Lago De Atitlan, Guatemala (April 2011)

Hola -- we've gotten a little behind in posting our whereabouts.  After school in Xela, we headed out to Lago De Atitlan, an amazing Lake surrounded by three volcanoes.  We decided to splurge for a couple of days at a really nice tree house of a hotel called Casa Del Mundo (an awesome suggestion from our friends Jon and Megan).  This place is paradise: amazing views of the lake, beutiful rooms, excellent food, plenty of places to just jump out and swim, kayaks and bikes ready for cruising... the perfect reward after four weeks of studying.  Almost immediately upon check in, Dave had his comeuppance with travel sickness.  As Jules and another student had described it weeks before, it feels like there is a monkey in your stomach playing with pieces broken glass.  It all worked out though, because while Julie swam there was a giant hairy spider (think Peter Brady from the classic Hawaii episode where they find the bad luck charm) on the wall to keep me company.  We were told when we arrived not to "harm or remove" the spiders as they are not dangerous, and they help get rid of mosquitoes.  He was actually pretty friendly, spoke English, Spanish and K'iche' and did not like Goodfellas.

"No no, I thought..that you said...that you were alright, Spider..."



Incidents of travel in Central America...



I got better just in time to check out of the really nice hotel and check in to our budget hostel in San Marcos.  We met a lot of very cool people in this village.  We also got sort of "stuck" there because Semana Santa (Holy Week) was fast approaching and all of the buses and shuttle were crazy booked.  Not a bad place to be stranded, though.           



Local kid in a wooden canoe.  His Dad had just jumped into the lake with a net.  Many different fishies can be found, including black bass





C'mon SteriPen!

We struck up a conversation with this guy named Jeff from Atlanta who invited us to  the Mystical Yoga Farm, a yoga school on an organic perma-culture farm a few villages over and a short launcha ride away.  We participated in a full moon ceremony where we drank cacao (prolly spelt that rong, it's basically chocolate in it's rawest form) banged on drums, shed ourselves from old demons, gave thanks to the moon, stars, earth, sky and to family and friends.  The highlight: Jeff changed his name to Coyote and he had to shout at the moon nine times "Yo Soy Coyote!"  We helped by howling a lot.  After that we hung out in a traditional Mayan igloo-type sauna and swam in the lake til the wee hours.



 Mystical Yoga Farm







hiking between villages, Lago De Atitlan

Semana Santa is a big deal in Guatemala - everything seems to stop.  There is a mix of traditional Mayan imagery with the Catholic beliefs we knew of growing up, weaved together in their ceremonies.  On Holy Thursday and Good Friday we saw two very beautiful processions where the locals dressed in purple robes, sang songs and prayed and carried statues of Jesus and Mary through the streets.  The streets are covered in alfombras (carpets) of colored sawdust and flower petals.  

Holy Thursday

Kayaking toward Volcan San Pedro

Good Friday





Late afternoons by the rocks, Lago De Atitlan