Sometimes, it's amazing what happens when you just sit in one place. Dan and I didn't know what to expect about the Lake Atitlan area. We had heard it was beautiful, but as is often the case, we didn't know anyone there.
We rolled into Panajachel which (the largest town on the lake) and after taking Moses for a walk, we did what we normally do when we stop: go in search of coffee and an Internet hook-up to catch up on blogs and such. (Incidently, it is quite amazing how pervasive the Internet is!)
After just a few days of this, Dan was feeling ansy. We were sitting and not really doing anything productive. So, he resolved that we should go check out the private eco-reserve close to town to fish for interviews. We met with the ower, a genial hombre who had built the reserve without private funding on land that had been a farm started by his grandfather. We set up an interview time with him in two days and then went back to the cafe we were haunting. As if that first step of going to look for interivews had started some cosmic chain reaction. Sitting in the cafe we see two women speaking French. When struggling with the challenges of imersion in a new language the sound of a familiar language is so lovely; the feeling of understanding is wonderful. Stephanie got up to leave and Nathalie moved to another table. We joined her and started to chat. It was Nathalie who would proove to be the catalyst for a number of opened doors within the expat community of the region.
This annectdote, I feel is a good reminder to all of us, that talking about what we want is only good when accompanied by actual steps to make it happen (even the tiniest actions can have major reprecutions!).
Anyway, our new friend Nathalie invited us to stay at her little house set up on the mountain side, mercifully out of the path of many of the landslides that wreaked havoc in the communities of the lake (see earlier blog for photos).
Above, is the beautiful staircase to Nathalie's place.


Nathalie, a photographer/artist/musician origianlly from Belgium moved here several years ago. Like many people, she stumbled on the lake and the communities that surround it's exotic blue waters, and though she was driving with a friend to South America at the time, she decided to stop and stay. In the years that followed she bought the property and built most of her home here. And when a view like that in the photo above is the view from your shower, who wouldn't want to have a home in such a place?!



Above, Nathalie's hair dries while she checks her email in the mid-day sunlight that streams in from across the terrace.



Through Nat we were fortunate enough to crash a birthday bash of one of the expat business owners in Santa Cruz (another community). There, we met the boys in the band above. It was pretty fun to hear some good ol' rock 'n' roll!
Anyway, I got better aquainted with Lloyd the bassist in the band through, whatelse, chance. After dancing to the wee hours of the morning, I had missed my boat ride back to Jaibalito with Dan and Nat. So, I asked if anyone had a place I could crash. The fine man whose birthday it was, along with his wife owned a hotel and offered me a bed in one of the rooms which they had reserved for party guests. Lloyd's room had an extra bed, so he kindly offered that to me.


Lloyd and his wife Melanie moved down from Florida several years back with their family. They built a restaurant/bar/mini-cinema that just happened to be in the same building as the cafe we hung out in. Gregarious and energetic they are missionaries and co-ordinate groups that come down from various areas putting them in touch with communities and people that are in need of assistance.
They also, so kindly, opened their home to us and we parked a couple nights at their place.


Above, old man in a dug-out canoe is just hanging out. I wondered if he was fishing but didn't see any rod. Maybe just


Most of the communities around the lake have limited or no access to roads. As such long motor skiffs ferry goods and passengers from Panajachel and San Pedro (also the name of one of the lake's two volcanos) to the various communities. Above, as in many places, the soft drink deliveries are of high priority!
In one community, Santa Cruz, we learned about one incident of ill planned aid which came in the form of the building of a road. A Dutch NGO conducted a limited study and thought a road would be a good thing for the community. However, it was an old study which failed to see how the ex-pats who lived there didn't want a road because they were looking for isolation. And the locals didn't want a road because it meant their businesses would have competition from Solola, a large town in the mountains above the lake. Aid, is a very contentious subject indeed...



Above, a ferry attendant rides in the bow holding the mooring line. I think that's San Marcos passing by in the background.



Above, Dan holds Moses who who would rather be swiming in the water than sitting in the boat. Behind them, a young girl catches the spray in her face. The lake would usually start placid and still as glass in the morning, then by 11am or so a good wind would be blowing up some chop, making for some wet conditions for anyone sitting in the bow, but for that reason it's the most fun place to ride!



Above, the view from inside the cafe in Pana where we spent our time emailing and such was of the bus stop. As has been mentionned in previous blogs, bus travel is pretty crazy down this way. Many bus stops are nothing more than rolling stops where the bus slows down just enough to let a passenger on or off. Here though it actually stopped.
Here you see one of the workers loads up the roof rack with a heavy bag of something. It could be anything from cloth to fruit. The crazy thing is that some of these porters actually ride up on the roof and do work shifting things around, eating the dust kicked up as the bus barreles down some narrow road.


Above, the two volcanoes that stand sentinel on the south side of Lake Atitlan.


Above, these volcanoes aren't very active, though sometimes smoke or steam can be seen coming out.


Above, on the curb outside the American style grocery some indigenous Guatemalans hang out eating a snack. They all wear clothes made of hand-woven cloth that comes in all kinds of different patterns and colours.