Lago de Atitlan

We are now on the edge of one of the deepest lakes in the entire world, Lake Atitlan, the left over crater from a massive volcanoe blast 85,000 years ago. It's over 2000 feet deep and teeming with fresh water crocodiles. Well, no crocs but it is beautiful and the surrounding mists that enshroud the nearby volcanoes that puff contentedly in the distance make me want to sing John Denver songs at the top of my lungs. Thank God I'm a country boy.

Anyways, the journey here was nothing short of epic. That means it was difficult Philip, life isn't just a bowl of curried Lobster on this trip. No sir. The bus ride from San Pedro Sula, Honduras was fraught with bad music and even worse movies. Our air conditioned bus featured Cat Woman played at an unavoidable decible on the big screen. Once the movie ended it was the Beegies, Air Supply and Foreigner. Angela became ill and it wasn't from the curvy roads alone, of that I am sure. The driver threatened with Kenny Loggins at the border so we hurriedly paid more, got our passports stamped and were on our way.

We reached Guatemala City around 6pm as darkness fell. The city is home to over 4 million and it is crazy to see McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken fighting for the same corner. We switched to a taxi there and hurtled on to Antigua, touching down around 9 pm. There is only about a 4 thousand foot hill seperating Antigua from Guat City but it is quite a change. On the ride down the mountain we passed vehicles with sparks coming from their brake pads and discs that glowed red in the night. Awesome. Luckily our driver didn't use his breaks so our taxi survived uninjured.

Angela and I roamed the streets for a bit before a family took us in for the night. They had a hotel and all so it wasn't a charity situation or anything like that. We spent the next day exploring the cobblestones, checking out the local market and walking aproximately 400 blocks. It was quite the little city.

This morning we boarded a 10 passenger van and hurtled off to Lake Atitlan at 7am. The driver pointed out areas along the road where massive mudslides earlier this year had killed people in their homes and shut down the road for 15 days. The devastation that still remains is hard to imagine. Within a few hours we were on the beautiful shores of Lake Atitlan where we jumped in a boat and head across to San Pedro del Lago where we found plush accomodations and Jeb and Anna from Texas who showed us around. This looks like a grand spot we will definitely stay through New Years and perhaps a week after that. Next on the list is horseback riding to the top of one of these volcanoes with some fireworks and see if we can get things going around here.

Ciao for now,

J and A