Internet Cafes at the Lake
Welcome to the slowest Internet on the planet, at San Pedro Internet cafes! That's because Internet cafes in San Pedro use satellites, not cable. Access is faster in Panajachel, but still not great.
At least it is cheap. Most places charge Q7 an hour, less than a US dollar. They usually bill you in 15-minu8e intervals.
It's hard to say which is the fastest Internet in San Pedro, because the place that's fastest today might crawl along tomorrow. A lot depends on the number of people online at the time: the more users, the slower the service.
Skype users slow things down even more, talking to friends back home when they could be out seeing and doing things here that they can't back home.
So look for out-of-the-way places with few users. And no Skypers. In San Pedro, some of the fastest recently have been DNoz, which has free wi-fi, and Fata Morgana.
In Panajachel, the street to the public market has several Net cafes that are rarely as crowded as MayaNet on Avenida Santander. They are also cheaper
For free Wi-Fi, go to Buddha, el Picasso or Hotel Mikaso in San Pedro. In Panajachel, Solomon's Porch and Pana Rock.
Other Delays
The most tedious and time-consuming activity is uploading or downloading large files. Uploading a 20-megabyte file can take 45 minutes or more. This goes much faster if you use a place like Idea Connection, which lets you hook up with a direct cable connection.
If sending photos, use your software to reduce them to 640 x 480.
Sometimes a program or the system has to be updated over the Net, in which case you will be prompted as to whether or not you wish to continue. Don't. Tell the manager you want to change computers. There is no reason you should pay for the time it takes to do so.