Weaving Mayan textiles, enjoying local cuisine, and embracing spontaneous travel changes
Today was lovely!
Morning
We had our free breakfast at our hotel and then went to a Mayan textile workshop to weave our own scarf!
The place we went is called TinteMaya in San Juan La Laguna, it was 300 Quetzals for the workshop, and we got to keep the scarf we made!
It was an incredibly intricate process, I’m not even sure I can explain it. The women there were all such good teachers, showing us how to use the tools even with very little English. There were 3 generations teaching us— a 14-year-old who sat on the floor with Robin and played toy cars and stuffed animals, a couple of women, and an abuela named Juana who asked to hold Robin and said, “Okay, she’s my baby now” 😉
Not only did we get to tag-team on weaving our scarf, but I really enjoyed just being in these women’s space and hearing them speak a mixture of Spanish and a native Mayan language, sharing guacamole snacks, and coffee, and laughing over Robin’s goofiness.
Afternoon
After our workshop, we got lunch and headed back to the hotel for Robin’s nap. It works out pretty well to have a midday siesta because the town definitely seems to slow down during that time as well.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the grass, reading, and watching some kids play. We went to El Gato Perdido Deli and had pizza and pasta (did I mention how much Italian food there is here?) It was SO good!
We had originally planned to go down to El Peredon on this trip but we actually canceled that because it would be such a long trek to get down to the ocean from here. We want to spend more time on the lake, and now we’re going to spend one more day in Antigua and get to see it on Palm Sunday. I am so excited!
Our Air Bnb in El Peredon had a deadline to cancel for free, so we did that just in the nick of time. That’s one of my favorite parts of travel—being spontaneous and discovering the unexpectedly wonderful places.
Follow along for updates on our entire trip to Guatemala with our 11-month-old daughter!
If you’re like me and you read travel blogs wondering, “Should I use this itinerary?” – because how do you know if the blogger would do it the same way a second time? I’ll just say, I highly recommend this route! Our original plan included some beach time down on the Pacific Coast, but you’ll see we changed our plans mid-trip. I’m so glad we did!
