I pretty much spent all day on the campus here. I woke up and studied for a while. Then made mesome scrambled eggs and ate a couple of apples. Also made some coffee for the first time since I’ve been here.  That was really good.

Enjoyed chats with with Kathy, and Anthony, and the grand girls. Made me feel better. I was feeling pretty low today. I think that’s one reason why I just stayed around the house. I didn’t really have anywhere I wanted to go. I pretty much have done everything twice that I wanted to see.

I enjoyed watching YouTube videos and just taking it easy. 

I was pretty hungry this evening. Decided to go by Buho and get some pad Thai. That was one of my first meals when I got here and it was absolutely delicious.

On my way down there I saw my friend who I’ve been talking to pretty much every day. He’s been good about giving me information at what’s been going on in the government with the roads. I told him that I had had, a lead about going into Guatemala city last night, but it fell through. He told mehe had a way to get me to the airport. I was intrigued to say the least. He told me I would have to be in Panajachel at 8 PM tomorrow night and they would drive during the evening midnight hours get into the airport around one or 2 o’clock in the morning. He said his driver had done the same trip four times and had not had any problem. He assured me that it was safe.

I’ll pay him about $60 for that trip to the airport. I’ve already paid $45 with another group. I had set those tickets up before I even left the states. I figured it was worth it just to go ahead and get to the airport. 

This morning, one of my jobs was to call delta.com and explain to them the situation. I got my tickets changed to Saturday. There was no charge for that because they said it was a public safety issue. 

When I get to the airport tomorrow night one of my first jobs will be to get back on that chat with delta.com and see if I can swap my tickets back to my original, which was for Thursday at 1:10 PM. If I can do that then I’ll just stay at the airport for that 10 or 12 hours until the flight. That’s better than trying to find a place and stay there and then come back to the airport.

If I can’t get a flight out until Friday or Saturday, then I’ll go to a hostel I’ve researched and stay there for that couple of days. I think that I will be able to get on that flight tomorrow though I don’t see it being completely sold out. Surely they’ll at least one spot for me. But if I have to stay another day or so, at least I’ll be close to the airport and know that I’ll be able to get there.

After I talk to my friend Estefan, I went on and got pad Thai from Buho, which was delicious. 

Came back home took a shower just enjoying some rest time again. It’s been quite an adventure although I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted to do.  At least I was stuck in a beautiful place, as well as being inexpensive. 

I doubt the weather on the volcano was good.  I could tell that the volcano was completely clouded over from my room. At least that’s what I’m gonna tell myself.

I look forward to a good nights sleep to the final push towards the tomorrow night. 

I spent my whole day in San Marcus today. This morning I decided to do my laundry. I’ve never really done laundry by hand before. It was an interesting concept. I didn’t do my short pants. I thought those would take too long to drive but I did my shorts, my underwear, handkerchiefs, sweatbands,  and shirts. 

One of my best things I’ve taken on this trip has been my clothesline. It’s a really great asset to traveling because there’s always something that needs to be hung up to help dry out.  It really worked great.  I took it up stairs to the third level which is just a big Terrace.  I hung that up between some rebar and got everything  dried out. I’m glad I did it because the rest of the day it’s been kind of rainy.

I went over to Casa de Juanita for breakfast/lunch but it was closed. I thought it might be because she said they were having problems getting gas because of all the roads being blocked. It’s a real hardship on the people here that’s for sure not just for the tourists.

I decided to go ahead and just cook my own breakfast this morning so went and bought a few eggs and some tomatoes and onions and also got some ears of corn and couple of apples and a banana. I fried up the tomato and onions and scrambled some eggs with it tasted good. And then I put the corn in the microwave that they have in the kitchen here at the hotel and cooked and ate that too. 

On my way home. I realized it looked like it was gonna start raining so I decided I just stay here at the house today. Had a good chat with Anthony in England. He’s there at his mom’s house right now taking care of her after she had open heart surgery.

Then I got in touch with Ashley and had a really good FaceTime with Penelope And Everly and Ashley. That made me feel a lot better. 

Also had a good talk with Nana today. We spoke for quite a long time as well. I know she was glad to hear from me. I know she’s been worried about me, but I’m OK. 

I really do think that this part of Guatemala is probably the safest. There’s really not been any violence at all. Just peaceful protests through these blocked roads. 

I talked with my hotel manager today about some places I was thinking about walking and she said one direction was real safe. The other one was not as safe, so better to stay on the one that had busier cars and stuff like that. It’s always good to get safety information. 

