Tucked between three volcanoes and enjoying front row seats to Lake Atitlan, San Pedro La Laguna is a small town with a fiesty vibe. It certainly packs a punch well above its size, and throngs of gringos storm through for the live music party times and of course to trek through the wilderness which photos really don’t do justice. San Pedro is about a four hour bus ride from Guatemala City, although I discovered on my way here that some bus drivers flip the bird to the physical dimensions of time and space and take their sweet time. I enjoyed the seven hour bus ride here because it really is so pretty, and also because the driver was so obviously ripped that it was funny. At one point he jumped out of the bus without saying a word, and left the motor running. Twenty minutes later the bus full of gringos, all accustomed to the relative precision of modern society, got worried and a few scouts went to look for him. He was located in a nearby restaurant, balls deep in a plate of chicken tortillas. Who could begrudge him that? Actually it’s nice to know that life doesn’t stop here just because a bus full of tourists want to arrive somewhere. And check the place out...so worth the extended bus drive
I didn't take that photo by the way. Naughty. No but really it's hard to get a quality photo capturing all the beauty here. Even that photo above is a poor rendition.
The reason I’m travelling direct to an obscure wrinkle on the map of Guatemala is because an old friend just opened a café here with two of his travelling buddies. They called the café The Fifth Dimension which excites me no end. I know I know, I ranted on about unicorn glitter fart hippie jargon, didn’t I? Don’t read this paragraph then. The reason I’m excited though is because they have asked me to paint the café, and with a title as lofty as The Fifth Dimension my art can get as visionary as it wants to. I can channel extra-terrestrial, rainbow unicorn fairy dolphin farts and Mayan energy all at once into that artwork. The canvas is huge – a whole café. This is enough to make an artist weak at the knees with gratitude. I’m sorry, you wanted me to paint your whole café and I can paint whatever I want and you’ve called your café The Fifth Dimension??? Shut up, that’s just too good! Behold the Mayan-inspired signage I sketched up a few days ago in this flyer
My price to paint the café is for these hombres to feed me and put a roof over my head. Bartering is awesome. It means that money doesn’t get in the way of people remembering that they’re doing something because they love doing it. Here we are people, I’m making it public. If you would like me to paint something for you, feed me and give me somewhere to sleep. If I need to be where you are to do the painting direct onto the wall, find a way to get me there too. And not first class, please. I don’t wanna sit in a cabin full of chums who think they deserve more than everyone else.
The beginnings of one panel for the cafe. Oh yesssss I'm painting Quetzalcoatl...
I’ve been helping out in the kitchen at The Fifth Dimension too, because even though the powerhouse trio comprised of Bryan, Oak and Michael only opened the time portal one week ago they are getting BUSY. This is probably because they have awesome things on the menu like lines of spirulina. Yep, the terrible trio were snorting spirulina and getting customers into it too. Diabolical. It happens all at once too. In my first night of working in the café over 100 people poured into the beer garden, a massive acoustic jam cranked up replete with African drumming and dog fights, a local passed out in the garden, a guy got out his fire poi and twirled, customers drank the bar dry and this went on and on until closing time when we had to physically push people out into the street. There were some sore looking heads walking around town the following morning, although people are still talking about that night and it’s been getting busier since. Here is a photo someone hastily snapped of the merriment before scuttling back to the kitchen to serve the punters
Cafes in Guatemala are very different to those in Australia, because this is a ‘developing country’. Therefore water is only pumped to the café once every two days and we need to be careful with every drop when we do the dishes. Food here is seasonal and grown organically. If it’s not growing in the ground here it’s hard to source and will cost a lot of money. As a result, every item of food on the menu at The Fifth Dimension is handmade including the English muffins, the juice, the pizza dough, the sauces, all of it. The coffee is grown and roasted two streets away. Local farmers drop by every day with their freshly picked herbs. How much more love is in the food when every aspect of growth, delivery and preparation has had human involvement rather than machines? If the taste is anything to go by then I’m saying there’s no comparison to mass-produced processed food. All this food is hand picked at the vegie markets in town, and because we are on the edge of the lake and surrounded by mountains that means you gotta walk up, up, up – tomatoes, limes, avocadoes, papaya and bananas are in ready supply if your legs can get you there. It’s jolly good exercise and on the way down I like to reward myself with a chocobanana – ye olde frozen banana impaled on a splinter of wood then dipped in chocolate is officially my favourite icecream of all time.
This is not a chocobanana. This is Michael and Bryan doofing on the couch at the rear of The Fifth Dimension...
Did I mention that there are no cars in San Pedro? The cobbled streets are too narrow. Some of the streets can fit a tuk-tuk but there really aren’t that many. So the first thing I noticed when I walked through the hood was that I could hear my own footsteps and the air tasted good everywhere. Other huge things I notice about Guatemala include their acceptance of animals in restaurants and shops (I love it!) and again, because this is a ‘developing’ country their sewerage system is not very water guzzling and therefore toilet paper can’t be thrown in the toilet – it is placed in a bin beside the toilet. This is the same as South America and probably other places too. It takes a bit of getting used to. I think rubbish is burned here rather than dumped in a hole in the ground, although I can’t confirm that yet. One thing’s for certain though – people don’t create much rubbish here.
My first few days in Guatemala have been full of laughs yet fairly low on the sleep factor. I get a bit manic when I’m jetlagged and it makes everything funny and silly and then I don’t want sleep anyway. Last night I hit the wall and passed out hard, thank goodness. I was starting to speak in jabberwocky tongues
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