Back in Xela the following week, I had a semi- surprise visit from my sister and Beth, the woman she was traveling with to Honduras! It was wonderful to spend time with them and we added an extra fold-up bed to my room so they could sleep at my house.
The following weekend, Feb. 10-12, I traveled to Lake Atitlán with some friends. It was a hard decision to go, because I was torn between that and staying with my host family, with whom I felt I hadn't spent enough quality time. But I'm very glad I went. After having such a packed schedule, it was nice to be able to sit on the beach and relax with almost no time constraints and have no intellectual work required. It was fun to cram onto a "microbus" (minivan) with all our luggage and ride across town to the bus terminal, find the bus that went to Panajachel (the town on the lake), and squish 3 to a seat on the way out of town. The ride took about 2 hours, and then 5 of us headed across the lake on a little boat to the town of San Pedro la Laguna, where we arrived around 5:30 pm. Being in San Pedro was a rather surreal experience. We could have been practically anywhere in the Carribbean or southern California or Florida. It was extremely touristy and kind of bohemian--very jungly and tropical, lots of 20- something "hippies, language schools, hotels, restaurants everywhere, and practically everything in English.
Saturday morning, we got up at 5:30 and watched the sunrise over the lake from our hotel balcony, which was a very calm, quiet, serene, and beautiful experience. In the afternoon, Sarah and I headed back to Panajachel on the boat, because we wanted to take the early bus back to Xela in the morning. We walked down the main streat lined with vendors, cafes, shops, and tourist agencies and looked for a hotel or hostel in which to spend the night, and ended up in one near where the other group of students had stayed. It was inexpensive and lived up to the price: the room was very plain and simply furnished with a padlock for the door, and there was a communal toilet, shower, and sink. And I had to ask for a top sheet for my bed.
After unloading our stuff, we went to an art gallery, sat by the pool of a super-fancy hotel for a few minutes, and then I went to the beach to write. The sun was setting when I got up to leave, and I was stalling to take a picture when I was approached by a woman selling bracelets and fabric. She had a baby on her back and told me she hadn't sold anything yet that day and needed money to get home. I felt bad about not buying anything, but really, what kind of a difference would that have made anyway in the long run? The problem is a societal one, and her story is not unique... We returned to Xela on Sunday morning, on the 9am bus that turned out to be a 10am bus and got back around lunchtime.
During our last week in Xela, we traveled to a nearby hot springs, were led through a Mayan ceremony, and listened to a presentation from a representative of the Guatemalan army. The hot springs were located in the area of Zunil, which is all mountains and green valleys filled with small plots of land used for agriculture. Zunil is the largest agriculture-producing area in the country, but as opposed to the giant farms of the U.S., it was much more human-sized, with pretty stone walls separating the fields. Friday night, the 17th, was "graduation" from PLQ, for which we got to make food. Three of us made chocolate rice-krispie balls, which was a messy adventure!
