Day 65 – Monterrico, GU to Santiago de Atitlan, GU

Day 65 – Monterrico, GU to Santiago de Atitlan, GU     10/25/10     Mileage: 113

The hotel cocina was buttoned up tight as we seemed to be the only guests…so we made the morning coffee on my backpacking stove and snacked on some tortillas I’ve been carrying. So after our “home cooked” breakfast, we set out for Santiago on the southern shore of Lake Atitlan. The condition of the roads deteriorated once we started up into the mountains, but that was inevitable.

Back on the dirt...

On the road to Santiago de Atitlan, we bottomed the bike on some nasty speed bumps...this wasn't one of them though.

Along the road to Santiago de Atitlan...

 We bottomed out the rear suspension a few times over some large speed bumps…even though I was going dead slow. The skid plate took some hits as did the center stand and lower rear suspension linkage, but it seems OK.

Looks like we're going to get wet...and we did. Fortunately it didn't last long.

We pulled into Santiago de Atitlan mid afternoon and tracked down lunch at the Hotel Bamboo which has a fantastic setting right on Lake Atitlan looking across the water at downtown Santiago.

Lunch at the Hotel Bamboo

Looking across the lake at downtown Santiago from the patio of the Hotel Bamboo...

Tracy had seen this place online as well and we decided to stay the night there. The room was $65 including breakfast…steep by Guatemala standards, but worth every penny.

The view from the landing in front of our room...not too shaby at all!

After lunch we took a manic tuk-tuk ride into town, walked around a bit, had a coffee and did some shopping.

Here's our tuk-tuk taxi...heading for downtown Santiago...

Tracy and the tuk-tuk...

Tracy on the hunt...