Day one was quite long due to the fact Tuesday shortly turned into Wednesday. We arrived at LAX for our connecting flight to Guatemala when we heard our names over the intercom. Josh went up to check it out and came back with a smile. We had been upgraded to first Class, nice. The never ending glass of wine made the flight much easier. We didn´t get much sleep but I was able to watch the sunrise out the plane window which was pretty amazing. We stepped of the plane followed the crowed to the luggage and promptly found our driver with all our names written on it. We were on the same flight as two of our friends Lisa and Carlos so we all headed out to the car. We stopped at Suzanne´s friends house who was nice enough to provide us breakfast of eggs, beans, bread, and some of the best salsa we had ever had.
After breakfast we started on our long trek to Panajachel. Three to four hours and many pot holes later we arrived in Pana. It didn´t take long to find the group since they were assembled in the lobby ready to head out to Santiago Atitlan a nearby town. The plan was to take a ferry there then stay the night. We figured we were on an adventure so we dropped our main luggage in our room, packed to small bags for the night then headed out for the ferry.
It was bright sunny and warm when we left on the ferry and pouring rain by the time we were on the other side of the lake. Fortunately the rain lasted all of fifteen minutes and it was sunny again in no time. Our second hotel for the night Hotel Bamboo was beautiful. It had a very tropical landscape and overlooked the lake. We couldn´t ask for anything better. We had a late lunch, swam in the pool, and took slightly warm showers to get ready for dinner.
We took a fifteen minute walk to the main town of Santiago Atitilan. Santiago is a smaller more traditional town near Lake Atitlan. We met up with Chonita our hostess for the evening. Chonita had started an organization for widows of the civil war. She helped raise money to help provide food for the many women who lost their husbands and sons in the violence of the civil war. Chonita was a friend of one of our travelers and provided twenty two of us dinner on only four hours notice. After dinner Kirsten translated as Chonita shared with us the story of how she lost her husband in the civil war in the 80´s and how she recently lost her son to a car accident. It is incredible the strength she has shown after how much tragedy she has been through. She is currently helping feed many of the displaced villagers who lost their homes during hurricane Stan in 2005.
We really had an amazing day, very long but incredible.
After breakfast we started on our long trek to Panajachel. Three to four hours and many pot holes later we arrived in Pana. It didn´t take long to find the group since they were assembled in the lobby ready to head out to Santiago Atitlan a nearby town. The plan was to take a ferry there then stay the night. We figured we were on an adventure so we dropped our main luggage in our room, packed to small bags for the night then headed out for the ferry.
It was bright sunny and warm when we left on the ferry and pouring rain by the time we were on the other side of the lake. Fortunately the rain lasted all of fifteen minutes and it was sunny again in no time. Our second hotel for the night Hotel Bamboo was beautiful. It had a very tropical landscape and overlooked the lake. We couldn´t ask for anything better. We had a late lunch, swam in the pool, and took slightly warm showers to get ready for dinner.
We took a fifteen minute walk to the main town of Santiago Atitilan. Santiago is a smaller more traditional town near Lake Atitlan. We met up with Chonita our hostess for the evening. Chonita had started an organization for widows of the civil war. She helped raise money to help provide food for the many women who lost their husbands and sons in the violence of the civil war. Chonita was a friend of one of our travelers and provided twenty two of us dinner on only four hours notice. After dinner Kirsten translated as Chonita shared with us the story of how she lost her husband in the civil war in the 80´s and how she recently lost her son to a car accident. It is incredible the strength she has shown after how much tragedy she has been through. She is currently helping feed many of the displaced villagers who lost their homes during hurricane Stan in 2005.
We really had an amazing day, very long but incredible.
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