I asked about where the two girls that had been a couple of doors down from me in the hotel had gone and she said they had gone to the city across the lake and that she did not think they were having a good time. That’s a much bigger city than San Marcos and she said there was some problems there. But she assured me that San Marcos was super calm and not a problem at all here and you’re very secure so I was glad to hear that.

I’ve been in touch with my travel insurance people seeing what and how much is gonna be covered because what’s going on here. I wanted to see if they’re going to cover any ticket increase it might be to get my ticket from Guatemala City on into Atlanta. 

I still hope I’m gonna be able to come back on Thursday, but it’s seeming less and less likely. I’m trying to be optimistic . One thing’s for sure if I’m anywhere in the country I’d rather be here than in the big cities. This is way more beautiful and safer. Although there’s been no reports of any violence anywhere in the country.

I really appreciate getting to talk to all of y’all today. I even got to have a short FaceTime with Kathy at Young World. Enjoyed that a lot too. 

I sure do miss all you guys. I’ve been feeling kind of lonely. I get that way when I don’t have enough to do.  I walked about 12 miles yesterday that made me feel better. I have been sticking around the house because of the rain. 

I’m hearing a lot of thunder and seeing some lightning again. I think last night was the biggest and loudest thunder and lightning storm I’ve ever been in my life.  I saw big bolts of lightning strike the lake. It was crazy. Super loud booms.

I get a better night sleep last night. Studied Spanish for about an hour and a half. Went to my Casa de Juanita place but it was closed. I went to another restaurant. It wasn’t very good but it put a lump in my gut. I ate two eggs, black beans and some tortillas. 

I was feeling kind of down. Just the idea of not knowing when I’m gonna be able to leave really bothered me. Plus missing my hike up the Acatenango volcano was something I was really looking forward to. But I’ve enjoyed the benefits of all that hard work out that I did for five months. So that’s good. 

Whenever I’m feeling down I always try to push myself physically. So that’s what I did today. I decided I was going to walk from here in San Marcos to San Pedro. That’s about a 5 1/2 mile hike. It is just up and down hills all the way there’s no flat areas at all. My goal was to work out for about 4 1/2 hours. That’s the amount of time that it takes to climb Acatenango. I had a backpack on with several water bottles to kind of be a little bit heavy and I just tried to think of it as if that was my hike. 

I did very well. It was funny how much faster I was than all the Guatemalans walking. I wasn’t racing. I just think I was fitter than they are generally. Which is kind of wild to think about. 

I got to San Juan and had three pancakes while I was there. They weren’t very good. They were super dry. I don’t know what they made them out of. I had a couple of them and drank some Coca-Cola and ate the fruit with two of the pancakes and saved one of the pancakes for tomorrow or whenever. 

I went onto San Pedro to ask some people about the roads and stuff. But nobody really knows what’s gonna happen. The protests are still on in full force. This sort of stuff happened in September and the protests went on for one week. 

Tomorrow will mark one week, so hopefully they’ll go ahead and cancel these protests again till later. The guy I talked with in Saint Pedro was not optimistic about that though. So that made mefeel sad. I just miss everybody at home. 

I enjoy my travels but I look forward to getting home and being with everybody.  I cannot control the government. So I just have to make the best of it. We all do.

Today’s Sunday and it’s been interesting to hear the churches in the area of which there are a lot at least six in this town and all playing hymns that I know. They’re just all in Spanish. So that’s been kind of fun. After I ate im San Juan I hiked the rest of the way back home which is about another 4 1/2 miles. So in all I hiked for 4 1/2 hours and did about 11 1/2 to 12 miles in all something like that. 

Felt really good. At the very end of the hike I could see torrential rain headed towards San Marcos. So I really stepped up the pace because I didn’t wanna get caught in that deluge like I did yesterday. Fortunately, I saw it coming then too and knew I’d get caught by it and so I took one of those little three wheeled motorcycle things back to town, and I was glad I did because it came down in bucket loads. 

It was the first night when it seemed like it rained the whole night long with thunderstorms. We’ve  had rain for the other nights, but had no thunder or lightning and last night was a tremendous amount of thunder and lightning. 

I got home immediately got a shower and got cleaned off and man I mean the lightning was just going on all around us. It was just Some of the loudest lightning I’ve ever heard. Huge bolts! I’m not sure if it’s because it was just so close to me or because we’re just higher up and so we’re closer to it. I don’t know what it was. It sounded like bombs going off. It’s crazy. 

When I got into town The lights were off in the store I usually stop and get some cookies a Coke. I thought oh crap. Well, there’s no power at my house. But I also thought, I’ve got all external batteries and stuff so I know I can last at least two days with no power if I had to. 

