Lake Atitlan

Last weekend we went on an adventure weekend trip to Lake Atitlan, about 2 hours from Antigua. We went with a few other volunteers from GVI: Anne - an Irish opera singer, Robyn - an Australian school teacher, Joelle - a British school-leaver, Andrew - a med student from New York and Jane, an alumni from the illustrious Cambridge University (she has promised to take us punting on the river there someday!).
It began with a three hour down-hill bike ride, from the top of a mountain range down to Lake Atitlan itself. The bike ride was both scary and exhilirating, and we both rather hooned down toward the end (daredevils that we are).
During the bike ride we were treated to some pretty neat views of the lake. This one was taken where we stopped for a delicious picnic lunch en route.

Here is the group: Lib, Gen, Robyn, Wilber - our guide, Anne, Joelle, Andrew and Jane.
Wilber was great fun - and very very small.
After the bike ride, we arrived in the town of Panajachel, which is home to many expat hippies and a great artesinal market. From Pana, we took a boat to our hotel in San Pedro. The ride was a little wild - we were in a smallish fibreglass boat driven by a bit of a maniac, and as our bottoms were already a little tender from the bike ride, it was a rather uncomfortable but nonetheless fun experience.
The hotel we stayed at was wonderful. Since we`d paid before we arrived in Guatemala, it was a lovely stress-free treat to stay somewhere with plush double beds, and beautiful showers - both hot and with pressure AT ONCE!!!! A real rarity in Guatemala, at least in our experience so far. The hotel was set in lovely lush gardens, with hummingbirds and squirrels - we even saw a scorpion! We enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked by the Danish owner of the establishment too.
The next day, we went for a kayak on the lake.
This is us, pre-kayak.

The kayaking was great; the lake was very still and tranquil - and very beautiful.
We shared a double kayak which was neat.
We stopped toward the end of the kayak, to scale a 5 metre rock face and jump off a small cliff. It is hard to make out in the above photo, but you can see Libby on the left and Gen slightly lower down on the right. (P.S. Gen's grandparents - Gen made sure the depth of the water was safe before jumping).
After the kayak, we hiked back to the hotel (about two hours in the middle of the day - a hard, hot endeavour). We had lunch at the hotel before re-embarking on the little boat and heading home.

All and all, it was a splendid though exhausting weekend at the lake.

More soon!
Besos,
Gen and Lib
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