Day 3 - Being Tourists

So, did I mention that Becky and I are both kind of hams? This was at a rest stop...

 I also believe I mentioned the purchase of a dress from a street vendor - here it is!

 ...and this is the group shot of us before we left our hotel for the day. Again, total hams:

 This is the route to our water-bus stop. The villages around the lake are connected by the lake - some of them are completely inaccessible by road, and people get back and forth by water bus and water taxi:

 Random street vendor set-up. Lots of weaving is done in this area, so there are all kinds of textiles for sale:

 Our hotel is a series of buildings inside a walled compound with guarded gates. There are lots of police around, and that seems to keep things stable. Inside the compound is lovely. We have a hot tub that the staff fill with natural hot spring water in the mornings (they say it's about 130 degrees) and then it cools throughout the day, so we have to time things right if we want to enjoy the tub without getting scalded.

This dog is named Santa - his family got him for Christmas. He lives with Tomas, owner of the art gallery where our reception was hosted. Nice place, and there was some great artwork (a few pieces are coming home with some of our World Vets cohorts).

A local musical trip played traditional Guatemalan music for us - they guy sitting on a box is actually sitting on his drum set - he hit different parts of the box with different parts of his hands to make a variety of sounds. Very cool way to make percussion! I want a box drum set! In front of the musicians, Jason and Becky have some fun dancing:

Also at the reception, there were some pretty awesome desserts. Amanda and I cleared our dinner plates (below, with Santa in the background) and then had some lemon cream pie and apple upside down tart:

And after the reception, some brave folks slogged through some pretty heavy rain to enjoy a little local nightlife:

This morning, we met our new friend Samuel (here with Woofie). Samuel was our guide for the day. His English is great, and he knew lots about the local plants and trees - we kept asking about them because there is fruit growing everywhere, and we kept wanting to snack!

Samuel walked us down to the boat launch to meet our "bus" for the day:

A couple of street dogs near the boat dock play together:

First adventure of the morning - our water bus took us to another new friend, Lee's house, where we were pretty quickly loaded into our kayaks for a little exploring! Woofie did great, and the rest of us had a pretty good time too:

Continuing on my trend of random weird injuries, I somehow gouged my finger while out on the kayak, and bled into the lake for a while... hoping there weren't any freshwater sharks to follow us back to Lee's house. Eventually, we all paddled back just fine.

Back at Lee's house we relaxed for a while and bandaged my finger.

As we were drying off, it was pointed out to me that my awesome new rock star sunglasses don't like sunscreen, and that the combination leaves purple streaks on my face. I wonder if I can start a new trend...

Also, as we were drying off, Tom made a new friend, and got slobber all over his face. This is one of the most adorable dogs I've seen here - some sort of corgi cross, and super friendly:

Lee, our gracious host, guides tours for a living. Since he and his wife are major supporters of what World Vets is doing in their village, he gave us the kayak rentals and the waterbus tour for free. What a guy!

Here's one of many amazing views from our waterbus:

Our waterbus took us to the village of San Juan, where the people are donating their time to build a new catholic church. The old church, made of brick, is still intact, but the new addition, made of hand-hewn stone, complements the old building, which will stay there as part of the expansion. 

We walked past the church on our way to lunch at a cafe where they let anyone who wanted try to make a proper tortilla by hand. Well, we sort of got it. Kind of like tossing a pizza crust - practice, practice...

Woofie checks out some lunch soup. I've come to terms with the word "vegetarian" not meaning the same thing in different parts of the world, so I filled up on lots of tortillas and black beans. The "veg" plate ended up being basically soup with the beef broth drained off. Yeah... good thing I like tortillas!

After lunch, Lee showed us a bit of the town. There are several murals painted on the walls, including this one called "Rabid Dog", a reminder of the time before Rabies vaccines were available.

One fascinating stop we made was at a women's textile coop, where Ana showed us how they turn cotton into thread and weave it into all kinds of nifty stuff. I bought some pet-sitter gifts (can't say what or it won't be a surprise)!

 At the textile coop, they dressed us up in traditional Mayan garb - over 6 yards of fabric go into each skirt! The clothes felt really heavy, but they breathe well. A couple of us got to singing "cotton" jingles... and darned if Dr. Steele didn't go ahead and buy an entire outfit! Not the one she's wearing for the photo.

Ana and another woman at the coop pose with Woofie. After Dr. Steele had picked her outfit, the ladies altered it just for her - in about 5 minutes. Speedy work!

One of the fascinating things about Lake Atitlan, is that it is rising. The locals say it has a 50-100 year cycle of rising and lowering, but some people didn't plan ahead, and several buildings have been made useless by the rising water. This Art Gallery has had to abandon the original building and move up the street:

I imagine this house must have been gorgeous before the lake took it. Most of the houses here are made of concrete, so the water doesn't completely destroy them like it would with "stick-built" houses.

Several of us decided that the next awesome thing to do would be to go for a hike. Good ol' Samuel agreed to hike a little ways along the side of the lake with us. We got all psyched and took a group photo:

Then we started hiking. At first the trail was a gravel road, going gently uphill. Then it became a cobbled road going ridiculously steeply uphill. Then it became a dirt track that went up, down, and all around. There were random rocky ravines to get across, and just all-in-all a darned good adventurous hike. Here we are setting off:

  
Several patches of ground were corn fields that had been harvested. Some of them had been burned over to get ready for the next crop:

 While we were hiking, we had to be very careful not to lose our footing due to steep slopes and the ease of getting distracted by the view. This is one of several views that "didn't suck".

 Here we are back in the corn fields again. Yes, the slope is really that steep, and people grow crops at that crazy angle!

 I am super jealous of the people who own this house, and I want them to invite me to visit:

Yay! We made it to a boat launch! 

We had to wait for a while for a public water bus that was going back to Pana (where our hotel is)

These little guys were fishing, and got quite a kick out of showing us what they caught!

 While we were waiting, we got to check out the surrounding area and see more evidence of lake rising:

 
 Finally, our water bus arrived, and we sandwiched right in! The ride back was pretty chilly, as the wind had picked up, so we were ready for a hot tub and warm food by the time we got back!

 
Tomorrow is the first day of surgery! We'll meet our water bus bright and early to go to the first clinic village. Stay tuned!