Panajachel and La Navidad

Yesterday I visited the town of Panajachel! It's another hippie town on Lake Atitlan, and during the 60s and 70s a lot of Americans decided to check it out and never leave. As a result, there are a lot of grandparent-aged Americans still strolling around haha. It's maybe a 40 minute boat ride across the lake (maybe longer, maybe shorter, I wasn't really paying attention to the time), and the ride itself is gorgeous! Pana is on the other side of the lake, so it looks out over the water and across the lake at the 3 volcanoes that are over here by San Pedro. We were there until about 6, and so we also got to watch the sun set over the lake and the volcanoes. Need I say more?

Pana is much more of a tourist town than San Pedro, but it's still gorgeous. There is a newly renovated walkway along the beach, and I would be content to spend my entire year on that walkway haha. Pana is also known for its artisan market that stretches along an entire street. People from villages all throughout the highlands come and set up shops to sell paintings, woven bags, and all kinds of other crafts. I definitely want to make some purchases there before the year is over. Bobby also told me I need to check out the bakery El Horno that's in Pana, and I somehow missed it yesterday. I HAVE to get back for that too.

Views from Panajachel...

Look closely and you can see one smaller mountain in front of the larger volcano.

Pana sunset

For La Navidad (Christmas), the family I'm staying with has a bunch of other family members in town. They have 3 kids who are more or less around my age, so it's been fun talking about the best discotecas and how excited they are for the Metallica concert that's scheduled for March in Guatemala City haha. Tonight I'm actually eating dinner with Urs, Juan Carlos, and several other friends they will have in town. Tomorrow, I have no idea what I'm doing. No classes though! There are supposed to be big celebrations in the center of town, so I'm sure I'll check those out either today or tomorrow.

It's weird that it's Christmas Eve and I got a sunburn during Spanish class today, but I am LOVING this weather. :)

P.S. I have realized that I am now hungry about every couple of hours. As many of you know, that means my body has completely adjusted to Guatemala haha. I loooove that we have hot tortillas with every single meal, and we probably drink 2-4 cups of tea or coffee per day. YUM!