san pedro, lake atitlan, guatemala

was able to get a "shuttle" from antigua to panajchel, by lake atitlan. shuttle turned out to be a family of six, two parents and four kids. it was like crashing a family car trip, but since i had recently left some great travel buddies and was on my own, it was exactly the comfortable situation i needed. we stopped for roasted corn on the side of the road, the children shyly handing me an ear with lime and salt that their father had bought. the kids warmed up to me in no time, and though we did not speak the same language we had so much fun playing games and mugging for my camera. we spent almost an hour waiting for a landslide to be cleared before making it to the boat dock at panajchel. they gave me their email addresses to send them the pictures from out road trip together.
crossed lake atitlan by night to san pedro. san pedro is one of the beautiful towns surrounding the lake. lots of foreigners (gringos) fall in love with the spot and decide to stay on, or come back after visiting to continue life there.
i spent my time there walking around, exploring the steep and broken streets. i also hiked to the top of la nariz, which means "the nose" as the mountains look like the profile of a indian lying down. my guide, matt, is from the UK and moved to the lake after visiting there. he is a geologist, so i got the whole spiel about the volcanic activity that created the lake and its surroundings and the three volcanos in the area: san pedro and toliman, which are extinct, and atitlan which is dormant. the lake itself is also a volcano. the mayans believed that the lake was the birthplace of the world, that everything just kind of spewed from the spot and the lake and mountains and volcanos sprung up from the hole everything came from. i'd buy that for a dollar.
all in all i wish i could have stayed much longer at lake atitlan. san pedro has a few very cheap spanish language course that i would love to go do, even if only for a month. or longer....
BUT for now i had to make it on down to san salvador, el salvador to visit an old friend, jeannine. the weekend was approaching and since she is a school teacher and had those days off i needed to, once again, ramble on.