Deiber and I take the plunge

Today was a free day in Panajachel. We had the option of a few different activities, but in reality the day was pretty well planned for us. An included trip was to visit some of the local Mayan communities, where we would meet some artists, some local medicinal experts, and also some cotton makers and weavers. This kind of thing is typical for G Adventures and
similar tours.

Our Sunday morning cruise

Deiber had suggested a particular place for breakfast that was across the lake. He talked about how great a breakfast it was and there would be a place to swim in the lake there. To be honest I didn’t think too much of it… I just assumed it would be a nice enough place. I was wrong… but I’ll get to that.

Just an active volcano

So we jumped in a boat and headed to the restaurant. On the way we had breathtaking views of the volcanos across the lake. They looked incredible in the early morning, with some cloud skirting the top.

Just a spectacular breakfast location

Deiber went straight to the hammock

In 15 minutes we reached the breakfast location. Deiber was not wrong… it was magic. It was right in the side of the mountain overlooking the lake. We ascended many flights of steps to sit on the balcony overlooking the lake, volcanos and mountains. the whole group was smiling, thinking that life was pretty good about now.

Mmm… double breakfast

The menu looked great as well, so good I needed two breakfasts. An absolutely delicious granola along with their speciality breakfast burritos. Holy cow. By the end I was stuffed.

Woooooooooooo!

But there was swimming to be had, so off we went back down to lakeside. There was a nice area to relax, with some great diving off points. Of course I had to take the opportunity, so off I jumped! The photo above was captured by Deiber and to say he was quite chuffed with his handiwork was an understatement. To be fair though, I gotta say I was pretty impressed with his photo too! Captured my Spiderman leap perfectly.

… and here’s more of the gang

I blazed a trail and next thing we knew everyone was leaping off. We were all having a blast… swimming, relaxing… we were content to stay the whole day.

The Mayan face overlooks us

Instead we wandered to another part of the lake, to visit a local Mayan community. First visit was to some local artists. Their work was brightly coloured and captured the vibe well, especially all the ones involving food. We couldn’t help but pick up some things, especially when converting to our currency. We felt kinda bad that they weren’t charging more in a way.

Enjoying our home cooking

It was now lunch time! This was actually spent with a local Mayan family who cooked us all up a treat. It is odd being in someone’s house, with them waiting on us and providing delicious food. But Deiber told us that they feel very privileged to have us and that we are actually providing a lot to their community. In the end I could hardly eat all my food, being still full from breakfast… but who was I to insult my hosts?

I wonder if this guy ends up in medicine?

Next was to visit a medicinal garden, and run through how the Mayans use natural herbs and the like for their remedies. It was pretty interesting to see how they still try to use natural things where they can.

Cotton Demo

Finally we visited a local women’s group who specialise in cotton production and crafts. What was amazing was to see how they use all natural things to colour their cotton. carrots, avacado stones… you name it they use it. And the colours were incredible. Kate and I got a bit of shopping done there too. It was great stuff and nice to be able to by proper
handicrafts from the local community.

Local church

Sunset was fast approaching, so it was back in the boat back to Panajachel. It was a quiet night where we could all do our own thing, so Kate and I just chilled for a bit, grabbed a bite and had a little wander. The township itself was nothing spectacular… just a main touristy street really. So we spent a little more time checking it out before repacking for our trip to Antigua tomorrow.