I got up to my house though and I noticed that the chargers still had green lights on was on so I have power and that is all good. 

I noticed yesterday when I was trying to take notes on this app that it did not let me record talk to text which I never seen before and I thought maybe something was wrong. Then I realized that you have to have Internet connection for it to be able to do that. so overall a very good day. 

 I feel tired, ready to rest and maybe get some more studying in on Spanish.

I didn’t sleep all that well last night. Woke up about 2:30 and had a hard time going back to sleep. Just kept thinking about what would happen if the power went out in this place. Although we still have power, there is no traffic yet. All the roads are still blocked. 

First thing I did after getting cleaned up and getting dressed was come over and check out the ATM to get more money out. And it indeed was out of money. The lady in the store said that the roads are blocked and the people bringing in the trucks with money can’t get through. So my guess the same situation is going on with all the little Towns around this lake. There’s only one ATM here. I can get money for a 20% surcharge. Which means when I get about $130 out I have to pay about seven bucks. It’s not that bad I guess. Especially when you’re in the only game in town!

We just have to deal with the situation as it comes around. 

Only see one little boat on the lake. They told me at the boat docks yesterday that only private boats were moving. They said there’s no gasoline in Panajachel. That’s the main town around here. I’m curious as to whether they got there electricity turn back on. One of the reasons I had a hard time going back to sleep last night is I kept thinking about what the electricity actually runs on here. I don’t know whether it’s through diesel generators or what. Hopefully it just keeps cruising along like this. So far there’s plenty of food in town. 

I’m now eating my huevos rancheros with a coffee. I’m sure that’s gonna make me feel better.

I don’t have really any plans for today besides, maybe going back to Tzununa which is just a nice walk away. I’vepretty much seen everything I wanted to see. So that’s good. 

I’ve been trying to contact my hostel in Antigua. Checking on the situation for reimbursement of the reservations I have in case I can’t get through tomorrow, which is looking more and more likely all the time. The protest actually started last Monday so hopefully this coming Monday though let everything back open. I don’t think there’s been much progress as far as with a government and the elected president they’re not letting into Office.

I’ve just spent the last hour plus being in contact with delta.com as well as global alliance company. The customer service people at Delta were actually quite helpful. They told me that not many cancellations have occurred. That really surprised me because I figured there be a lot of people that could not get back to Guatemala City if they were in some other part of Guatemala. But they said there weren’t many cancellations. Maybe because most of the people who take that flight are actually from Guatemala and live in the capital. Not sure about that. They said that I could just contact Delta’s customer service and they could help me rebook the flight. They just said to make sure I cancel my flight before the flight occurs. I’ll probably do it the night before.

I’ve been in touch with the insurance people to see if I get reimbursed or whether they cover it on the front end for the Delta ticket. Not exactly sure about that but that’s why I buy insurance.

This has been a very different day than most of what I’ve had here Guatemala. I’m not too worried about it. Because really, what is there I could do? I just keep working on logistics and counting on everything to work out. One step at a time that’s all we can do.

I guess my next piece of business is to go back to that store and get some more cash out. If the electricity does go dead in this place, I’ll be cut off with no Wi-Fi. Maybe I can still get a cell signal but I’m not sure about that either. 

Just to continue to pray, that the Father will work all things out as he always does. That’s the real reason I’m not really uptight about this.

@@@@@@

I just had a long talk with Juanita who is the main owner of the place up and eat breakfast last few days. She was telling me about the situation here as far as the restaurant goes. How much more money the vegetables cost. But she said the main problems she was having now is that by Monday they won’t have any gas to cook with. 

She said her husband is right now in San Pedro trying to get a bottle of gas but it’s gonna be about double the price to cook stuff. I just paid the regular price but I gave her another few bucks to try to help out a little bit. It’s kind of unfair to me to pay regular price if they’re having to pay double for their vegetables and gas. 

I was walking from San Marcos to San Juan and I saw this kid that was about Penelope size. He was a little boy absolutely packed down with a giant pile of grass. It looked like 100 pounds of that stuff. I thought he was a midget and when I realized it was just a kid I couldn’t believe it.

It took me about an hour and a half to walk from San Marcos to San Juan. It’s supposed to be about a 4 mile trip.

 I found an ATM and that was really good news.  I stayed in San Juan and got something to eat and enjoyed the beautiful view. 

Wi-Fi here was pretty good so I was able to get the grand girls on FaceTime. That was fun. Penelope was a little sad. Her game wasn’t working right. 

Also had a chance to talk with Anthony. Always good. Tried to call Jessi and Kathy, but never could get through them.

