La Iguana Perdida

My usual posts take the form of a photo first and then a story, but this post will be a little bit different since it covers such a long amount of time and the photos I have from it are a bit sporadic. I wanted to write about my experience first, and then dump a lot of the photos I have from the time, sharing a lot of the faces of my friends and showing what life was like. Very few of these photos are from my DSLR, so the quality of the photos may not be great, but they are very sentimental to me :).

Arrival and First Night

I arrived at the lake on a foggy Saturday. My feelings of nervousness and excitement were stronger than ever as I approached the hostel, not knowing what to expect. I slowly descended the extremely steep and rocky road into Santa Cruz with low visibility, not even able to see the lake. I had heard from many friends that the views from this lake are spectacular, one of the most beautiful lakes they had ever seen. For now, I would have to wait to see.

After passing through the town and arriving at the lake shore near the dock, I saw the sign for La Iguana Perdida. The excitement slowly took over the anxious nerves. I walked into the gate and was overwhelmed with energy. The property was gorgeous and was full of travelers. The BBQ outside was burning and I saw some people dressed in wild costumes.

I went into the restaurant which was also reception and looked around a bit lost for a second until I spotted a girl in the back who looked to be in charge. I introduced myself as the new volunteer; she was Jess, one of the hostel managers. Instantly she smiled and welcomed me with warmth and excitement.

She walked me around the hostel while I was in awe. The walkways were beautifully lush. Full of flowers and massive plants, with cute little cabins and dorms tucked in between. She pointed out all the dorms and rooms, names I quickly forgot. There was a sauna, a yoga studio, and a lot of lovely communal areas. After the tour, she took me to one of the volunteer dorms where I would be living. A large room with four beds in it. In there I met Dulcie and Bo who would be my roommates. There was another bed for another new volunteer who would be arriving later that night. Dulcie was from the UK and Bo was from Belgium. They immediately welcomed me and gave me all the gossip about the other volunteers and life here.

They informed me that tonight was the BBQ / Costume party. A weekly tradition at this hostel that has been going on for years. There would be amazing food and everyone would dress up in wild costumes. After cleaning up they took me to get a costume and then to the family dinner.

The dinner was absolutely incredible. A BBQ chicken thigh and loads of sides. Fried potatoes, basil pasta, lentils, salad, vegetables, rice salad, and butter toast. As a volunteer, all the meals are free. It was buffet style too so you bet I had multiple servings to satisfy my cyclist hunger. The dinners are always a family-style buffet, where everybody eats at the same time. During the dinner, I got to meet more and more of the volunteers. There were around 10 total volunteers and four managers.

Shortly after the dinner, the volunteers turned on some party lights and built a runway out of the tables. There would be a catwalk for whoever wanted to partake in it. A lot of the costumes were old dresses so there were a lot of guys dressed up like girls. A few brave souls walked the catwalk while the audience cheered them on. The winner was a local guy, Mynor, who wore a dress and seductively poured water on himself, much to the crowd’s enjoyment.

I spent some time drinking and getting to know the other volunteers. I even got to meet the wonderful owners of the hostel that night, Dave & Deedle. Deedle was from the UK and bought the property back in 1995 and created La Iguana Perdida. Dave, from Bend, Oregon, came to the hostel as a guest a bit later and one thing led to another and now they run it together. They are the loveliest people and have created a wonderful place where many people like myself have created lifelong friendships and memories.

Being exhausted from biking, I didn’t stay up too late. To say I was overwhelmed with the evening was an understatement. This place was more than I ever could have expected and I was extremely looking forward to calling this place my home for the next 6 weeks. I also had to be ready for my first work shift the next afternoon.

Life at the Hostel

The next morning was clear and I could finally see the wonderful views. Walking from my dorm to the restaurant I could see across the lake. Three massive, beautiful volcanoes directly across the lake. I had to stop for a moment and really take it all in. All around the lake was steep and mountainous as well. This was a view I would never get tired of and would stop and stare at a little bit every day, thankful to be where I was.

