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\u2019t 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\u2019t have a problem with either of those. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019clock 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
San Juan where I\u2019m at right <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s where I wanted to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My next stop was to visit a woman\u2019s 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She showed me how they make the fabrics. A small shawl would take that lady about 60 hours to complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019ve taken tours in Kenya about coffee so I didn\u2019t really have to see it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s a four hour hike up a three hour hike down. Includes the guide, transportation and security for $50. Sounds pretty hard. I\u2019d have to figure out food to take up because they don\u2019t provide food or water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would have to be at the San Marcos boat latch about 6:30 in the morning. It\u2019s not too early for me. I\u2019d get out back to San Pedro around 7:00 AM or so then push off to the San Pedro Volcano. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had a vegetarian burrito at a place right on the lake and I\u2019m here by myself. It\u2019s called Los Colompios, which means \u201cThe Swings.\u201d They have swings around their location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just had a super fun chat with the grandgirls . I\u2019ve been looking forward to that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a moment I\u2019ll head back to the dock so I can catch a boat back over to San Marcos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019ll just take a shower and rest the rest of the night. I don\u2019t see megoing back out. It was a lot of walking miles and miles. And some really steep hills too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks for making the effort to let me talk to the girls, Ashley. I really appreciate that. Miss you all. Glad you\u2019re feeling better K! I\u2019ll be in touch real soon. I\u2019ll send a link to all the pictures I took today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ashley if or Miles have a chance I\u2019d appreciate you letting them get to see some of the pictures so if they feel like they\u2019re part of the trip too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019t 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\u2019t have a problem with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17976,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17975\/revisions\/17976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whirlwindmissions.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}