I’m thinking I’ll probably just take the boat back to San Marcos. Don’t really feel like walking back.  Looks like the rain is moving in. I might wait till it blows by.  

I walked all the way down to the boats and there were three captains sitting there and they all said the same thing. “No boats are running unless you hire the entire boat.”

 I wasn’t willing to do that. That’s crazy talk. So I decided to take a tuk tuk  which is the little three wheel motorcycle thing that has a cabin around it. Cost me about five dollars to take two separate tuk tuks  from San Juan back to San Marcos. 

I didn’t want to walk plus it looked like it was gonna rain. And just as I was getting into San Marcos it absolutely poured down rain. I jumped out of the tik tuk and went inside a store.  I waited until it kind of calmed down a bit, put on my poncho and headed up the hill to the Hotel Berena . 

Now that I’ve got some money I feel a little bit better about this whole situation. I can be more patient. The hostel in Antigua said that if they could sell the room  I could get my money back on those days but who knows about that. 

I don’t blame them. It’s the off-season and they don’t have hardly any guests. They have to support their families too.

I woke up at my usual time around 5:30 this morning. I enjoyed sitting out on the porch watching the colors change. I especially like San Fuego putting up some smoke. 

Absolutely beautiful nice and cool. Lower 60s this morning. I had a good talk with Kathy this  morning. That’s always good. Keep in touch with loved ones. 

Had a delicious breakfast at Casa Juanita this morning. Today I had huevos rancheros. Salsa was absolutely delicious. Such a great spot to just chill and drink coffee. I also liked the hammock they had set up.  It was fun to swing on that for a while. I’m never really done hammocks before but I really liked this one this morning. I use the one at Berena but I didn’t like that one as much. 

After I ate breakfast, I went over to the docks to catch a boat over to Santa Cruz which was my goal for today. But apparently Santa Cruz is such a small town that unless you have a private boat you don’t go there. Not a big deal. It’s not uncommon for me to completely change plans on the fly. 

Couple of days ago went to Tzununá, which is kind the sister town over from San Marcos la Laguna. I really enjoyed that place. It’s a good walk about 2 miles. So I felt like well, I’ll get some exercise and go over there today.

They’ve got some restaurants down there by the lake. I thought might be fun. It’s just good not to be stressed out by too many plans. I had only rough ideas of what I was going to do except for the major cities like Antigua and Lake Atitlan and the volcano Acatenango next Monday. 

The roads are still closed here in Guatemala. But the news from the US Embassy was that they’re supposed to open sometime today. I’m supposed to go back to Antigua on Sunday. If the roads are still closed then I’ll have to start calling around and changing plans. I have to be at Guatemala city I think Thursday morning, so I still got some time before that all happens, so not worried about it.

I walked about a mile and a half to Tzununa not to go to this restaurant on the lake. Apparently they were supposed to have like circus performers or something? Bottom line is it was closed because of the protest all the roads are closed.  There’s always Plan C. So I’m heading on into Tzununa  and see what kind of restaurants where I can get a cold drink maybe some Wi-Fi.  Life is good, baby. 

As is typical the unplanned is best. After the restaurant by the lake was closed, I hiked up the mountain and when I got above the city a little bit I started looking for places that have Wi-Fi so I connect with people.  My iPhone said Hotel Bambú had Wi-Fi so I walked up the hill and checked out the hotel’s restaurant. It’s an all natural place called Atitlan Organics and the Hotel Bambú. Getting some lemonade here and chilling with a magnificent view here and just exquisite lemonade. 

Something h that I decided yesterday after climbing the Lookout point at San Juan was to take a second shirt. That way I have something dry to put on while my first completely soaking wet shirt dries out. That’s what I’m doing now I’ve got my yellow parrot shirt on a Little table drying out in the sun and the breeze.  My back up shirt is nice and dry. 

I saw another sign for a restaurant that said La Cascada, which means the waterfall. I thought that might be a nice place to check out drink a Coke and look at the waterfall. 

I climbed up this path that was like it’s some kind of mountain goat trail.  It was like climbing up a mountain with just an animal path. It was all locked up and I started yelling, real loud Hola! Hola! Finally some ladies came out and let me in and let me look around a little bit. The sign said restaurant, and a hotel.  I talked to the owner and he made it sound like “You tell me what you want and I’ll go down to the village and bring food back.” 

All part of the adventure.

I walked down the road from the mountain path and still hadn’t had anything to eat because there wasn’t a restaurant at that Hotel. I passed by this smoothie shop and this guy with long beard and long hair called out to me and said that I looked like a friend of his that had died. I went over and told him “I’m not dead yet.”

