Cerró Zankujil nature preserve.

I went to sleep about 9:15 last night. After hiking all over San Juan yesterday I was pretty tired. I’d eaten a big supper right before I came back to San Marcos lo so I wasn’t hungry. I really didn’t feel the need to go out and be around other people. A lot of times when I’m on these trips I just prefer to go to nature and be quiet and enjoy the magnificent views around this place. 

The restaurants and things don’t really get going until about 9 AM. I spent about an hour and a half studying Spanish, which is my usual discipline. I didn’t really see any reason to stop that habit. I seen all the work I’ve done in Spanish pay off. I’ve had conversations that lasted for hours with the locals. Especially the guys that were driving my taxis. Seem like now that I think about it almost everybody else that I was traveling with were women. They would sit in the back of the Taxi or minibus talking about pretty stupid things in my opinion and I was in the front with the driver the whole time just talking Spanish.  That’s the point of why you study so you can have a conversation. 

I had breakfast at Casa Hermosa this morning which I think is going to be my usual place now.  I was completely by myself. 

i’m at the very top of the Cerró Zankujil nature preserve , and it is absolutely gorgeous up here. It reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of Hawaii,  another volcanic area with these just straight up mountains, completely lush and then houses riding up the slopes.  I’m studying the houses now and I can definitely see where I had breakfast. Nobody was with me there. Gorgeous view of the lake and surrounding mountains. I had eggs with spinach and a kind of tomato base salsa which they seem to use a lot here. Wasn’t really spicy, but they put quite a lot of salt in the stuff. I had a couple of cups of coffee.  At the top they also have a hammock so I spent some more time studying Spanish and swinging in the hammock, which was awesome. 

I’m at what they would call the mirador, which is the Lookout of this nature preserve. Again I’m by myself which has become a recurring motif. 

Pretty much every morning and most of the day. It is sunny. Cool. Just perfect weather. But when it gets about 5 o’clock all these big cloud starts to roll in and about five or six it starts to sprinkle and then it can rain pretty hard. That’s the reason why I’m over here with only about 10% of the amount of tourists that are normally in a place like this. They want to be here when it’s completely clear. Which I understand because right now most of the seven volcanoes around the lake, you can’t really see. 

I had planned on climbing San Pedro, which is the volcano I’m  looking at right now.  The top is completely covered by clouds so I somebody’s hiking that thing it’s just gonna be like a fog up there. 

The water here is this incredible color of aquamarine. I’ve never seen like it anywhere. There’s a really deep area of water where people jump from a platform into the water. I’m not planning on doing that. I’m at the very top of this little mountain at the nature preserve. 

I’ve gone past two different little campfires that are Mayan Altars. It’s cool to think about that. I like the idea of being in sacred places. Similar to the vibe I got when I was in Machu Picchu. Of course the views from here I think are even more spectacular than in Peru. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is just breathtaking. 

 I doubt I would like it as much in November when there’s literally ten times more people here from other countries. I know that has a certain fun part to it but I’m really not interested in that at all. 

I decided that I wanted to do a hike using a local road. What my usual manner is that I go near a restaurant or something that I have eaten at and then I can use their Wi-Fi to make a search on where I’m gonna go. 

I’ve learned how to use Google maps on an off-line map. I didn’t understand until this trip that Google maps can use GPS without having any kind of Internet connection. So I go to a restaurant where I can get Wi-Fi, I download where I want to go next and it’ll give you the path of it. Then I can walk that and it’ll show me as a blue dot where I’m going to. 

I had read about this really good restaurant which is about 2 miles from San Marcos la Laguna where I’m staying. I decided that sounded like a good distance to walk. The place is called Tres Cielos. Which means “Three Heavens.” I walked all the way there and then it had a sign on it that said it’s closed for three weeks! I’m at another place now somewhere in Tzununa. Lots of hummingbird pictures in this little city so I guess that may be their spirit animal or something. 

It kind of started raining on me at the end, but I’m prepared for it. I’ve got pancho which has worked great. 

After I eat, I’ll probably take a tuk tuk back to San Marcos.   This is when it usually starts to rain a little bit more heavily.

 I’ve got a beautiful view of the lake here in the mountains . I keep trying to think of what this area reminds me of. Part of it reminds me of Costa Rica. Some of it reminds me of Nepal. Some of it reminds me of Peru. But honestly, I think it’s more beautiful than any of those places.  The sheer vertical slopes on these mountains that just plunge down to this aquamarine colored lake is just unbelievable.