I was pretty nervous for the first shift as there was a lot of stuff to learn. Thankfully I had Bo, my roommate, to help teach me everything. She had been at the hostel a while and knew things pretty well. Volunteers here worked five days a week and had two days off. Each day, there are three shifts of about five hours each. The morning, afternoon, and night. Each shift had its pros and cons and people each had their preference. We would work behind the bar of the restaurant which is where guests would check in, check out, and order food / drinks. The morning worked checkouts and breakfast, the afternoon worked check-ins and lunch, and the night was dinner and bartending. There were many other small things that all shifts had to do each day as well. In return for volunteering, we all got a bed and three amazing meals daily. Also, a hefty discount on alcohol didn’t hurt.

The work was tricky to pick up at first, but I soon became pretty good at all the technical things with my background. A restaurant POS system and a booking system were the core of our tools. I soon became an expert with these tools as I was always fixing problems and learning more about the systems. I would become the IT guy which was great for me. I would even go on to help a lot of people in town set up their StarLink networks. The service side of things was the area that was new to me. Volunteers are important for making guests feel welcomed and included. It is important to be very sociable and friendly. This part was very fun for me to learn as I loved doing what I could to make sure guests had a nice stay and I would do what I could to make that happen.

Bartending was also something I was looking forward to learning. There is something cool about being a bartender that intrigued me. It puts you at the center of attention and you get to interact with everyone. I was pretty scared of the rush of some of the nights but for the regular nights, it looked really fun. Bartending was a great way to meet and talk to the guests as pretty much everyone came to the bar sooner or later for a drink.

We weren’t a party hostel, but we had our parties. We had special events most nights of the week. Monday was Trivia Night, one of my favorites to lead. We would make the questions and the guests would usually get very involved in the game. Wednesday was Open Mic night, a town favorite. The co-owner, Dave, was a true crowd-pleaser and open mic night was his thing. He would play music tell jokes and get the guests involved. A lot of local people would come to play some music as well and we volunteers would occasionally sing some songs (often Taylor Swift). Every person who was involved got a free shot of tequila! Sometimes these nights got pretty wild. Saturday was our big party day and involved BBQ’ing chicken and the classic costume party with a catwalk and dancing afterward. These nights would often go till late in the night and end with a bonfire and jumping in the lake. One of my core memories was skinny dipping in the lake with my coworkers, and then looking around at the sky full of stars behind the massive crater of mountains and volcanoes we were in. Truly taking in the beautiful part of the world, feeling pretty lucky to be here.

I partied pretty hard when I first arrived. Drinking most nights and partaking in the occasional dance party in a neighboring town. I’ve always loved dancing (badly) and would dance my heart out most of the time. Working as the bartender made it very hard to resist as well. A beer or two, or three while working made the shift a whole lot more fun. I would soon tire out of it, but I enjoyed those first few weeks a lot. The great thing about this hostel was that it was easy to step away and relax if you preferred it.

Outside of work, I got to live on one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever been to. I was surrounded by some of the best people I’ve met on this trip so far. The other volunteers quickly became my family and we would spend all day every day together. During my time, I got to work with 42 other volunteers / managers from 17 different countries. It’s something very special and unique to live and work together in such a small space. We would go visit other towns and go on trips together. I formed some of the strongest friendships of the trip while volunteering here at the hostel. Arguments and fights of course would happen, but there were way more good times than bad.

One of the hardest things about working here, and for so long, was saying goodbye to people. I saw many volunteers come and go. I would get very close with a lot of people and then be heartbroken when their time was up. New volunteers would come and it was always hard to get close to them at first. I soon accepted things as they were and got pretty good at goodbyes. I was building friendships with people all over the world. Friendships I look forward to reconnecting in the future.

There were a couple of other notable towns around the lake. Panajachel was the closest town that we would use mostly for running errands and starting trips away from the lake. San Marcos was a popular destination for yoga retreats and the spiritual-minded. I consider myself a bit spiritual, but to be honest, it goes a bit over the top there and it feels like a lot of people living in a . They have some really good food though. San Juan is a town that is known for its color and its art. The streets are lined with beautiful local crafts. San Pedro is known as the backpacker town. It is full of travelers and has more of a nightlife. It has some of my favorite little alleyways to walk. Easily the best food on the lake. The other towns on the lake aren’t visited as much by tourists.

