The "big city"

The air is very clear this morning and on the chilly side. Today we head into Panajachel in the morning. This is the largest town on the lake and the point where we arrived our first day. Joyce and Joel took us to their favourite place for breakfast, Lazzaroni's, where a full plate is 3 or 4 dollars, including eggs, cheese, black beans, tortilla or bread and either sausages or guacamole. There’s a lot of activity on the main streets of Pana. We’re here mainly for the shopping, but Joel has some stuff to do with Francisco for the house, and Joyce and Joel are meeting with their real estate broker and accountant as well. The shops have an incredible variety of embroidered pillows, table runners, tote bags plus leather goods, shoes, men’s beanies, jewelry of all kinds with beads and stones (turquoise is popular). There are also lots of tourists here, some in small groups like ours, others in large organized tours. Today we did really great on our shopping! We’ve all honed our bargaining skills and picked up a few words of Spanish over the last couple of days.

For lunch, Joyce and Joel’s accountant is joining us for pizza. He’s a young man attending a local university, the first in his family to do so. The pizza place is a cute little establishment called Circus Bar, with walls lined with circus posters from around the world. There’s a wood burning oven in the back. We got one pizza with eggplant and zucchini and another with sausage, jamon and olives. They are delicious!

On our way back to the boat launch, we finish up our last bit of shopping. Today we took public boats, since Pana is a short way from Paxanax but the boat is crowded in the early afternoon since everyone is trying to get back home before the water gets too choppy. In addition to all the people, two large baskets of goods are riding on the roof. The boat has gotten stuck in the sand so it takes three men quite a bit of effort to get the boat back into the water (I’ve noticed that people step in to help quickly and without being asked around here). The boat is riding very low in the water and the lake is very choppy so we can’t go very fast but even so, the ride back is quite exciting, with the boat bouncing up and down quite a bit in the waves. One very large bounce brings a wave right into the boat, soaking Suzanne and Joyce. It’s kind of a relief to get back home, and I’m sure the other riders on the boat are happy for the boat to be lighter by 4 people.

In the late afternoon, Laura and Miguel visit. They are a young couple who are going to be moving into the upper house next weekend. They’re staying through the summer rainy season, what Guatemalans consider to be winter. Laura is a medical student who is working at the clinic in the pueblo at Santa Cruz and Miguel is helping her by writing software programs for the clinic. What amazing people! The clinic they work at was started by an American doctor who fell in love with Guatemala. The local Mayan community doesn’t have great access to care and often can’t afford the medicine. Laura describes the people having a little bit of magical thinking when it comes to medicine.  After a long day of working at the clinic, they still have work to do at home on a research project! We’re all hoping to see them when they return to the US as Laura is hoping to take some elective classes in the Bay Area and San Diego before starting her residency in Internal Medicine. Tonight is our last evening and meal in this little slice of paradise. We’ve got some soup from last night, left over pasta and pizza from lunch and more delicious pears. The sky is incredibly clear, full of stars and there is lightening over the Pacific Ocean which is silhouetting the volcano. It’s an incredible sight, with the lights of San Pedro and Santiago twinkling on either side of it.