Sunshine on My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

After 3 bus rides and a boat across the lake, I finally reached San Pedro de Atitlan. In a last-minute decision I decided to skip the beach in favor of the lake, and I couldn't be happier about it.

I arrived Tuesday afternoon, and immediately took up space by the new pool overlooking the lake. I spent the rest of that day, and all day Wednesday doing pretty much absolutely nothing, moving from the pool to the hammock to the lounge. I almost felt guilty about it, but only for a fleeting second. I definitely don't want to spend my whole year at an insulated hostel where there's not a lot of interaction with the Spanish culture part of Guatemala, but for now after 6 weeks of classes I'm enjoying it.

Thursday a few of us went kayaking over to San Marcos to jump off the platform that everyone has been raving about. After an hour paddle across, we were greeted by four local boys who were all too eager to help us dock our kayaks, lead us to the jump spot, and watch our watercrafts. As we were pulling in, they were stripping off clothes, shoes, socks, pulling us in one by one. We took our paddles and life jackets up to the jump spot to deter any chance of returning to missing kayaks. 

The platform is maybe 1200 meters off a wooden deck. Just as we were about to throw ourselves off, some guys there told us a nice story about the guy who tripped the day before, and broke his leg after hitting it on a rock. Sweet confidence booster. There was no way I wasn't going. What a rush. I took a running start, jumped, tried to stay as straight as possible, keeping my eyes open to...boom, I'm in the water before I know what's happening. The more scary thing was after the climb back up when I had to cross the wooden ladder foot bridge hanging over the rocks. I went for a second jump, then hit the deck for some sun bathing before Emily reminded me we still had to paddle all the way back to San Pedro. We payed our dock friends, who were not too pleased with our offer, and kept requesting more. These kids know what they're doing.

My arms almost fell off on the way back from exhaustion, and because I didn't think ahead and bring any food, I thought about eating my own arms. We climbed out of the kayaks and up the stairs, exhausted from the physical activity after days of doing nothing. I came back and lounged in the "jacuzzi", which is a circular hut with ground pillows for nothing but lounging (and apparently for rolling or smoking Js). 

I went out for tacos and tequilla with some American guys, and we pretty much bought out the taco stand. Yesterday I took a long 8-hour journey to and from Guatemala City to pick up my visa, but now I have visa in hand, and no more admin worries before I leave for South America. All I have to do today is walk the 100 yards to the pool party. Life is good.

view from the lancha boat before heading across the lake to san pedro

Church in center of town

Nothing says you're serious about god like a pink church

view from san marcos

checking out the jump

straight as a pencil

kayaking back - taking a break

this is the life

we discovered the cemetery on the outskirts of town 

which looks like a mini apartment complex at disney land