We struck up a conversation and he was an interesting enough guy. We were talking and these three little Guatemalan girls came up to us. One of them was extremely precocious. She wanted to know where I was from and I told her. And she said she had been to the States. She was maybe six years old. So I asked her was she scared when she rode on the airplane and she said no she wasn’t so I asked her how old are you and she told me she was 17 and we just laughed and laughed. Her came up about two minutes later and I told her mother that she just told me that her daughter was 17. She just looked at me like that’s what kids will do.

The hippie guy was named Dylan and said he knew where there was a good place to eat. I’m always for that. He was kind of a homeless looking guy didn’t even have any shoes on. He walked up this rocky road I told him he reminded me of an African being able to walk on rocks like that.

We got to the restaurant which was really interesting looking place. It was a farm and they raised everything that they were cooking. Dylan started rolling a cigarette with his little pack of tobacco and I walked to the other side of the restaurant eventually told him you know dude I’m being transparent with you,  I really don’t like cigarette smoke. He didn’t ask me if he could do that or anybody else in the restaurant. He just started doing it. Anyway, that immediately put me off.

We got Food in a little while, and he started talking about a long line of conspiracy theories such as being anti-VAX. He just started talking about all kinds of wacky things including drinking raw milk, and reverse osmosis water. And I was just like “that’s OK if that’s what you wanna believe.” I finished my lunch and just said “OK I’m not mad at you but I’m leaving.” 

I’m sure he thought, I was mad and was leaving in a huff. But that wasn’t really the case. I was leaving because I thought he was stupid and boring. But I thought it was better just to say I have other things I need to do.

I walked about 2 1/2 miles back to San Marcos. I went pretty fast because that was usually about this time the rain started rolling in. Fortunately, it didn’t rain at all. But as I’m writing it is pouring down rain.

I stopped by one store and talked to the owner there about what he had heard about the protest. He made it sound like there had been no progress, and that the situation was getting worse around the lake. There was no gas for even the boats to go back-and-forth between the cities. 

I talked with a couple of girls who were also staying in the hotel, and they said they had been to the main city on the lake Panajachel, and that place didn’t even have any power. 

So all in all I’m glad I’m here and not other parts of Guatemala. This is by far the safest place to be I think.

That’s just part of traveling in other countries you never know what can happen. Honestly, the same thing could happen in the USA. we’ve had our power go out. We’ve had times we couldn’t get any gasoline. We’ve had times we couldn’t drive around because of weather.

I had a long talk with the caretaker of this place this evening and we were both on the same page. It seemed to us that we were better off than other parts of Guatemala. At least we had plenty of food, water and electricity. Amen.

I woke up about 545 this morning. Had a pretty good nights rest. I had my earphones on blasting white noise so I didn’t hear any of the dogs, chickens, and tuk tuks running around all night long. It helped a lot!

I woke up went outside to take pictures of the sunrise.  I noticed an unusual cloud formation over one of the volcanoes. I realized that it had been eruptIng! From the lake I could see Fuego, which is what I’ll be climbing next to on Acatenango. During that two hours plus that I watched it erupting  about every five minutes. Wow. Many times I could actually hear the boom is it shot off smoke. 

I was hoping to go to Casa de Juanita for breakfast as I did yesterday but it was closed. So I decided to go ahead and head over to San Pedro where I ate breakfast. 

Absolutely gorgeous location right on the lake edge of the lake. The lighting is just perfect. These mountains around this lake are absolutely stunning. Just incredible. It looks like movies I’ve seen that are shot in Hawaii. Like Jurassic Park.

I just had a lady come over to my table selling desserts. I got a small loaf of banana bread for a couple bucks. It looks absolutely delicious. Wow. So good. 

I had a nice walk around San Pedro. I decided to get some exercise and see a little bit more of the city. There was some good street art here. I’d read that there was. I was kind of interested in seeing that. I walked all the way to the other side of the city where the boat taxis go to Santiago where I’m headed for today. 

As is common in this area there’s about 15 people at least per boat. It’s sort of like in Kenya.  Just wait till the bus is full and then you go.   I’m not any big hurry.  I drank a Coke looked at the beautiful scenery. When it was full, I headed on over across the lake to the next stop.

There are a lot of Jewish people in this area particularly in San Pedro seems to me. I saw an orthodox Jew and his wife with three small kids. One of them looked to be maybe four. And that little four-year-old boy was running thirty yards ahead of the family down these little streets.  It was the craziest thing I’ve seen in a while. The mom and dad seemed like this was normal and not a big deal. Some of the Guatemalans were looking at this little kid, running down the road by himself just looking and just shaking their heads and I was feeling exact same way.  I mean I just don’t understand it. I guess they just super trust their little kid or something but it was just beyond me. Crazy. I held off from saying anything to family like “What the hell?!”

