Kayaking Lake Atiklan

Apparently English words are rather hard to spell.
We split up from our group for an afternoon of shopping. But we finished a heck of a lot earlier than they all did. So we took advantage of some free time to do some kayaking. I will admit I am not the best paddler in the world, but I do have a good husband that is a good paddler, so we did make it out and back in safety.

Coast line of Lake Atiklan.

Oh, it's just beautiful!

Homes on the coast. I like the steps down to the water (sand bags).

This is more to my liking. We've been talking about buying a vacation home, I wonder what these run.

Though I'm guessing Jared wouldn't go for the pink, not too sure I'd want it either.

So though Jared is a much better paddler than I, we both still ended up with wet bottoms.

Lake Atiklan Markets

These sweet little girls followed us all over Chichicastinango till we finally bought a little stuffed elephant from them for Sicily. Jared, being Jared, had wonderful conversation with them, as much as you can with 2 little girls (or so we thought). Now the one girl had the babe on her back in Chichicastinango and I thought he was her little brother or something, until in Lake Atiklan there these girls were again. When they found us again this girl was actually Nursing the babe. Ends up they are sisters, the "Mommy" is 17, and the sister is 20 and has an 18 month old of her own. I just can't believe how small they are, we think it's just their hard life and diet that make them like this.
Quilts, quilts everywhere. And they were the most beautiful I have ever seen. The woman in the shop was just setting up a loom to make more fabric to make more quilts. Wish I'd bought one now.

Here's the Corte Men pants Jared still wouldn't let me buy him. I almost got some for me for pj's.

For any of you who have seen me in the last few years you'll note the scarf like headbands I've been acquiring. Here's your choices in any color or pattern.

Masks, masks and more masks. This one has the Jaguar.

If I hadn't already given birth to 4 kids and still had the body I once had I think I would have bought one of these. They're just so cute. I'll just have to figure out how to make them one day.

We have these little bendy wooden snakes at home, but definitely not iguanas, aren't they cool?

The Woman in the Yellow Hat. Another one of those purchases that wouldn't quite fit in the suitcase.

It's just so stinking hot in Guatemala a nice Strawberry Popsicle always hits the spot.

So this beautiful alley way has the nice rock walls and bougainvillea flowers on top that is just downright pretty. But just don't pay attention to the man at the end of the alley taking a leak. I didn't realize I'd caught him on camera till I got home.

Lake Atiklan Museum

This pottery, as beautiful as it is, was pulled from the bottom of Lake Atiklan and carbon dated back to between 600 BC - 400 AD. Now for those of you who are LDS you notice the meaning of those dates. And interesting enough buried at the bottom of Lake Atiklan, or the Waters of Mormon, are entire cities. Makes you think of all the destruction that occurred in the Americas at the death of Christ. If you have a scuba diving license you can explore parts of Lake Atiklan.

Santiago

After riding the boat across Lake Atiklan we spent the afternoon touring the town of Santiago. It sits at the base of one of the volcanoes, you can get to it by driving, but most people just boat over.

Always the Corte women, carrying her crazy load on her head, no idea what it is, spinach or something. It looks a bit heavier than spinach to me though.
This beautiful carving was over 5 ft long. I would have bought it in a heart beat if I could have figured out how to get it home.

More masks. I swear they're everywhere. I loved them all but figured I'd take pictures instead of buying a heap of freaky masks to hang in my house.

So this picture makes me ever so grateful for washing machines. Yes these women gather here, probably every day, to do their laundry. Scrub it on the rocks, get it all heavy with water, then lug it home (on your head) to hang it out to dry. Wow! I am so grateful for the blessings we have. Oh! And I didn't mention they had to hoof it up a hill to get home too, this little cove was set in a bit of a valley. The women here are AMAZING!

Mode of Transportation. These are called Tuk Tuk's (pronounced tooke tooke). They're crazy little motorcycle taxis. We rode in one in most every town we were in. At one point we had 5 adults and 1 kid jammed into one. And yes, you do feel every bump.

Here, enjoy a ride in a Tuk Tuk through the city!!!

Translation of sign: Park of the Peace. In Dec. 1990 the people in Santiago went on strike because they were not happy with the way things were going. The police came to kind of break it all up and ended up opening fire on the crowd gathered there. Around 19 people were killed, including 4 kids.

This is the actual park. There is a headstone placed in the exact location of where each individual was killed. The local church holds services here once a month and preaches of Peace and the importance of it.

I totally snuck this video with my camera on my hip. They would only let me take a picture if I gave them some money, so I was just sneaky. You'll notice the guy in the blue watching my camera for a while, but then he just blows it off. :) Hee Hee.

