Dios nos acompañe!

The colors of the textiles are just gorgeous.

Lago Atitlan with mystic volcano in the background.

Chicken bus. Not your run-or-the-mill yellow bus, eh? Now squeeze in as many people as you can!

Fountain of the "mothers" in Antigua.

A church in Antigua that looks like cake frosting. Squelch!

Guat has been something of a haze of buses and dusty towns. A crazy haze. The lake that we visited was Lago de Atitlan, mentioned in my travel book as one of the centers of mystical energy like Machu Pichu or the Egyptian pyramids. After taking a 3 hr bus ride to the city of Panajachel that sits at its coast, my friend and I took a kayak out on the lake to paddle around. It is a quiet blue lake surrounded by green volcanoes and mountains. Only two small docks poke out into its waters and just a few tour boats running tourists to the surrounding towns of indigenous peoples. Also just a few boys swimming and diving off the peirs. Eerily, we were the only two ppl in a kayak out on the water and the current kept pulling us out towards the volcanoes across the lake. We kept getting turned around in the waves and had a hard time maintaining a straight path. Could just be that we had a crappy kayak and crappy paddles that exacerbated the difficulties of paddling in a double kayak, but no, i think it was mystical energy.

Shortly thereafter we had to rush back to Antigua to pick up my jacket with I had sent to the laundromat to have repaired after the zipper broke. I guess I could have abandoned it to see more of the lake, but I´m attached to my things and wouldn´t like to lose something if I could help it. My friend was nice enough to come with me to navigate the public bus system, which turned out to be a transportational adventure. First we stood in the back of a pickup truck, hanging on to a metal frame set up for passengers as we winded up the mountain, to a bigger city, Solola. From there we has to catch a chicken bus to Encuentros. A ¨chicken bus¨ is what they call the old Blue Bird yellow school buses that Guatemala uses for public transportation. I think the one we rode from Solola had ¨Williamsburg County¨written on its side. I guess Guatemalans are little or have no other option but everyone squeezed in 3 to a seat with their bags and babies. At Encuentros it started to rain as we tried to look for the next loudly painted chicken bus that would take us to Chimaltenango. On the previous bus, the ticket man who squeezed up and down the isle to collect the bus fare had gouged us by charging us 2 more quetzals than the locals. A cool lady stuck up for us and said it was unjust, though the ticket man said, ¨Hey, I am a business man. They are not from around here.¨ Goo to know that eventhough we were the only gringas on the bus, we weren´t looked upon by all as despicable future victims. The bus from Chimal. to Antigua was the last leg and the longest. It was something like 1.5 hrs of bumping along the countryside in the rain. Inevitably we kept falling asleep on the passengers to either side of us, but they were pretty nice about it too. And we did survive and I have retrieved my jacket with its nice new black zipper! Also had a great last night in Antigua eating street papusas (corn tortillas stuffed with stuff, queso in my case) and cut mangos. Also peeked into a house to enjoy a marimba band jamming away.

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Ah, woke up at 4am to catch our bus out to Flores to see the ruins of Tikal. Craziness abounded. Our pickup van was late and we had to stop lingering outside the door of our hotel when a pack of dogs became interested in us. Made it to the bus station ok and set out for a 10 hr bus ride. Ahh. Purposely kept from drinking water to avoid having to use the bus bathroom. Eick. But the view and sunrise in the morning, oh man.

Our bus rides have been cruises through paradise. In the mornings, the clouds touch the mountaintops like talcum smoke and the light gray of the sky makes the terraced farms and broad banana leaves seem all the more green. Little tin roofed houses are set amongst bushy trees and shredded palm fronds that punctuate the expanses of cornfields that climb up the mountains - nothing´s flat. And the volcanoes, always the most verdant green, dark and looming with the mist that only just hides their terrible tips. Guatemala. Guatemala. Guatemala.

Tomorrow we get up at 3.30 to take a tour to see Tikal at sunrise when the monkeys and birds emerge. Ahh, sleep...what is that? And then another bus voyage out to Belize. Flying through the Mayan world, Fly!