With all the amazing and wonderful things here, there were of course some challenges as well. The most notable being the parasite. I soon learned that it was extremely common for people visiting this place to get a parasite in their stomach which caused awful sickness. I got sick within the first week, like most volunteers, and it lasted on and off nearly a month. It would have gone away much quicker if I had taken the anti-parisite medicine quicker, but I was trying some more natural medicines at first. It was pretty awful. A mix of explosive gas and liquid shits are not a good combination. Never in my life had I shit myself until I came here, and now I have three times. After I took the proper medicine, thankfully I never had any more problems.

There were sometimes problems and drama between volunteers or guests, but it was pretty rare. In the entirety of my stay, there were only a couple of problematic volunteers who ended up being asked to leave. Busy and stressful situations would arise and tend to lead to some arguments between volunteers, but it would always end with apologies and good feelings. Almost all the guests we had were amazing and there was a small small few that were needy or difficult.

Another challenge was coming face to face with a lot of the pollution. This is a problem I’ve mentioned in past posts and is a difficult one. I probably come off as a judgy, privileged foreigner, but it can be pretty tough seeing such beautiful places ruined by pollution. Every town on the lake would have a river of sewage going into the lake and there would be trash surrounding most docks. All of this made me pretty hesitant to swim in the lake, which I rarely did. The infrastructure to properly handle all of this was never put in place so sadly there just isn’t any other option. With the massive influx of tourism bringing more people, waste, and sewage only makes it worse.

Promotion to Manager

After a few weeks of volunteering, Joy pulled me aside one day and talked to me about the possibility of me being a manager, replacing Cali when he left. At first, I was very against the idea. I was terrified of the responsibility of running a hostel and also the position usually comes with a six-month contract. There are many benefits though, such as a large private room and being paid. After thinking and talking it over for a week, I pursued it. Why not push myself a bit further into more of a challenge? I realized it was an incredible opportunity to get more experience that I could take with me further ahead. I talked with Deedle and explained I’d like to, but that I could only commit to about three months. She agreed and it was official, I would become the next manager! It would be me, Joy, and Jess for the day managers and Argo for the bar manager.

I spent the next few weeks working alongside Cali as he trained me on the duties. In some ways, the work was easier for me. There were a lot of spreadsheets and processes, which is my strong suit. I enjoyed doing more computer work since that is what I’m used to. The areas I would need the most growth in were managing people and being a leader. I’ve never been the strongest leader and always considered myself best at doing what I’m told instead of the inverse. Making decisions on behalf of other people than myself has always caused me a bit of anxiety. I tend to want everyone to be happy and that is usually not possible so compromises must be found and it can be difficult to see the best option.

The manager job was similar in that we had five shifts a week, except every three weeks we got an extra day off. There are only two shifts though, morning and afternoon. We sit in the back corner of the restaurant handling a lot more logistical things and keeping the hostel running. We plan volunteer schedules and hiring, process financials and taxes, manage all emails and messages, make and modify bookings, pay the workers (we had a full kitchen / cleaning staff and maintenance staff of wonderful local people), and most importantly we would have to answer any all questions from the volunteers and the guests and deal with problems as they often arose.

After a few weeks, I felt much more comfortable in the position. I developed more confidence in myself and my actions. I liked having a bit more control over the operations and improved a couple of things that I thought could be better. I also had more power when it came to the guests. I enjoyed doing things like upgrading guests for free when there were open rooms available. I even hooked up a couple of cyclist friends with great discounts when I could, as a small form of giving back for a lot of the generosity I had received as a cyclist.

By the time I had started managing, the slow season had started. We went from being nearly full (80 people) every night to averaging around 15 guests and sometimes as low as just five. This made the work a bit easier, but also a bit more boring. We had fewer volunteers and less going on. It was much more chill which I enjoyed after partying myself out the first few weeks as a volunteer. The owners had also left for two months which meant it was fully just us managers in charge of the hostel. This left more responsibility on us but we got the added benefit of watching the owner’s beautiful house which became our managers’ secret retreat away from the hostel. We would watch movies, cook, and relax away from the stresses of the hostel.

