2 December, 2000

Big Storm last night left us all a little damp and not too well rested. Rain was literally coming in through the screened deck, across it (about 10 feet) and into the windows of the bedroom (which don't close). The howling wind was also throwing deck furniture around, dragging previously dry clothes off of the line, and generally making the night loud. We thought the storm was especially fun because we are planning to pack Sandy this morning and load her onto a ship.

The storm continued well into the morning, knocking out power and being a general hassle. Noon now it seems to be letting up a little, but there is still rain in the air and a stiff breeze.

We sat in a covered restaurant, played games, read and ate some food, waiting until four. The new at four was no way the ship was sailing that day or night, but just to be sure, call the captain at 7:00 p.m.

By this time Kelley and Lori are thinking of flying out and Steve and Beebee are a bit stressed about parting with them and shipping Sandy (and ourselves) on stormy seas. The seven o'clock phone call gave us news that the ship would leave at 4:00 a.m. (yup, a.m.) Monday morning if the break in the storm lasted -- the storm had calmed to light wind and no rain.

Kelley and Lori decided to fly out of Roatán anyway and Steve and Beebee decided to take the ship. We were to meet up at the airport whenever we got in -- we had little confidence the ship would actually leave at four in the morning.

It didn't. We left at seven, even though Steve and Beebee rose at 2:30 a.m. to get out to the docks in time. Ugh. Talk about pissed. But we were greeted by blue skies, no wind and no rain. The boat ride was uneventful and fairly nice. Picked K & L up (they got in at eight and so had been cooling their heels for four hours) around noon and we drove straight to Copán Ruinas and to the hotel where we stayed before.

We left fairly early, as you never know how long a border crossing will take and especially because we'd stayed in the country one day over our visa limit. We figured this wouldn't be a big deal -- that to extend it probably would have cost more time and money than paying the fine at the border. Boy were we right. The guy smiled and said one day was no big deal. Great! Border crossing took one and a half hours and we paid only 10 quetzales per person and 35 for the car -- about $10 U.S. Leaving Honduras was free.

The drive to Antigua was long -- Beebee drove to just outside Guatemala City and a brave but rather-unsure-and-not-too-happy Lori drove through Guat City and on to Antigua. We made a stop at a shell station with a mini mart that rivaled any in the states. We were amazed and Kelley even ordered a sandwich that could've been from Subway. It was so good in fact, that Beebee ran back in and got one for herself and Steve.

Of course we drove straight to Santa Lucia III, our hotel from last time in Antigua. We got the last two rooms here as well. Too bad, but they were on the bottom floor. Not too big a deal as we were only staying for one night and it was nearly dark when we arrived.

We did have time, however to repack dear Sandy. She'd been a disaster since we left Tim's and stuff was wet. We managed to dry things out at Arco Iris the night before we shipped out, but couldn't put anything up in the tent for all the rain. So Steve and Beebee spent a very productive and even fun (we're nuts) two hours cleaning and repacking the truck.

In the last two days we've travelled over 630 km (by road) to get from Roatán back to Antigua, Guatemala. Our average speed for the trip was 63 km/hr (that is less than 40 mph), max speed was 114.5 km/hr (a tad over 65) and actual time spent moving was just over ten hours. If you look at a map of Honduras and Guatemala it looks like an awfully long ways, but in reality the distance is significantly less than San Francisco, CA to San Diego, CA- something we used to do on a regular basis, in about eight hours.

One of the interesting quirks of having your own laptop is that many internet cafes are reluctant to let us hook up to their network. Some of them cite network security as the reason, but Steve suspects that the majority of the staff just don't know how to hook us up so they say it can't be done. Our best success has been when the owner or a young staff member are present- they are usually interested in trying. The irony is that all of the internet cafes we have visited are running some sort of windows network. Most of the time we just plug in and windows auto-detects the proper settings, sometimes we have to enter a DNS number… all pretty simple stuff. After trying four different places Steve convinced a guy to let us try to hook up. It went seamlessly, the update was fast and we got off lots of emails -- took us about 45 minutes and cost us a mere seven quetzales: about one U.S. dollar.

