Lake Atitlan

I am very happy to have my friend Emily Ashford in town until next Saturday. She arrived on Tuesday and so we went on a mini-adventure to Lake Atitlan before leaving for language school in Antigua. There are a couple of major cities located on Atitlan that include Panajachel, Santiago, San Marcos, and San Pedro. Santiago is where the mudslide occurred from Hurricane Stan in October of 2005. I visited Santiago last October to give shoes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, toys, candy, and other items to the kids who lived in this devastated community.

On this trip, Emily and I stayed Wednesday night in Panajachel. We were both pretty tired from traveling because of the winding roads. The Pan-American Hwy is closed right now between Guatemala City and Panajachel because they are widening the road. So we had to take a route that could make even the strongest stomachs sick! On Thursday we decided to go to a hotel called Casa del Mundo. It was a little piece of heaven. It was located on the side of a mountain and had steep staircases leading up to rooms and down to the water. It was gorgeous! Unfortunately we were not able to stay two nights here because Emily was allergic to something in our room, so we headed back to Panajachel for another night in the “city.” We were able to watch television on Friday night (I have not seen real TV since I have arrived because we don’t have cable). I was even able to watch the Atlanta news on the satellite. It was nice just to relax and veg out. The next morning we went to the pool and got some sun before returning to Guatemala City on Saturday. Our driver offered us door-to-door service for about $6 more, so we took it! Otherwise we would have had to get a taxi. So that brings us to today… we were supposed to leave this afternoon after church for Antigua for language school but things did not work out quite liked we planned. But that is okay! We are leaving tomorrow morning at 6:45 a.m. instead.

Sadly Emily is leaving me on Saturday about 9:30 a.m., but my other friend Jessa arrives that same day at 11 a.m. Lucky me!! Let me know when YOU want to come visit!