Everything in Pana and Santiago besides this hotel is spectacular. Some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We left GC at 6 AM then travelled the 3 hours to Panajachel with a stop at Burger King.
After devotional time at our hotel, we exchanged money for Quetzales and walked down to Lake Atitlan for a beeeeeautiful boat ride to Santiago. Lake Atitlan is surrounded by 3 volcanoes-one active and two dormant. Santiago is a beautiful town along the lake where they speak a language more native in nature-Mayan influenced.
We were worried about this as our day consisted of dining and playing with the children of a refuge colony called Alfa y Omega created for them by the church after Hurricane Dan wiped out their homes. Ashley, the Vice President of HRI, reached out to the community and currently there is an HRI worker and student, Felipe, living there.
Once our boat docked, we piled into the back of a pick up truck and headed up the mountain to the village. There, 10 children were chosen and squeezed back into the truck to go back down and have lunch at a great restaurant called El Pescador. We were paired with a child to share the meal with. We were very worried there would be a new language barrier with their exotic language, but the students were old enough that they are learning Spanish in school. So we did all right considering the generally low amount of Spanish skills among us.
After lunch it was back to their village to play volleyball, soccer, and have fun conversations with the kids. They took us down to the beach-BEAUTIFUL-and finally we heard Felipe's testimony of coming to Christ after jail and gang membership.
After the long, hot play date with the village, we headed back towards the boat to go back to Pana. First, we stopped to shop a little. Shopping here is frustrating. Things are pretty cheap with the exchange rate and you can haggle, but the vendors are relentless when they see gringos coming and it is overwhelming when you just want to look . Still we got some good finds. We had another beautiful boat ride back to Pana as the sun set behind the mountains, then had more time to shop in Pana.
The highlight of this time was when we came back to put our things in our hotel and Elizabeth, Katie, and Carissa's inside door knob broke off and they were locked in their room. Doug's room was next door so he climbed across balconies into their room to help them. When he couldn't fix it, he and Elizabeth climbed back into his room to get help. Picture a bunch of gringos scaling a hotel wall in the middle of a busy street. Hilarious. And there's a Vine to prove it! (Carissa)
Tonight, we walked to a nice little restaurant on the Main Street for more awesome authentic food. It was a hot and tiring day but we enjoyed the tourist experience, the awesome kids, and the sights.
Tomorrow: zip lining and the HIV orphanage!
¡Adios!
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