05 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are back in Antigua again after spending the last 3 night in San Pedro La Laguna on the shore of Lake Atitlan in southwestern Guatemala.

We stayed in San Pedro (left side) in a large group once again, but as of this morning Mari and I were the first to break the fellowship as we headed east across Guatemala back to Antigua on our way towards Honduras or El Salvador. Lake Atitlan is very large, and pretty interesting. If you have time to read up on it, I placed a link in the opening of this post.

Yesterday we took a bus up the mountain to climb El Nariz (the nose).

The bus we took is an old american school bus, colorfully painted, and is referred to here as a chicken bus.

The ride up the mountain had us all in fright, as the incline of the road was quite steep and the bus moaned and groaned and slowly climbed its way up to the top as we all crossed fingers and hoped we would make it alive. The road, once nice, was recently destroyed from bad flooding, so we were bouncing and banging all over the road. And at some points along the path the road was reduced to half the normal width as the outer part had fallen off edge of the cliff. It was a good, fun filled ride.

The hike was great and offered beautiful panaramas of the lake and a birds eye view to many of the towns nestled below. It was nice to get up into the lush green forests on the mountains and take in the majesticness of the area.

After returning down the slope from the mountain and fearing for our lives onboard the decrepit old chicken bus heading steaply downhill - Mari, Alex and I decided to walk the hour long road back down to San Pablo. From San Pablo we jumped in a tuk tuk

and headed to the next town over - San Marcos - to meet up with the rest of the gang for some fun at the lake. San Marcos boasts a platform 25 - 30 feet in the air, from which, if one has enough courage you can run and jump into the water below. As I have a natural born fear of heights I opted out on that one, but enjoyed seeing the others build up courage and take the leap. I opted for the 6 foot high (or so) rope swing from the waters edge. The sun was warm and the water was cool.

Some of the others were staying at San Pedro a while longer, and a few others were heading further west. Mari and I decided to start our trek back west so we can start a plan on exiting Guatemala. Tonight, we will make some food and devise a plan.

T