The Most Amazing Town on Lake Atitlan - SAN PEDRO, GUATEMALA!!
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2022
- Read all about my adventures in the travel memoir "Beers, Tears & Broken Veneers" available to buy right here on Amazon: geni.us/vwD0
SAN PEDRO is a sleepy little town on the South Western shores of LAKE ATITLAN. Many BACKPACKERS and TRAVELERS alike flock to this town for the cheap BOOZE and NIGHTLIFE. Ask anyone in GUATEMALA about San Pedro and they all say the same thing "its nothing but a party town". But is this really true, I travelled across the lake to find out.
After visiting PANAJACHEL, SAN LUCAS and SANTIAGO on Lake Atitlan it was time for me to find a town to chill out and do some editing. I really like Santiago but I found that the prices were just a little to high for me, my GUESTHOUSE for example was really nice but I was paying $12 per night. Doesn't seem like much but when you multiply that by 30 days the price goes up. I spoke to a few of my fellow travellers and they all told me that San Pedro, which was a 15 minute BOAT journey away, had the cheapest prices. But it also had a reputation as a party town. I'm no square, back in the day I partied with the best of them (I even owned a bar in PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA), but now that I'm a little older I party a lot less and just wanted to chill out.
I decided to take the chance and investigate San Pedro for myself. What I didn't know was San Pedro had two docks, a western dock and an eastern dock. The western dock is where all the bars and partying is done, one big tourist trap. The eastern dock is connected to the part of the town where the local Guatemalan's live and there are less tourists. By sheer luck the boat going from Santiago to San Pedro docked in the eastern part of the town, I had hit gold, I was away from the TOURIST TRAP.
In typical fashion I didn't book a HOSTEL, HOTEL or GUESTHOUSE. I always find that if you just turn upto a place you will get the best deal. After getting off the boat I immediately tackled the big hill that lead towards the town, it was a beast, especially carrying two bags. I got about halfway up and seen an alleyway with a bunch of signs advertising hostels. I looked around and found a place called SAN FRANCISCO. A lady showed me upstairs to a room on the top floor which had a balcony with an epic view of the LAKE. The price for this accommodation was only $8 per night, or there was a weekly rate which worked out at $6 per night. I stayed one night and loved it: free drinking water, the use of the kitchen and washroom and of course the view which was just epic. I had found my cheap accommodation for a month of editing.
As for the town eastern part of the town, well just look at the video, it is amazing. Very cultural, less tourists and lots of street art. I just loved it. I even had a walk round to the western part of San Pedro and its like a different town. BARS and RESTAURANTS everywhere, tuk tuk drivers looking for business and hundreds of tourists. After three minutes in this part of San Pedro it reminded me why I was better off in the eastern part of town.
Bottom line, San Pedro is a town of two halves. If you want to party and be surrounded by other TOURISTS and backpackers go to the western part of the town. But if you want peace and quiet go to the eastern part of town. Its rich in culture, very peaceful and very cheap.
#guatemala #backpacking #sanpedro
Thank you for the tour. my daughter lived there for almost 10yrs
Thank you for watching, yes, its an amazing location, I was only there for two months and then had to move on, but I could see me living there for an extended period of time. 🙂
Damn, I'm so jealous that you were able to explore the vibrant streets of Guatemala! It really is such a wonderful place with so many natural landscapes to explore! Great adventures as always!
thanks for watching, yea Guatemala totally blew my expectations out of the water. Such a beautiful place, and friendly people. :-)
The quality and quantity of the street art just blows my mind.
I know, its splendid. If I'm being honest I've never been that much into street art, but after Guatemala I'm starting to appreciate the street art. Thanks for watching and commenting. 🙂
Another great video and exciting location! All of that street art was beautiful! Good thing you went searching for that house, you found amazing views instead!
yea, I usually find you get the best offers when you just roll up and find a place in person. Easier to negotiate and check out the views in person. I stayed there for a month and loved the location. Thanks for watching. 🙂
I am a fellow Scot living in San Pedro. Shame i didnt get to meet you and give you a proper tour. Maybe next time
Yes, always nice to stop and speak with a fellow Scot, which part of Scotland are you from?
That place looks amazing, must be fun to travel and visit location like that. A awesome video👍
Thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed. I highly reccomend this location for adventure lovers. 🙂
Great tour of San Pedro.
thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Yep, its an awesome place, been away for 1 month and already I miss it. :-)
Great video off the beaten track. Really looks like you made the most of your time in Guatemala 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Yea, it was a great adventure, really glad I came here. Feels like there was more to see, there's just never enough time is there.🤣🤣
I liked your adventure vibe 😊
Great views and bargain hotel stay!
I know, it was the deal of the century. We also got free drinking water and the use of the kitchen which saved even more money. Thanks for watching. 🙂
One amazing video. Phenomenal documentary about this town. You did an excellent job on gathering all these details. Thank you for sharing all this great info. for my future trip to San Pedro. Don't forget to try the falafels. They are delicious in San Pedro La Laguna.