End of a Chapter

Life got into a routine and the time went by rather fast. The next thing I knew, my time was nearing its end. I will admit that near the end, the work was starting to get to me. Having to repeat the same stuff over and over again to new volunteers got tiring. Correcting the same mistakes over and over again and having the same events every week got old and I became a bit less involved and my patience decreased. I had my eyes on the horizon and the excitement to get back to biking was growing strong. I dreamed of waking up in my tent with nothing but the road ahead of me to discover.

I left the hostel with a half-hearted goodbye. Only two people remained from when I arrived, Argo and Jess. I was also leaving my bike and gear at the hostel so I knew I was returning soon. I still had a lot of emotions about leaving. Argo and I cried and hugged for a moment. He was truly a brother of mine. We had been through so much together and accomplished a lot. Jess and I had become incredibly close as well. We had our ups and downs but she is one of the most bubbly and kindest people I know. Joy had left a week before me. She was one of the few people that I could always talk to and spend time with no matter my mood. We got along really well and in a way that is not common for me.

Stateside

I was heading back to the States for a brief trip to see friends and family. First I went to Dallas to see some college friends for some good ole college football. It was quite a crazy contrast in just a few days that was a bit hard to process in many ways. The world around me changed dramatically. I went from small Guatemalan towns to Dallas, Texas. The land of massive everything. I went to watch college football at this place called Texas Live which was wild. A huge mall-like building that was built for watching sports. It was pretty cool but the worst part was a beer cost $13.

I felt another weird change in myself. After traveling for over the past year I had felt like I had changed and grown so much in many ways. One of the wonderful things about traveling solo is you are constantly changing places and meeting new people which gives you a great opportunity to redefine yourself. I had wondered what it would be like to see college friends again and if they would notice these changes I felt. It didn’t go that way and I felt as if I was reverting to my old self, and not feeling the same as I did while traveling. It’s almost like I had two personalities now, my travel personality and my back home personality. As good as it was seeing these old friends it did make me miss traveling a bit quicker than I had expected.

After Dallas, I went to visit my parents in their new home in St Petersburg, Florida. My dad had recently retired and they moved from Arkansas to Florida. I was a bit sad to not be going back to the state I closely associate with, but I was happy my parents were finally living their dream in the place they always wanted to retire to.

My time in Florida was fantastic. I hadn’t seen my parents in about a year so it was really nice spending time with them. They spoiled me all the time with amazing food and wine. We spent a lot of time on my dad’s new boat exploring the area. During this time I redesigned my website and even redesigned the dive shop website for La Iguana Perdida. I’m hoping to start doing some freelance web design work while I travel.

I also got to see my grandmothers and one of my uncles while back home. My grandmothers are some of my biggest supporters and it was so nice to get to see them when I wasn’t expecting to.

As of right now, I’m flying back to Guatemala tomorrow. I’m extremely excited to get back to biking again and to head for South America. I’ll be heading back to the hostel where I’ll spend about a week before pedalling again.

Thank you all for reading along, now enjoy a bunch of photos from my time here. I hope you all are as excited as I am about getting back to some bicycling blogs :).

Photos

My first night and costume party.
Top: Guest, Rafa, Guest, Julia, Are, Cali (Manager), Jess (Manager)
Bottom: Joy (Manager), Me (Pumpkin), Katy, guest, Jamie

Views of Santa Cruz

The commute to work. The restaurant is the building down the stairs to the left.

The view from the hostel on my first morning.

The lush walkways up to and from the rooms.

The restaurant is in the yellow building on the bottom right. The property goes back far into the trees.

A view from the water with the massive mountains and town above.

The town of Santa Cruz.

A fantastic sunset.

The coast of Santa Cruz from one of the hikes I did often.

Further back view of the town.

A typical open mic night at the hostel.

Nearby Towns

The most common way to get around the lake was the Lanchas (boats). They were really fun and exciting at first but became a bit of a pain after a few months.
Jamie, Bo, Julia, Jess

Julia enjoying the wonderful views from the boat.

