Onto Lago de Atitlán
Greg Malivuk
which is on Lake Atitlan. At this point, my plan is to take a boat
from there to San Pedro (on the other side of the lake), where I will
take a week of Spanish classes and relax on one of the most beautiful
lakes in the world. As with all "plans", this is subject to change.
There doesn't seem to be all that much to Xela from a traveller's
perspective, if you aren't interested in taking classes here and you
don't have the equipment to do any hiking. Luckily, I've made friends
with Kelly, an American who arrived the same day I did but who had
previously lived here for awhile. She gave me some info on places to
go and such in town. (Including a café / chocolate factory that I
will visit again after leaving this net cafe. The hot chocolate I had
there yesterday tasted very much like a liquid version of the
marshmallow fudge my family makes for Christmas.)
The large English-speaking population here does mean there are often
lectures and such being given in that language or with simultaneous
translation. Unfortunately many of them seem to be on a weekly basis
during the first half of the week, and I didn't start noticing the
flyers until Thursday morning. The most interesting looking thing I
missed (well, I would have found it interesting) was a talk on the
sociocultural history of the marimba, or something to that effect.
October starts Sunday. Is it getting nice and brisk where you are?
(Okay, so perhaps that's not an effective way of rubbing anything in
while I'm still in the often chilly highlands, but if I stick to my
plan to reenter Mexico along the Pacific coast, you can be sure I'll
mention how nice and warm it is, and how much I go swimming.)
-greg
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