San Pedro is on the opposite side of the island and I decided to take a day excursion over there to visit my see what all the hype was about. While there are many small cities on the island, Santiago is actually suppose to be the most beautiful, but I only had time for one. After 30 minutes we arrived and hopped over the boat and things immediately felt different. Where were the smiles and friendly people? Men were giving weird stares, which have not been occurring much thus far. There was a higher number of homeless people on the streets drinking and smoking. It was not my cup of tea at all and I came over looking for a nice hike. I asked directions to a local and they guided me in the wrong direction. I went to the market and that was not appealing either.
It was time for me to just do what I do best. Go to a nice spot on the water, eat some good food, and write. I did just that and met some nice tourists in the process. My Greek salad was huge and taste amazing. It was raining, but the sun came out on different occasions. It was clear to me the more I spent time there that I was meant to be in Panjachel. I originally had an opportunity in San Pedro, but I went with my instinct and canceled it deciding on Pana-what a great decision on my part.
Some people just love San Pedro and those are the hippy kinds who I don't have much in common with other than being a traveler. It's just different strokes for different folks I guess, which is completely fine. The hotel informed me the last boat was at 4 so I ran down there to catch the last boat. I met a nice tourist from Mexico who was traveling through Central America alone at 18-brave girl. She lead me to the dock and I ran over saying, "Pana, Pana." I looked like a hysterical mess as I hopped on the boat and securely sat down next to the 5 female tourists. A very unclean tourist wearing dirty socks, shoes, and a shirt with a hole in it. She commented on Pana when a girl asked about it saying, "Don't bother it's a waste of time." I took such offense to this comment about my beautiful Pana and I so badly wanted to say, "You're a waste of time." But I kept my mouth closed, which is a good idea for many situations I encounter with annoying tourists saying stupid things. Panajachel is so much better than San Pedro, but whatever floats her boat. I just hope her boat has soap on it ha!
Something about this city created some PTSD with my bad Moroccan experiences where I started experiencing flash backs of the negativity. People were hollering and looked like they were getting into trouble. It just looked suspicious and made me feel uncomfortable. I knew that I just had to get out of there and away from this atmosphere. Unfortunately, I'm just not in the place to experience all kinds of problems with people in the community-I don't have the strength or patience for it after Morocco.
Writing Destination
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