Pulling up to Santa Cruz.

The dock at San Juan

San Juan with Bo, Julia, Jamie, and Jess

San Juan’s colorful streets

Bo, me, and Jess in San Juan

Dinner at San Juan. Julia, Jess, and Bo

From the dock of San Pedro

The view of Indian Nose Peak from San Pedro

The town of San Pedro in front of Volcano San Pedro.

Are enjoying the sunrise from San Pedro after we partied all night.

The town of Jabalito. A small local town nearby.

Parade in Pana

Friends

Jess, Joy, Argo, and I. We were constant during the always-changing group of volunteers and guests. My closest and dearest friends.

Deedle, me, and Dave. The wonderful owners of the hostel. I’m incredibly thankful to them for the opportunity to work here. They have created a wonderful place throughout the years and are responsible for many amazing memories with lots of people.

We had a manager photoshoot before Cali left. Believe it or not, these are the people who ran the hostel. Notice Argo is smoking a cig while he backflips. I do not recommend jumping in the water with a thick wool jacket.

Getting on the sketchiest Ferris wheel with Julie that I’ve ever been on at the local town fair.

A trip to the biggest waterpark in Central America, Xocomil!
Salma, Cali, Julia, Dulcie
Me, Jess, Guest

Hiking Volcano Toliman with Are and Argo.

Hiking San Pedro with Tim, Joy, Noami, and Ana.

Sunrise hike with volunteer friends. The town of Santa Cruz is in the background

Tajumulco with Kirk and Argo

At the wedding of two of our local coworkers, Joselin and Alfredo.

Me, Joy, and Argo

Me and Jess

Joy and I

A night out in San Pedro. Jess, Julia, me, and Dulice

Me and some awesome guests who became good friends.

Another Saturday another costume party with a lot of great guests.

A small collage I made after the last big party during my stay with some of my coworkers and friends.

Bartending with Dulcie during a costume party.

Chapo and Chula in their favorite spot. They loved to get in the way.

Chapo loved to look at the view.

Chula loved to snooze on this couch.

Argo, Chapo. and Cali. Hanging out on the dock after a swim.

Cloudy day doc hanging with Jess, me, Kirk, Shira, Tony, Ale, and Argo

Me, Joy, Mash, Clarissa, and Argo at a costume party. Mash is Clarrissa’s mother and she had been working at the hostel the longest of all the kitchen ladies.

I was honored by the kitchen ladies one day and they invited me to eat lunch with them.
Clarissa, Ana, Marie, Mash, me, Estrella

They even gave me the “honors” of eating the brain of the chicken. Yes, there was a full neck and head of a chicken in the soup. Mash cracked it and told me to suck the brain out so I did. They cackled with laughter.

Sipriano, me and Argo. Sipriano was one of the maintenance guys and was one of my best friends of the maintenance guys. He also was a barber and would cut my hair for me a few times.

Paddleboarding with Marshall, Kirk, and Argo.

Julia, Salma, me, and Dulcie getting some Shakshuka in San Pedro

Farewell photos

It was common to take a group photo when a volunteer left. I don’t have all of them but here are a lot of them.

Cali, Tim
Ale, Dulcie, Bo, Me, Nico, Julia
Jess, Jamie

Kupa, Tim, Me, Argo, Are, Joy
Isaac, Cali, Julia, Anna, Jess, Dulcie, Aimei

Gabe, Ale, Julia, Jess, Dulcie, Aimei, Are, Julie, Tim, Ana, Isaac, Joy, Deedle
Cali, Salma

Argo, Julia, Me
Joy, Alissa, Ale, Ana, Shira

Vic, Theirry, Argo, Me, Julia, Jess, Allissa, Shira, Silvia

Me, Argo
Joy, Roxi, Kirk, Jess, Vic, Manuela, Vanessa

My farewell photo
Jake, me, Argo, Jess, Thierry, Jake, Jaque, Alex, Vanessa, Suzy, Johnathan

My farewell photo with Argo and Jess

My last sight before the boat took me away. Goodbye, for now.