September 6, 2023
I think we’re the only ones in the hotel this morning, so there isn’t a buffet . You go up to the window and place your order, choosing from scrambled or fried eggs. I love their scrambled eggs with tomatoes. There is no more pirocone tea; but my guardian angel, Jan, had brought me an extra one yesterday and I’ve still got it!
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| Everyone is selling flags in preparation for Independence Day. |
Gregorio comes to get us and we’re off to Lake Atitlan. Juan teaches us more in the drive out of the city than the guide did on our forced march!And he asks Gregorioi to take us to a viewpoint over the city where we can see the places we visited and have a good view of the volcanos. Then we’re on our way again!
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| And guess what! All that beautiful greenery is pinto peanuts! Maybe there's hope for my yard! |
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| The reception committee |
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| This is what they had in mind... |
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| But we're such nonconformists! |
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| Jan even dressed for the part! |
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| I thought they all had to be red! |
There's a brief and welcome rest stop and then back into the van to drive through more small villages.
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| All the colors! |
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| There are so many "retired" school buses! |
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| Carrote, HUGE carrots! |
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| One of the less-decorated chicken buses |
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| Interesting tiles in the bathroom at the rest stop |
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| The family bathroom |
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| The main street is under construction. |
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| All the power poles in this village are decorated! |
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| Lake Atitlan and two of it's volcanos |
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| Old, old braided stream |
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| Can't have a viewpoint without tourist shops! |
We stop for lunch around one and the food at Chez Alex is marvelous! I have fillet of snook in butter sauce with lemons and capers and it could be three meals! And it's a cerveza day! Even the garlic toast is to die for! It's just a bit further to Panajachel, where we will be for our last three nights. The hotel is about five miles outside the city, so first Gregorio drops us off in town to explore for a couple of hours. Yay! There's plenty of time for more shopping and some gelato, as if we needed any more food!
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| Juan to the rescue |
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| The three main modes of transportation |
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| Many town dogs |
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| This baby has a tag that says "adopt me" and has ID numbers |
Getting to the hotel is fine until the last quarter mile or so! I'm so grateful that Gregorio is such a masterful driver! How he gets down these streets is a miracle! And then there's the last street - they are decorating for the independence day parade on the 15th and we have to wait for the man to get down from his ladder and move it out of the street! Even then it's a tight squeeze! The town is called Santa Catarina Palopo.
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| The lighting fixtures in our room! |
The hotel is incredible, with a view of the lake and the volcanos and a pool and large jacuzzi. We can hear the band practicing for the parade! But not in our room, thank goodness. After a little down time to settle in we walk down to the dinner at Restaurante Palopo but I don't know how anyone can have room for more food! Several of us order chicken soup thinking that would be small and nourishing. HA! There are two chicken breasts in the soup with tons of vegetables on the plate along side! We're the only one's here and it's like family dining, which is appropriate, since we've become a family.
Early in the afternoon Ginger had passed me a folder with his card for everyone to sign, as well as a sheet of paper for Gregorio. The office didn't have an envelope for his tip money, but, luckily I had brought mine from home in an envelope so I wouldn't accidentally spend it. Everything works out. Jan and I do our thing and I pass the responsibility off to Suga!
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| Not at all what I expected chicken soup to look like! |
Juan receives his thank you card and tip and nearly blushes from the comments inside. All through the meal we can hear the workers assembling bleachers for the parade and occasionally their equipment makes our lights flicker! It's hysterical! And the resident pooch gets special treatment because Suga and I just can't stand to waste all that chicken! Suga brings some soup back to Switch who has been such a trooper throughout the trip. Whatever bug he's got isn't responding to the antibiotics he got a while back and he's trying another round of something different.
We trek back to our lovely room and crash after another fabulous day!
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