Lago de Atitlan

November 4th we spent a long day traveling to Panajanchel, a town on the Lake Atitlan, but in the end the trip was worth it. It took us one shuttle and three different buses to get there. We actually thought the first two buses would take us directly there (because they told us they would) but it turns out they lied to us just to get our bus fair and we really had to get another bus once we got off that one. Robynn was particularly offended that they would lie straight to our faces like that just to make money…
We finally got there after dark, checked into our hotel, ate dinner and then went to a sports bar to watch the election coverage. We were the only Americans there and the only ones who seemed to be interested, which surprised me, since in Honduras people had been pretty interested in the elections. There were actually two TVs on with different channels covering the election and one announced Obama as winner a little before the other so we were asking ourselves if it was really true. Once we finally realized it was we started clapping and cheering. Then we tried to watch Obama’s acceptance speech but it was horrible because the subtitles were messed up and we couldn’t understand anything! Later on in the night other people in the bar congratulated us and the consensus was that all of Europe and Central America was for Obama so they were happy as well. Molly and Robynn and I were all so emotional and felt like we were taking part in history in the making.

We finished off the night salsa dancing (they actually have that in Guatemala!) and went to sleep happy and relieved.

The next day was devoted entirely to shopping, eating and appreciating the wonderful scenery. The lake is a collapsed volcanic cone surrounded by three volcanoes and leaves Lake Yojoa in Honduras in the dust when it comes to landscape. Panajanchel, the first town we visited, is known as Gringotenango (Place of the Foreigners), which means there is lots of shopping of Guatemalan handmade goods.
I bought earrings, pillowcase covers, table runners, a painting and various other souvenirs. We had a few unmemorable meals during the trip, but in general the food was amazing! Lots of healthy vegetarian dishes (not available in Honduras) and lots of hot tea (since Guatemala is freezing compared to Santa Barbara). All us girls like to eat, but Robynn is especially interested in food so we really enjoyed wonderful food and ended the trip with tons of pictures of what we ate.
After a hurried shopping spree we caught the last boat to San Marcos la Laguna, another small town on the lake.
San Marcos la Laguna is a very interesting place… Katie, my sitemate described it as a secret garden with little paths all over the place to various restaurants, hotels, yoga studios, art studios, massage centers and hippie living. We stayed at The Pyramids Meditation Center…
…which as we were reminded by numerous signs “…is a center of study and not a hotel.” The center offered yoga, metaphysics and meditation classes (we accidentally missed the metaphysics class, but enjoyed the yoga and meditation). All the buildings and rooms were built in the form of pyramids…
And there were pyramid structures under which one could meditate… In between our yoga and meditation class we all got massages. I tried out Thai massage for the first time and liked it although it is pretty intense.

Although San Marcos was a little odd, the views were beautiful and the food was amazing.