Back From a Wonderful Weekend at the Lake

It was an extremely relaxing weekend at Lake Atitlan. We got back around 2 this afternoon, so I'm showered, unpacked, and ready for dinner!

Friday was a really fun day at work. I explained to the director that I wanted to work with the babies for a couple hours in the morning and then work in the kitchen for the other two and a half hours that I'm there. They seemed okay with that, so we'll see how tomorrow goes! On friday, the orphanage had a group of students, probably high school age, come in and dress up as clowns in costumes and with make up to put on a fiesta for the kids. They brought in 3 pinatas for the kids, so they were all sugared up! There was cake, another bread dessert with an icing filling, and tostados with beans and an interesting drink. (I'm still not quite sure what it was!) It was a fun day, partly because the kids were so excited and happy, which was really nice to see, and partly because I'm finally starting to feel at home at my placement. There is a little girl named Belkis who gets excited every time that she sees me, and wants to help me practice my Spanish and is happy to tell me words and repeat things. She was very proud of using her English to count all the candy she got from the pinatas. She likes to get hugs and have her back rubbed! Another girl Helen and I made up a secret handshake and we practiced maybe 20 times in the 4 hours I was there. She was proud to show her friends! In the kitchen I helped to cut cucumbers and I picked out the bad dried black beans from about 8 big bowls that Paula dumped on the counter. A worker named Gabby came into the kitchen and told me if I needed anything or had any questions to come talk to her because she speaks the most English out of the workers. The language barrier is still a little frustrating but a smile and a hug goes a long way! I'm excited to go back to work after a nice and relaxing weekend.

Belkis and Helen. Pictures are funny here, not many people smile. The girls don't look that happy, but they really wanted their picture taken. We ended up taking a couple!

So after work on friday we had lunch and 4 of us got into a private van. It cost $14 for a 3 hour trip to Panajachel where we got dropped off near a dock going to Santiago. The hostel where we had reservations for friday night (La Iguana Perdida) is on Santa Cruz, a 20 minute boat ride from Panajachel. After we got dropped off we walked around the main streets looking at shops along the street and then made our way back to the dock where we decided to get dinner. We ate at a place on the edge near the beach. It had a great view, despite the kind of dismal beach. The volcanoes surrounding the lake made for an absolutely spectacular view! The food on the other hand was a little sketchy. One of the girls ordered a club sandwhich and found a worm on her lettuce. I ordered a veggie burger thinking it would be something cooked...but it wasn't. It was toasted bread with shredded carrots, sliced avocado, lettuce, tomato, and some french fries. After the worm incident, I was a little scared to eat much of the food. I ate the bread and part of the avocado, and called it a meal. I didn't feel like spending the whole weekend sick after eating vegetables washed in the local water. The cheeseburgers and french fries seemed to be the only safe thing ordered.

Me, Hannah, Emily, Guillaume at the restaurant in Panajachel before our food.

After our interesting meal we found out we needed to catch a boat at the other dock, at the other side of the little island. The waiter was kind enough to walk us along the coast, but it was dark, and again, a little sketchy. We made it in time for the last boat to Santa Cruz, but the drivers charged us double than what it should have cost. We had some girls in the house tell us that it should only cost 10 Q (quetzales) to cross to Santa Cruz and they started out asking for 25 Q a person. We got it down to 20. (the exchange rate is about 8 Q to $1) It was the last boat out so we didn't have much of a choice, but it was definitely frustrating knowing that you were being ripped off without anything to do about it. Needless to say, arriving at La Iguana Perdida was extremely exciting after our very interesting journey to get there. The people at the hostel were extremely friendly. We made it for coffee and ginger cake as well as quiz night. I wasn't much of a help to my team, but we ended up coming in second. I didn't stick around for the after celebration.

Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast out on the patio looking at the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! We looked through the guide book figuring out what we wanted to do and decided that kayaking might be something unique. We walked along a little path from our hostel to a kayak rental place owned by a couple from Colorado who had moved down to Guatemala. The four of us rented a kayak and headed out. The views were astonishing. There are so many different types of beautiful in the world but the view from the lake was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever scene. On one side there was the massive volcano and on the other side there were steep slopes covered in green! We kayaked about two towns over and found some rocks to jump off of, so we jumped and swam for awhile and then headed back to Iguana. We ate lunch there and ended up talking with a girl from Australia who was finishing up a couple month back-pack trip around Central America. The five of us headed back to Panajachel and found a hostel in the older part of town that was pretty nice. We watched some TV, something I haven't done in a really long time. We managed to find a channel in english. We walked down the main street, a little higher up than where we walked on friday night, and found a place to eat, then headed back to bed. We were all exhausted from the kayak trip.




Today, (Sunday) we got up at 4:45 to go see the sunrise. We were locked into the hostel, and tried to climb out, thought about giving up and going back to bed, but ended up running into the owner who was letting some workers out. We walked about 20 minutes down to the lake only to realize the sun was rising from the other side, behind the mountains. We did see the reflection in the clouds though, and it was beautiful. We squeezed a couple more hours of sleep in before packing our things and leaving.

Lake Atitlan from Panajachel at sunrise.

We met up with our tour driver again, and headed to Chichi (Chichicastenango) which holds the largest outdoor market in Guatemala. It was definitely a tourist destination, and it was tiring to bargain over prices. I did find some neat things though. :) We only lasted a couple hours there and ended up leaving earlier than we thought and got back to our house in Xela around 2pm.

It was an exciting adventure, and was one definitely worth repeating. Lake Atitlan is a beautiful destination with reasonable prices. It definitely made for a relaxing weekend. It is nice to be home though, and I'm soon ready for bed!