Lago de Atitlan

We're sitting in the hostel now drinking Cuba libre and vodka tonic listening to the first real rain since we've been in Guatemala. It's the rainy season here and it's pretty amazing that  after 4 days this is our first thunderstorm. Yeserday we spent the day kayaking and hanging with the Canadians Jordan and Johnny (the dynamic duo) and some South African girls they knew from Vancouver. The lake was gorgeous and we spent most of the time jumping off the 30 foot platform into the lake. If I wouldn't have known better I would have thought I was on a lake back home in Georgia drinking beers and enjoying the sun, the only difference being surrounded by volcanoes rather than rednecks is ski-doos. We made it back to the hostel and turned in for the night but not before playing some music and talking with Adrian our neighbor from Southern Mexico who had great English and even greater enlightenment into Mexican culture .,.

We had an early morning starting at 3:30 am to climb Nadiz de Indio (Indian Nose) to watch the sunrise over Lake Atitlan. We meet our guide outside of the hostel where we followed him in dark streets to meet out chicken bus. When the bus arrived it was surprisingly full of locals heading to various towns for the Saturday markets and we found our seats at the front of the bus. Maybe it was a good thing it was dark because we couldn't see the drop offs we were surely to crash off if our brakes failed. 

After about 45 minutes of racing through the dirt roads on the souped up school bus  we got off at what seemed like a random dirt road. Our guide Jose led us through the darkness and cornfields to a small trail where climbed for a while until we reached the steep steps cut into the mountain that would take us to the top. We made it to the peak and were met by the creeping light that was cast over the lake and surrounding volcanoes by the sun that had not yet risen over the horizon. 

We sat and watched the sunrise and took probably 50 pictures that will look exactly the same but with something so beautiful it seems that every picture captures something special. After an hour or so we headed back to a town nearby where we piled into the back of a pickup truck and headed towards San Pedro. Along the way we picked up locals, one of whom was a little old lady who looked about 80 that rode in the back and made it look easy. Our last leg of the trip home was on a "tut tut" ( I guess that's how you say it) which is essentially a chariot/motorcycle that gets you from point a to point b and they seem to race each other along the way. We made it back to San Pedro safely around 8 a.m.  and I think we at least got a podium in the race back to town. I hit the bed quick and slept until 11 or so before we decided to pack up and head across the lake to San Marco where we are now.  San Marco is one of the best places we've been so far but we are headed out tomorrow to go to Chichicastenango for the big Sunday market.