Feb 17 – Our plan was to take the lancha across the lake from San Pedro to Panajachel, then hop on a bus for the nine hour drive to Cobán. Unfortunately, the Guatemalan equivalent of Montezuma’s Revenge caught up with us, so we are spending a few extra days in Panajachel while Jim recovers, eating a bland diet of white rice and boiled potatoes, before attempting the long road trip north.

Here’s the local supermarket, where we stocked up on rice and potatoes. Don’t know what the occasion was, but there was a barker, plenty of loud music, and a dancing mascot.

As you definitely don’t want the details of our recuperation, I’ll share that we completed all our souvenir shopping by strolling Calle Santander and bargaining hard for presents for the grandkids. (Historically, they are underwhelmed by whatever we bring home.) I saw a lovely scarf, and was proud of getting the price down from 60 quetzales to 33, until we walked to the next shop where the same scarf was displayed for 25. I’m embarrassed to report that later in the afternoon, we saw it for 10! I am a very bad haggler.

Eliese and Janice – look at this lovely quilt:

Our other plan was to take all the goodies we purchased to the post office and ship them home so we wouldn’t have to lug them around for the next several weeks. Guess what? Guatemala hasn’t had a postal service in three years! Any service, anywhere in the entire country, since 2016! From what we can gather, the private company contract for the country’s mail services ended in 2016, and the government declined to renew or renegotiate it. So, no mail within or out of the country, period.

Ever resourceful, we googled other options and found a DHL Express office in town. The cost to ship home our paltry little box of cheap souvenirs would be over $120 US! A fellow blogger related his solution when faced with this issue – he took a bus to El Salvador, stayed overnight at a hotel, shipped his box from there and then bused back to Guatemala, saving considerable money over what the DHL charges would have been. Bravo for his resourcefulness, but I think we’re just going to lug our trinkets around. Our grandkids better appreciate them!