I can't remember what all is said in the video, but this statue is a guy named Mossimo. People pray to him for help in their lives. They bring offerings of cigars and alcohol (his priests obviously like that), and in return Mossimo cures your ailments, and fixes your life. Crazy! Kind of like praying to your little Buddah, definitely an Idol. But who am I to judge, maybe it really works. ;)

A few years back they had a Hurricane in Guatemala. Santiago did not get the actual Hurricane but because of the mixed up weather they got CRAZY amounts of rain. They rain caused mass flooding and a mudslide from the top of the mountain clear down through the entire city. They said in some places the mud was 15 ft deep. You can still see the path the mud took as it came off the mountain.

This is Ryan our Tour Guide, translating the explanation of the Hurricane. Those of you that speak Spanish, feel free to mock his translation if it is not correct. Though Jared says he does a pretty good job.

You can still see the mud line on this Hospital. A natural disaster like this would cause so many problems here, but with what little means they have their, it's amazing so many survived.

Like every other city, Santiago is the same. Dead center of town, beautiful park, there's a Catholic Church. This one happens to be dedicated to St James.

2 signs side by side, I took the shot of the English one. Feel free to read up on what this church is all about.

This is the oldest pedestal for Holy Water I have ever seen. And that includes all the millions of cathedrals we visited in Italy. I swear it looks like it survived from the time of Christ.

You don't typically see decorations like this in every church on a normal day of the week. I'm willing to bet they'd just had a wedding and hadn't taken down the decorations yet. Then again, maybe it's supposed to represent clouds or something and make you feel closer to Heaven. I don't know.

This chair was up by the Altar, I'm guessing it's for one of they higher up Priests or something. Anyhow, I just really liked the Mayan carving on the back rest. That and I'm taking specks so Jared can make me a new kitchen table. :) j/k

Lake Atiklan

Many things to see around Lake Atiklan. But the story about the Lake is what's most interesting. Most Book of Mormon Scholars believe that Lake Atiklan is the Waters of Mormon. What a more likable place for Alma to hide from the armies of wicked King Noah.
We rode a boat across the Lake to get to the little village of Santiago.

Lake Atiklan Hotel

Beautiful Lake Atiklan, surrounded by 3 Volcanoes. Perfect place for a photo.
This is the view from our balcony. We stayed at this Hotel for 2 nights and I was so grateful. The first evening there was a lightening storm. There's nothing more beautiful or amazing as lighting striking the top of a Volcano and reflected off the lake.

On top of the scenery was the Hotel itself. Huge Checkers and Chess set which were just down right fun. Plus I beat Jared which made it more fun. They also had a pool table I also beat him on, we even played 9 ball with our Tour Guide and 1 other guy from the tour and I beat all 3 of them. :) Yeah me! But they whipped me on the Foos Ball table, I can NOT play that game.

I took this picture for my friend Pam Walker's husband. He does pottery and I'd love for him to make all 3 of these for me.

I know food, kind of weird. I just love how they do the veggies. I wish someone would teach me.

I bet every kid would eat beats if they looked like this.

Chichicastinango

This is our Tour Guide, Ryan, getting his shoes shined on the steps of the Cathedral. Jared had major flash backs to his mission seeing this. He said they payed the little local boys 35 cents a day to shine their shoes, apparently they did a pretty good job too.
Chichicasinango is the largest Tourist Market in all of Guatemala. They have EVERYTHING you could ever think of when it comes to tourist crap. But some of it's actually pretty good quality stuff, actually most of it is.

I bought my sister, Marlene, some very fine Jade jewelry set in Sterling Silver. She did such an EXCELLENT job looking after our kids I just had to say thank you. Wish we could have brought her more.

Masks, Masks, Masks. We didn't end up actually buying a mask, because Jared already has a few left over from his mission. So I thought I'd just take some pictures.

I thought these paintings were kind of neat. Though I probably wouldn't have done such a lovely landscape with such freakishly bright colors. But hey, when in Guatemala, use as many colors as possible. I think it's a theme here.

Speaking of color. This is the Guatemalan version of Dillards. Skirts, belts and blouses. And it doesn't really have to match either, just as long as you like the color that's what you buy.

Candles everywhere. Electricity is rather expensive and I think the cities actually turn off the power at a certain time every night. So, since it get's dark around 6 you have to have light somehow. Personally I'd just buy that crazy, huge, 4 foot long candle. That thing would last you the whole year I bet.

Plantains (platinos) anyone? Yum, Yum, Yum!! I prefer them boiled. The fried ones are not very good. We did get some that they'd made like potato chips. Now those were good!

We ate so many tortillas, but I still don't think I got enough. I loved watching them make them. They've obviously been doing this for a while.

Just a pretty tree. Flowers everywhere. Flowers and fruit, it was wonderful!

We passed this waterfall on our way. It was so hot and sticky this day I wished we could have stopped and swam in it, it looks so inviting.

So when we got to Chichicastinango we stopped for a potty break at a VERY nice place. We still had to pay to use this toilet but it was MUCH better than the one on Burnt Mountain. There's even a marimba playing in the background. I took this little video for my Sicily.