Cannonball

Play this while you watch my jump. Or about 30 seconds into this.

Perfect form

Lago de Atitlan

Oh Lake Atitlan. You are like heaven on earth. Aldous Huxley even said that you are too much of a good thing.

We spent our last two days here. It was the most relaxing thing I've ever done. A true Terrill vacation, complete with sunbathing, swimming, sleeping, and reading. Mark and Julie stayed at this amazing hotel in the village of Tzununa and highly recommended it to us. It was remote, scenic, and just so indescribably great.

I kind of wish that we had seen more of the villages while we were there because the history of the region is so interesting. But after a week of crazy flights and windy drives, we were ready to just chill out. We arrived in Panajachel (backpacker town) and after eating a delicious meal and freshly blended pineapple juice we went immediately to our hotel. And since there were 350 stairs to our hotel we never really wanted to leave, haha. We made the hike down to the closest village of Tzununa (the poorest in the region) and got a teeny glimpse of indigenous life. It involved lots of pigs eating garbage and heart-breakingly cute children. We also went to the hippie village of San Marcos. Not my favorite. Probably because I wasn't wearing enough linen and patchouli.

The only picture I took in Pana. But you know. It was important.

Just hanging out poolside.

Hiking down to Tzununa.

This family of chickens (even a rooster dad!) was really funny to me until I started fearing that the rooster was going to start chasing me. But baby chicks! Cutiez. By the way--if I never hear a rooster crowing at 3 am ever again, it will be too soon.

A trashless view of Tzununa. It was really quite pretty.

Just the view from our private balcony.

Robbie is cute.

I'm not one to take pictures of my food but LOOK AT THE VIEW FROM OUR TABLE. Volcanoes!

Kayaking. This was the best. The water was still and the weather was gorgeous.

Some fishermen.

Cliffs near San Marcos. We met a guy at Pacaya who did some cliff jumping here... sounds like fun but I probably would have freaked out.

More volcano.

Having so much funnnnn!!! AAAAAAHHH!!!

Rich people's homes in San Marcos.

Those buildings up high on the hillside are our hotel. (And the huge house is where the owners live.) It fit so nicely into the landscape.

Robbie has great form. My form, on the other hand:



I had some struggles with my suit. Not gonna lie.

I didn't get a good picture but there was a guy spearfishing by us. He hooked the fish he caught onto his tiny Speedo. It was the funniest.

Sunrise on the boat to Pana on our way home.

The weather was amazing until about 2 pm on Friday... then we had torrential rain and stayed inside, read, and fought off bugs. And ate the most delicious ricotta + walnut ravioli at our restaurant. (I know, I know, the best ravioli probably isn't in Guatemala but it was AMAZING.) Really not too shabby.

So, that's the end of our trip! Gone, but not forgotten, since I still seem to have some residual sickness as a constant reminder. I don't know if I ate something bad or if I'm just tired but I've been a little off for the past week. Sigh.

Tikal

Welcome to the jungle!


Early Tuesday morning (like 4 am--shoot me) we left for Tikal. This is where the ruins are. It was pretty nuts! First of all, I've never seen/heard so much wildlife. We saw spider monkeys and crazy birds, families of coati walking by our bungalow, geckos in our bedroom, and we heard some howler monkeys. Hunter's description was pretty accurate--they sound like a pig mixed with a cow and a T-rex. Hear it for yourself. Second, things are still being excavated there. It was cool to see what they decided to excavate completely (like the Jaguar Temple) and what they left under thousands of years of growth.

Here we go.

A ceiba tree. Trees were really important in Mayan mythology.

A marketplace. (I think.) Wikipedia calls it an "acropolis."

Crazy bird's nests.

Robbie and the Jaguar Temple.

My attempt to have pictures of us without arms extended.

View of the acropolis from above.

Being casual.

Proof I was there. I seriously have 500 pictures of Robbie and none of me. (Also, I look like I wore the same thing every day and that's partly true. I just had five of the same Hane's undershirt.)

A partially excavated pyramid.

Just some altars for human sacrifices; NBD.

Temple IV--the largest temple in the park. It's only partially excavated.

After climbing the stairs to Temple IV. SO HOT AND HUMID.

The incredible view from Temple IV, which probably looks familiar.

Hanging out on our hammock.

Our cute little bungalow. Again, we were the only ones in our hotel.

The sign to our bungalow that always made us laugh. We're immature.

Surveying the other hotels' pools. (Ours didn't have one.)

Views from Flores. We stopped there for dinner before we caught our plane back to Antigua. There is not much to see in Flores.

Pacaya

On Tuesday we took an afternoon trip to Pacaya, a volcano about an hour's drive from Antigua. It was a pretty good hike with amazing views. We got attacked at the beginning by a group of kids selling marshmallows and roasting sticks, walking sticks, and horse rides. But then we noticed that our one-armed guide Leonel wasn't using a walking stick (even though he said it would be "necessary" on the jagged volcanic rock), so we figured if a one-armed man can do it without a stick... then we could too. At one point Leonel flew down the side of the mountain to catch someone's hat that had flown into the lava and caught on fire. That might have been the funniest thing I saw all week. A nimble little man.

So steep and so high up. I conquered many fears on Pacaya.

Someone gave us some of their marshmallows to roast over the lava. Guatemalans call marshmallows "angelitos." Cute.

Lava!!

The other side of Vulcan de Agua in the background.

I like to think of my Guate outfit as my sister missionary outfit. Just check out that fanny pack.

Roberto y Leonel. Leonel used to work in a printing factory in Guatemala City before he lost his arm on the job. He's been a guide on Pacaya for six years and he said that he likes being a guide because he gets to meet lots of people from around the world and ask them questions and learn about their culture. Pretty cool.

The lava got a lot more vivid when the sun went behind the clouds.

The view never got old. I've got enough pictures to create a series of computer screensavers.

Leonel also thought it would be a good idea to take us on an alternate (longer) scenic route back to the base of the mountain, so our group was trekking through the dark forest and stumbling over rocks and snakes. That was awesome. But it was a really fun hike and we were exhausted when we finally got back to our hotel that night.

(Some other cool volcanoes in the news here and here.)