearty and although the tandoori chicken was instead cooked in sweet chilli sauce (?), the rice paper spring rolls were so big and scrumptious that we had no room for the famed 'mora crisp' (hot blackberry sauce sandwiched in vanilla icecream). Now there's an excuse to return to Antigua.

The view from Cafe Sky got a little better as we left

Although our Antigua days were relatively lazy and really did centre around what our next meal would be, we did a fair bit of wandering and enjoyed our colonial surrounds. We wandered around and took in the many ruin sites that line the streets. We looked at the main plaza and stumbled across a communal outdoor laundry. We had two Canadian guys ask us to star in their travel video, where one dressed up as a heckling Guatemalan in a horse and cart while the other filmed. Later they paid to race two chicken buses with one of them behind the wheel - just shows you can do almost anything in this country. One big but unavoidable disappointment was that we couldn't climb the Pacaya volcano, which erupted, killing people a couple of weeks before we arrived. In safer times tourists are able to hike up and wander amongst the flowing lava, toasting marshmallows over the heat. Understandably, it's one of the most popular tourist attractions in Guatemala and I'm sure the tourist industry is feeling the loss. While a few tourist agencies were offering trips to surrounding farmlands that had been destroyed by the still present lava, most weren't offering tours at all and when we heard that the government had issued it a no-go-zone, it was sadly scraped from our itinerary.

 Communal washing in the Plaza and Old Church ruins in the middle of town

While our four days of rejuvenation were wonderful, our time was limited and we had to keep moving. So after three chicken bus changeovers in three hours, we reached Lake Atitlan where our activity levels rose somewhat, along with our frequenting of restaurants. Perhaps it was beginner frustration at chicken bus travel, or maybe we were just plain tired, but once in Panajachel, a 'gringo magnet' and also the central point for transport to the lake's villages, we decided to make it our base for a few days. In that time, we successfully exhausted the town's popular restaurants and cafes: the 'Deli Ilama', simple but with good food; 'El Patio', flavoursome steaks and complimentary bread which we saved for the stray dog population linging the streets outside; and ‘Bombay Café’, which served up some great Asian cuisine but where we were cornered by an American woman on an ‘I hate Mexico’ rant (our next destination). We were eventually set free when the proprietor told her that she was the worst customer he’d ever had, at which she stormed out and we were finally able to stroll the 100 metres back to our hostel which we’d been longing to stroll for the past hour.

At this stage, it was time to take our exploring beyond the shores of Panajachel. Our first outing, a trip to the large Thursday markets at Chichicastenango (known to all as ChiChi) which, to be honest, we were a little under whelmed by. For starters, I think we’re a little marketed out after six months in South America and, secondly, all the products were the same! Bags, scarves, t-shirts, muumuus – same stuff, different place. But if you’re one for pure people watching, this is a good place to do it. We enjoyed a spot of it while lunching on the balcony of a café, overlooking the plaza before heading back to Panajachel and bringing the chicken bus changeover tally to six that day.

The usual, at ChiChi markets

The following day would see our next expedition, exploring the Lake district. Over the next few days we’d also get more of an insight into how badly Lake Atitlan was affected by Tropical Storm Agatha a few weeks before. On a couple of morning runs we’d seen the path of destruction Agatha left in Panajachel - collapsed bridges, landslides, sunken buildings. This time, we saw what it’d done to the actual lake, as our shuttle boat weaved in and out of floating debris to get to the village of San Pedro where we stayed the night.

 Agatha's path

And we couldn’t help ourselves in San Pedro, the temptation was too great: two more fabulous eateries, both recommended by a fellow traveller. The first was ‘Café Puerta’, hidden away down by a peaceful lakeside inlet, framed by multicoloured curtains, the garden sporting funky teacup sculptures and mosaics which we later discovered were a creation of the café’s ex-pat owner/talented artist, Blake. Sometimes when Bec and I come across a really good restaurant we opt to share our food so that neither of us misses out on a good dish. This was one of those places. Here we shared a juicy spice-filled hamburger with all the timings, perfected by the café’s homemade seeded bread. Our other dish was an amazing Greek salad whose fresh farmers cheese teamed the taste of feta with a goat’s cheese consistency. It was to die for! After being in South America, I’ve come to seriously appreciate good cheese.

Enjoying the fruits of 'Cafe Puerta'

After an Italian cappuccino at ‘Fata Morgana’ – yet another coup in the middle of Guatemala - dinnertime was upon us so we negotiated the maze of San Pedro's cobblestone lane ways to arrive at ‘Ventana Azul’, the nighttime venture of Café Puerta’s Blake and his partner, Santos. And let me say, they’ve really hit the spot with this cosy little place which was full when we arrived. Its vibrant red exterior couples nicely with an electric blue interior and is only made more romantic with candle light and also that coming from Blake’s trendy Guatemalan themed mosaic lamps, one of which Bec bought at the end of the night. The food? Well we had a big choice ahead of us, with plenty of Latin/Asian themed dishes on the menu. In the end I opted for the Pad Thai and Bec for an Indian curry – both good choices. Team this with a few Caipirinhas and a bottle of white and we were set. Blake even convinced us into ordering the dessert special of the day (it didn’t take much), a piece of chocolate cake topped with fresh cream to bring to an end our week of indulgences. How appropriate!