William arranged for a “tuk tuk” to take me around San Juan! A “bahajh” as he called it. The driver – Gabriel – could not have finished high school. I asked him which grade he is in. He said he is 19 years old. I told him I don’t buy a word of it. So, he showed me his license. This April 1st is his 20th birthday!!

Also, found out what this “bahajh” is all about. It is a Bajaj auto rickshaw from India! The town is filled with bright red Bajaj auto rickshaws all over. Later, I found out that many of the motorbikes here are Bajaj Pulsars. In fact, William told me how Mahindra and Mahindra has started taking market share away from Toyota in truck segment.

Indian automobile industry seems to be doing very well here.

There were a few places where I saw green pine leaves strewn on the streets. I asked William about it. And I learnt that it is a local culture to say “Welcome!” No wonder I saw them right as we stepped off the jetty and also in front of the church!

You can see Volcan San Pedro and Volcan Atitlan

Instead of sitting by the lake, we decided to get in the lake. In fact, the ever resourceful William called his friend over to take us to San Juan. It would have taken us over two hours by road. We just cut across the water in 25 minutes. A distance of about 15 km. I am told the towns around Lake Atitlan are all named after the 12 Apostles. Our target is San Juan.

We had the boat all to ourselves!!

The water is clean and blue. You can see Volcan San Pedro in front with the clouds on the top. On the left side is part of Volcan Atitlan.

Will be by the lake soon!

Stretched our legs. The lake is on the left top corner but we cannot see it due to the clouds. From now on, we will just keep going down till we reach the lake. We can see a cabbage farm right below us.