Our goal for the day was to make it to Lago Atitlán, and Panajachel, a mountain lakeside town about two hours northeast of Antigua. We arrived around 2:30 and made straight for a restaurant with a view. Kelley wasn't feeling well at all today, so we filled him with fish and veggies and juice and sat him in the sun. Lago Atitlán is a depressed volcano cone and is at least 320 meters deep and wow! is it beautiful. We were in a bit of a hurry to find a place to stay, between darkness and Kelley's sickness, so we settled on a decent place close to the lake. Beebee was having a day, but was surprised by her prince with the movie Fletch on DVD. Wow did that make her happy. We all piled onto Steve and Beebee's bed and watched the movie. How fun.

Funky neon caterpiller that we found by the side of the road- about 3 inches long	Hillside cemetary and fields near Lago Atitlán, everything around here is on a hillside	Lago de Atitlán, surrounded by volcanoes. Fabulously beautiful	Street vendors line the streets in Pana, from hammocks to quilts to bags and shirts	Fantastic lunch with a breathtaking view of the lake and volcanoes, in Panájachel

We shopped and looked and finally settled on the hotel next door to the one we stayed in last night! We bargained the price down to something we could afford and headed back out to do more shopping. Kelley and Lori already had a gorgeous wool blanket under their belts and Beebee had her eye on a bag. She's been wanting one since we first were in Antigua four weeks ago. After a full day of looking and asking prices she and Lori went back to the shop that had the style she liked and picked out three (better bargaining power, the more of an item you buy) one for her, one for a gift and one for Lori. We offered the shopkeeper what we wanted to pay (less than what the storekeeper had quoted for two bags earlier in the afternoon) and she accepted. Perfect! This technique was how Lori successfully bought several items she liked for the price she wanted. It's much more pleasant to decide what you want to pay for something and offer it then haggle for twenty minutes, never really sure if the price you end up with is what you wanted to pay or not.

Our hotel has a nice view of the lake from the rooftop patio. We will spend many hours here and watch the sunset while drinking a beer most evenings.

Sunset on "our" rooftop patio in Pana	Lake Atitlán and one volcano	The lake and its other two volcanos	Maya women carrying wood on the road into Pana

Wow. So many people and so many colors and so much food. Vegetables everywhere, tomatoes so red they look like candy, and beads -- Beebee and Lori were in heaven.

We came to Santiago thinking we might find different crafts than in Pana, but they were the same both in price and design, so we focused on the food market. We picked up tomatoes and avocados, canteloupe and pumpkin seeds. And the girls came back having spent about $11 U.S. on beads that would've cost five times that much in the states.

A little friend from Roatán we forgot to put this picture in before	The lovely boat ride from Pana to Santiago	We saw several traditional dugout canoes as we approached Santiago	The hillside crops never cease to amaze us- they cultivate on slopes that are just about vertical

A guy carrying a cabinet on his head	A bird's eye view of the Santiago market	Steve and Kelley review our goodies from Santiago

It seems we've all had enough shopping in the last few days. We woke late for us, ambled around the room for a while, put on sunscreen and tromped up the stairs. We brought with us the stove, propane, ingredients for pancakes and fresh strawberries and cantaloupe. Kelley made us his wonderful pancakes on the rooftop. Pretty fun.

We spent the rest of the day sprawled on the corner of the rooftop reading, drinking beer, writing postcards, beading and playing Scrabble. Around 4 p.m. K & L walked to town for food, while Steve and Beebee hung around on the deck some more. After a shower and a nap, we went out for a late supper at the Circus Bar, supposedly the most popular place in town. The three live Flamenco guitarists made the really good food even more enjoyable. We arrived around 9:30 to a crowded bar, and by 11:00 when we left, it was packed with well-heeled Guatemalan youth.

We decided to do as much buying as possible and meet back up at 12:45. It's amazing how much you can buy in a mere two hours. Steve and Beebee got about half their shopping done and K & L even more. We hopped on the 1 o'clock bus and as it sat there waiting for who-knows-what, we almost considered getting off again and trying our luck with other buses or the private vans. But we were all pooped and just stayed put. When we got back to Pana we finished up our shopping and enjoyed the evening.

Most of the stalls, like this one in Chichi awe your senses with color	A Maya woman tends a fire on the steps of the ancient church in Chichi- adding offerings of rum, food and incense	The bustle of the Chichicastenango market	Back in Pana, Julio, a 10-year old kid, drove the hardest bargain of anyone we had met

The walk back to the hotel was lovely -- a full moon hiding in the clouds above the ruins.