I got  to Santiago (San Diego) and walked around for about an hour and a half I guess. It’s quite a large city. I took a few pictures. Went over to the church sat in a little bit of the service. Checked that vibe out. It’s mostly old women. Wasn’t much to appeal to me honestly. I walked around and I only saw one other tourist the whole time. I can see why. Just seemed like a random city you could find anywhere. 

I went to San Juan and went straight to walk up the Mirador which is this 700 m altitude climb.   I went up and down it three times.  2000 feet altitude each time.I was really sweaty after that. It was good practice for Acatenango. I back to the docks about 4:30 PM. These public boats work on when they get full that’s when they leave but at this time of day it’s hard to make them get full. So we waited till 530 which is the last departure time and then they go home for the night. 

 I talked to a guy named Diego.  He went to the States to do a leadership conference for indigenous Mayan groups. They went to New York and Washington for five weeks of study. It was very interesting listening him talk about going to the States. Didn’t speak any  English but he said when he was doing classes they had headphones which translated what going on. It’s interesting to see guys like that who have international experience.

I just got back home to San Marcos. I stopped at a food vendor to get some fried onions and put them on some french fries. I enjoyed the last of my banana bread that I got this morning.

Good times!

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.

Woke up early about 5:15 AM. I had a good nights sleep because I was using my headphones and had rain sound pumping out. I don’t know how other people do it because the dogs bark all night long and starting real super early the roosters start going. But I didn’t have a problem with either of those. 

StudIed for about an hour and then left my hotel and went to look for something to eat. It was still too early at 8 o’clock for places to be open. I did find a cup of coffee at La Pachamama a little restaurant/hostel thing. Decided to use that time till everything kinda woke up to get on a boat  taxi and come over to San Juan Laguna, which is the neighboring city to San Marcos. 

The town where most of the backpackers stay in is San Pedro. There are lots of different things to see and more bars and noise. 

San Juan where I’m at right 

now is right next to San Pedro. I had a funny conversation with two guys that were in front of me on the boat taxi.  I was talking with about which one was going to be the first stop, San Pedro, or San Juan.  One said it would be San Pedro and the other one San Juan was first. So they bet a breakfast on it.  Fortunately for me it was San Juan because that’s where I wanted to go.

I had a delicious breakfast at a place that had a fantastic view of Lake Atitlan. It was  their version of juevos rancheros. Also had a little slice of cheese, fried plantains, a little tiny bowl of rice, and a type of sour cream and three little corn tortillas. The tortillas here in Guatemala are much thicker and smaller than tortillas from Mexico.

My next stop was to visit a woman’s cooperative that made natural dyes and spun the cotton into different garments. She let me try to spin the thread from the raw cotton. Can’t say I was very good at that! It was still fun to try. She showed me every part of the process. How they made the colors was very interesting. Not only did they use leaves and bark but for one color they actually squished up these tiny little bugs. They made these red colors.

She showed me how they make the fabrics.  A small shawl would take that lady about 60 hours to complete. 

My next stop was to a chocolate making factory. I was shown what the cacao beans look like, how they did the fermentation, how they dried them and then got the seeds out. They crush the seeds up and when they do that, they start to really look and taste like chocolate. I had a taste of what the crushed up beans taste like. It was a pretty strong flavor sort of like dark chocolate. They then showed me all the different things they would add the chocolate to make different flavors.  It was really interesting.

The next part of my Safari was to climb up to the Lookout of San Juan. It was a pretty steep climb that took about 20 minutes. Just absolutely beautiful. The top of it I could see all the way around the lake and the mountains that were above you. Just incredible. I walked around the town trying to find a coffee factory never could find that. But I’ve taken tours in Kenya about coffee so I didn’t really have to see it. 

My next stop was in San Pedro. I took a Tuk Tuk over to San Pedro they cost me about $1.50. Saved me at least a 45 minute walk. I was already pretty tired.

My goal in San Pedro was to find out how much it cost to take a guide up to the top of the San Pedro volcano. It’s a four hour hike up a three hour hike down. Includes the guide, transportation and security for $50. Sounds pretty hard. I’d have to figure out food to take up because they don’t provide food or water. 

I would have to be at the San Marcos boat latch about 6:30 in the morning.  It’s not too early for me. I’d get out back to San Pedro around 7:00 AM or so then push off to the San Pedro Volcano. 