Thanks for watching. San Pedro is a phenomenal location, really blew my expectations out of the water. I hope you enjoy your trip.🥰🥰
The "indoor" market is not full when it's not market day. Saturday is market day, when the streets are basically closed and filled with vendors. I lived there for a few years and during the pandemic.
I literally lived there for six weeks and the market looked like this pretty much everyday. Yes, there were more vendors on the street during the weekend, but inside the actual market many of the stalls remained empty as is depicted in my video. Not sure how it looks now, but that's how it looked two years ago. Great little village and I enjoyed my time there. :-)
@@highlanderabroad884 I lived there for six and a half years up until last year. Were you there at the end of the pandemic, say 2021? It looked like that when everything started opening up again as it was a bit of a trickle effect. Last year it was active. Packed on Saturdays.
Great video BTW.👍
Nice film indeed cheers mate! Guatemala Rocks!
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I loved Guatemala and hope I can return. Are you still there?
The wall art is awesome!
I know, so much great art to stop and enjoy, I was in my element. Thanks for watching.😊
beautiful tour ! but a little to fast changing images . just add a couples seconds , so we can appreciate more of the beauty of it all . Thank you , anyway for this tour !😉😊
thank you for watching and I appreciate your feedback. I'll try and slow down my machine-gun editing. 🙂
Thank You !
@@highlanderabroad884 Your machine- gun , lol ! Ha Ha Ha .
Nice to see another side of San Pedro from what we saw. We weren't too fond of what we saw unfortunately, but maybe we should have ventured out of the main area more! Great video!!
Thanks for watching. 🙂Yea, I get you. Believe me if I had arrived at the western port instead and seen the tourist trap I only would have stayed one day. I got lucky with my arrival point and loved it. How long did you stay in San Pedro?
@@highlanderabroad884 we actually only stayed in San Juan and were there for a week, but we spent about a solid 2 hours in San Pedro lol. Next time we come back we will explore more!
@@SirKonradits amazing how one persons poison is another persons pleasure. But to each their own. I am back in Antigua now and thinking about all the missed opportunities on Lake Atitlan, things I should have done. But there's just never enough time unless you actually live in the country. But I must say that I am extremely satisfied with everything that I have seen. 🙂
I would've taken the tuktu up the viewpoint and take a walk in the way back to the town ,thst was impressive and brutal hike 😂
yeah, it was a difficult walk, but once I get in the zone I can pretty much walk any hill. Have you travelled in this area?
@highlanderabroad884 not yet ,I am planning my winner trip to guatamala so lake atitlan towns on my list ,I typed san pedro and your vlog was the first to to watch 😅
Looks like such a cool little town. The only drawback from my point of view is party idiots they tend to ruin places. So if I was to visit I would make sure I just avoided the locations they hang.
Yea, I'm not too fond of "begpackers" or hippies. the area I stayed in was not visited by tourists that often so I basically had the area all to myself. I did give the western people dirty looks if they ventured over to my area. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. 🙂
@@highlanderabroad884 There are currently a few bum-packer/ Neo-hippy channels inside Thailand teaching others how to sponge off the locals and just being a pest wherever they go they tend to attract the worst in foreigners much like the sex tourist channels promoting prostitution. As far as dirty looks go it is most often the tourist/expats who have a never ending scowl on the faces. They often look miserable and I often wonder why are they here. I live in a small seaside village that up until a few years ago saw very few foreigners now showing up because of these Lets Be A Foreign Pest channels. I was not pleased to encounter the Bum-Packer channel in my small town. They seem to go out of their way to break about every local custom in the book and piss off the locals. Thankfully most foreigners consider my town boring and quickly leave. Zero English spoken or written here so if you don,t speak Thai you end eating chips, beer, and hotdogs out of 7-11.
People who live here do not say east dock / west dock .... it is Pana Dock / or Santiago Dock ... I've been here 7 yrs and no idea where is east or west ... I know where the lake is .. and how to get where I need to go // no need a compass !
Ha ha, thanks for watching and the info. I had no idea that these were the names, and very accurate names as well.🥰🥰
Mantap Kak.....Nice My Friend.....Mantap Kak.....Mantap Kak.....❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
thanks you for watching, glad you enjoyed it. :-)
I am a fellow Scot living in San Pedro. Shame i didnt get to meet you and give you a proper tour. Maybe next time
thanks for watching, Simon, how long have you lived in Guatemala. I actually leave here today, making a long trip to Greece for a wedding. You have certainly picked a wonderful place to live in the world. 🙂
@@highlanderabroad884 Been here for 20 years and am actually on the tourism committee here. Your video has given us a useful insight into peoples perception of the town. Glad you enjoyed Guatemala and if you ever make it back look me up. There is a whole lot more to San Pedro which i would love to show you. Enjoy the wedding