Parajachel

We´ve been doing a lot of traveling since the last update and it´s been a little much, but we just paid for a week´s stay at our hostel here in Parajachel, so I´ll be looking forward to some more down time to just get to enjoy this place which seems like is going to be pretty easy.
From Belize we went to Palanque and saw some really cool ruins. They were a lot bigger than the ones in Copán, and we hired a guide so we learned a lot more about them too.

This is on the outside of one of the buildings and it´s Paákal i think is how you spell it. He was a king here and he´s talking to a servant . And I don´t know why this is underlined, but it is. We also went to a couple other places like a really big waterfall and Aguas Azules (which means blue water, but since it´s the rainy season, it was anything but blue. I kinda felt like when people are stoked to see Havasu or the Little Colorado and it´s flashing so all the blue water is dirty, but it was still really cool). Mark is a really good kayaker and Garrett´s catching up with him and they were dreaming about coming down here and getting a first ascent of some of the rivers we´ve seen. When we asked some of the locals about it a) they had no idea what kayakismo is and b) they thought we were crazy for even thinking about it. Their responses were pretty funny.

This is a pretty touristy town, surrounding a lake that was created when a volcano erupted, and where the magma was sunk out, there´s now a lake surrounded by 5 volcanos. It is so beautiful. I think there´s going to be some pretty sweet hiking and swimning and maybe some more diving to some ruins that are under water. We asked about some cliff jumping we´d heard about and got the same looks as asking about kayaking. Like....'so you want to jump of a cliff into the water???¿' I like their responses.

We only stayed there for two nights then went to the very relaxed feeling San Cristobol. It is a really clean, awesome, colonial town with several colorful plazas and an amazing market. My mom would have loved that place with all the colors of everything!

We spent a lot of time walking around the city and around the market. We made some great fajitas with all fresh stuff we bought there. It is a lot higher elevation, so it was actually pretty cold there, and it´s been really nice to have a relief from the heat. One night when walking around, we had some Mexican hot chocolate that is pretty rich and has a cinnamon flavor to it, and amazing churros (sorry, Costco, you got nothin compared to Mexico!) and had that several other times during our 2 night stay. This is one of my favorite pictures of Garrett. He´s 6´7¨and needless to say doesn´t fit in the buses and vans very well. Then after a day and a half of 2 Colectivos (15 seater mini vans), two buses, a night stay in this town that´s pretty much an intersection that the bus dropped us off in, and three more buses, we´re finally here and ready to just relax.


We took a tour of the lake today and went to some of the other cities around the lake. They are named after the 12 apostles. They were cool, but our city is definately best. The other cities were all different sizes and conditiions, but regardless of where we were, we were always bombarded by kids moms and some toddlers to sell stuff. One place we got to see how they make the fabric on thier looms and it was pretty cool. I had to buy some stuff there and I feel bad for not buying stuff from the cute little kids that look up at you with these huge brown eyes! but I´d run out of money and I just don´t need it! The boat driver told us there were some hot springs we could go to and that was one of the major selling points of the private boat, but they were just right up against a wall, no enclosure of any sort and the top two inches was a little warmer than the rest. we were pretty bummed.
So, Panajchel has been pretty great. It´s rained everyday though and we´re hoping that we´ll have some clear days ahead. I have done different designs of braids in Garrett´s hair and this one has lasted like a week I think. He gets some weird looks for sure, but it´s out of his way. He has been giving me Spanish lessons and it´s great to really have some stuff to work on, and I think most of you know that I talk in my sleep and I have a coupel times on this trip, and last night I was speaking Spanish and Garrett said it was making sense so I think that´s a good thing. Can´t wait until the end of the trip when I´m totally fluent! (let´s hope anyway!)
Mark is leaving a little earlier than planned. He is going home to do a kayaking thing so we´re bummed he´s leaving. He LOVES the panderias (the little bread shops) and the taco stands and we´re going to be hungry without him always having some new treat for us to try. It´s gone amazingly well with the three of us, and we´re sad he´s leaving.
Well, the rain stopped, so I think we´ll go try to see the sunset. Adios!