I had a vegetarian burrito at a place right on the lake and I’m here by myself. It’s called Los Colompios, which means “The Swings.” They have swings around their location. 

I just had a super fun chat with the grandgirls . I’ve been looking forward to that. 

In a moment I’ll head back to the dock so I can catch a boat back over to San Marcos. 

Just got back to San Marcos. I had a good late lunch early supper. It started raining again here. I got to my hotel just fine. I reckon I’ll just take a shower and rest the rest of the night. I don’t see megoing back out. It was a lot of walking miles and miles. And some really steep hills too.

Thanks for making the effort to let me talk to the girls, Ashley. I really appreciate that. Miss you all. Glad you’re feeling better K! I’ll be in touch real soon. I’ll send a link to all the pictures I took today.  

Ashley if or Miles have a chance I’d appreciate you letting them get to see some of the pictures so if they feel like they’re part of the trip too.

Woke up a lot last night. Rooster started crowing at about 4 AM. I eventually went ahead and put on my headphones and blasted White Noise to cover up the sounds of trucks, dogs and roosters. Slept pretty well after that. I woke up, feeling really lightheaded and kind of nauseated. 

Took a shower, got cleaned up, packed my bags. I talked with Licho who is the main maintenance guy there at the chalet I’m staying at. I gave him about three dollars just to make sure he watched my bags because I didn’t wanna have to try to take those anywhere. 

I got a omelette with mushrooms and cheese and onions. They had a kind of a tomato salsa that was good. It wasn’t spicy at all. And they had a lovely plate of fruit. they had  banana sliced kind of laterally around the edges of the plate, and then pieces of papaya in the middle part and in the inner part were pieces of cantaloupe. It was really pretty and good coffee, of course Guatemalan coffee, which is just some of the best. 

That made me feel a little better. I went back to my house and got everything situated to leave. I decided I didn’t want to take any backpacks and all my really important documents. I just left those in my bag. I figured it’s gonna be safe enough there better than me hauling them around probably. 

I got a tuk tuk which is a three wheel motorcycle thing with a cabin on it from my Airbnb towards the reserve. People told me that the roads were blocked  because of protests against the government. 

The people are so poor here gasoline like $5.50 a gallon and they are lots of problems, but everything seemed very peaceful. They wouldn’t let the cars go through but if you were walking, they didn’t care. It was funny to me because here I am the tourist and we were walking up the steep roads towards this preserve and they were huffing and puffing. I was like you guys are used to this walking are you? It really made me laugh. They never walk like that. 

I got onto the little road that led to the nature preserve and I was astonished to see these three Tree guys working on trying to take down this branch. The guy that was the cutter they had throwing a rope way over a top branch and they had tied this rope to the guy’s waist and the two guys the at bottom we’re trying to pull him up the tree.  It looked like it was at least  50 foot maybe 100 foot tall.  They were really struggling so I took a picture and video and then went over there to help them pull.  I said these guys never going to get guy up that tree.  I started pulling on that thing and then he just just started going up.  Shoop Shoop Shoop Shoop Shoop. They keeps saying, “Gracias Papa, Gracias.” So anyway they were very thankful and I told him they needed to put another rope on this big branch they were getting ready to cut because that was just gonna demolish the roof. They said they didn’t have another rope. I saw one rope that was busted I’m like oh my God this guy like cutting it with a machete at the top this tree and then they had a big chainsaw tube but it looked super sketch. 

I got to the nature preserve about 15 minutes later than that. Absolutely gorgeous out here. It’s just lush and green. Reminds me of the Abaderes in Kenya. Lots of butterflies and just absolutely lovely. 

There is a group of school kids here too. I would say they’re probably first or second graders. Super loud kids. It’s exactly like being back in Azalea, squealing and yelling, and, anyway it was OK. It didn’t bother me. 

I’m at the very top of the trail now. There’s this extreme cable trail and another thing that looks crazy.  dangerous. There is no way I would go down on these things and this kind of place. It just looks like catastrophe waiting to happen. Nothing like what I went down on in Costa Rica. But it’s an absolutely beautiful view from up here. You can see several volcanoes I can also see the clouds moving in. I’m gonna go do the rest of the trails here and then go back and get my bags and then head for the lake to go onto San Marcos Le Laguna, which is going to be my base camp while I’m on Lake Atitlan.

