Day 6 - Antigua and arrival at Lago Atitlan
Time to get on the road again! Wednesday morning we headed out early to Antigua Guatemala to catch a van to Panajachel at Lago Atitlan. Unfortunately, all the vans either left at 7am or 12:30am, so we missed the first ones. But fortunately, we got to look around Antigua a bit. We've taken so many pictures at this point, that it's hard to choose which ones to post. And in Antigua, I don't even remember the names of the places we visited. But here is a sample. (I have no idea why that text is underlined... I can't make it go away!) Antigua has many churches that were destroyed in an earthquake quite a long time ago. Apparently, the earthquake leveled some 50 churches. Makes you wonder... So we visited 2 ruins.
This is the restored part of one of the churches. They were celebrating something which is why it is decorated. But I love the monk down at the bottom of the picture.
This was in the basement of one of the ruins. Mayans still hold religious ceremonies there. They burn candles and such, so everything is covered in soot.
At noon, we caught our van to Panajachel, which is on the shores of Lago Atitlan, a lake which is actually a volcano crater. It is surrounded by 3 large volcanoes that luckily are not active, but that make this place unique and beautiful. We went to stay with Sergio's sister, Raquel, who owns a hotel called Paradise Inn.
Raquel has a cute dog named Rocky, and a great Siamese-mutt cat named Micky, who cuddle together. But we didn't get a picture :( Instead, here is David playing soccer with Rocky.
Panajachel is an interesting town because it is in the mountains about a mile high, like Denver, but since it is on the lake, it has a beach town feel. Lots of gringos and Europeans, living the hippie life. There is a slight stray dog problem, but they made for a good picture:
This is a waterfall on the road to Panajachel. The day we arrived, it was raining and this waterfall was brown and muddy and rushing very strongly.
We went out for dinner in town and had our first experiences with Mayan girls harrassing us as we tried to eat out dinner and they tried to sell us handicrafts. This was just a preview of what we were going to experience the next day in Chichicastenango...
This is the restored part of one of the churches. They were celebrating something which is why it is decorated. But I love the monk down at the bottom of the picture.
This was in the basement of one of the ruins. Mayans still hold religious ceremonies there. They burn candles and such, so everything is covered in soot.
At noon, we caught our van to Panajachel, which is on the shores of Lago Atitlan, a lake which is actually a volcano crater. It is surrounded by 3 large volcanoes that luckily are not active, but that make this place unique and beautiful. We went to stay with Sergio's sister, Raquel, who owns a hotel called Paradise Inn.
Raquel has a cute dog named Rocky, and a great Siamese-mutt cat named Micky, who cuddle together. But we didn't get a picture :( Instead, here is David playing soccer with Rocky.
Panajachel is an interesting town because it is in the mountains about a mile high, like Denver, but since it is on the lake, it has a beach town feel. Lots of gringos and Europeans, living the hippie life. There is a slight stray dog problem, but they made for a good picture:
This is a waterfall on the road to Panajachel. The day we arrived, it was raining and this waterfall was brown and muddy and rushing very strongly.We went out for dinner in town and had our first experiences with Mayan girls harrassing us as we tried to eat out dinner and they tried to sell us handicrafts. This was just a preview of what we were going to experience the next day in Chichicastenango...posted by Samantha at
9:32 AM
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