I really enjoyed the nature preserve. The Coatimundis were my favorite. They went crazy over this one’s kids bananas. It was pretty funny. I went also went down to the beach area and that was beautiful. The butterfly gardens are enclosed in this big geodesic dome. I saw my favorite the Blue Morphos. I used to see them in the Amazon and they’re fantastic with a metallic blue color. I am headed back to Pacajashel now. I just passed over 100 orthodox Jews. All ages that seem like mainly young families pushing strollers on not the greatest road. They looked like they were having some issues with the road but they kept on going. I did a lot of shalom to them. They said they’re from New York City in particular Brooklyn and Manhattan. It’s interesting because the chalet Paraiso, which is where I’m staying just up the street from it is Shofar house so there must be some Jewish presence here for sure.

I also said hi to the guys that were cutting the tree. Look like they got it all down on the ground and it didn’t look like it hit the house below it so good job lads.

One thing is for sure all that walking up my hill out in front of my house sure has paid off. I’m walking up these hills with no problem and it’s still at altitude. It may have been the altitude that was giving me problems this morning and having a hard time sleeping I don’t know. It was very noisy that’s for sure but I am not nauseated anymore so that’s good news and I’m looking forward to getting something else to eat.

It was a pretty rough boat ride over to San Marcos Laguna. I got my bag off the boat and started going up the hill. I researched where this hotel is supposed to be on the map. But where the maps said it was and where actually was was very different. I had a young man who said he knew where the place was came to show me where it was and help me with the bag and it was pretty much impossible to find without help. And he just put that big old 50 pound bag on his bag and just walked up big part of the hill. Most of it we could push using the wheels. So I was glad to get moved in and everything worked out. I gave him a nice tip.

I ate at Buho this evening. I had pad Thai. It was so good! Came back home and torrential rain. I’m glad I had that poncho. Having that kept my backpack dry too because it’s so big.

Spent over an hour studying Spanish.

Uploaded all the pictures to my server. It takes a while because I have to do 20 at a time rather than just upload the whole batch so I kinda have to babysit the process.

I’m ready to put my earphones on. I’ve been listening to dog bark the whole time I’ve been uploading stuff. I had the window open to cool off the room. But I’m gonna leave it open while I’m sleeping

Really fun day.

Had a fun evening at Maia Papaya with Coon from Holland. He told me the story of how on December 5 they would have Santa Claus but with him are Santa’s elves. They all dressed in black face with red lipstick and gold earrings. And they would bring presents to the kids in the neighborhood. it was hilarious to hear him talk about this. They did techno dances down the street together. But there was some pushback against it obviously because of the black face. In fact, the Santa Claus with with the “black”kids would take a boat and there would be actual Africans waiting for them, and would like beat them up after they got out of the boat. 

At about 2 o’clock in the morning, I heard a tremendous bang on the roof. It sounded like somebody had crashed into it. I was convinced some kind of catastrophe just happened. Had seen that the room next to mine, which is where the sound came from had been empty all day long. So after about 10 minutes of thinking about it I decided I should get up just in case it was leaking something or somebody was hurt. So I went next door  and tried the door and it was unlocked. And I opened it up about 4 inches and then heard some girl Kinda go Oh! something like that. So I decided that maybe Everything was OK. The next day I found out that it was an avocado that had hit the roof that had made such a racket. And all during the night you would hear these big booms from these avocados clobbering the roof. I also found out that it was a special Weekend for the local Catholic church. That was just about a block for Maya Papaya. And they would shoot off lots of fireworks during the day.  It  sounded like a dead gum, gun battle.

I worked on Spanish in the morning and then waited for my minibus to pick me up at Maya Papaya around 1230. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive through the mountains to make it to Ponajachel. Our driver was named Barcelo. I talked with him in Spanish for the whole time. Excellent practice. He is tribe of Maya Indians that are from this area and he lived in Ponanjachel. 

I got to my Airbnb which was this room on the second floor of this little house. My bag weighs nearly 50 pounds and trying to get it up this rickety stairway that was about a foot and half wide was quite a challenge. I’m not sure exactly how I’m gonna get back down with that thing. I got my key and talked with the lady who was in charge of the house. Everything was in Spanish. 

I was walking around a little bit. Got some extra local money so I could pay for things. And saw a place that made like quesadillas, which has been my favorite food items since I’ve been here. Made friends with the staff and got a Hawaiian quesadilla which had lots of different kinds of vegetables, as well as pineapple. It was delicious. I was walking around also saw there was a band playing at a soccer game so I watched them for a while and then when I got over here to this place, which is called El parzo. Watched the band play. As well as the soccer match. I’ll probably go home pretty soon take a shower and rest. I’m looking forward to going to the nature reserve Atitlan tomorrow morning. The lady who runs the place, said it was no problem for me to leave my bag there.