Getting Fleeced in Panajachel and Santa Catarina

Today was our really only absolutely free day! Our plan was to get up early enough to catch the 7am ferry from Santiago to Panajachel.

One thing we never really figured out was something that I had never encountered in all my other trips to Guatemala. Apparently, Guatemala has a version of daylight savings time, except that many people take it upon themselves to ignore it.

The locals kept referring to "official" time and "Antigua" time, which were one hour apart. I'm still not sure which one is which, but we managed to arrive at the muelles (piers) an hour early for the ferry. Go figure.

After waiting for awhile, we took one of the "fast" launches to Panajachel, which was fun, but a little less picturesque than the slow boat.

Lake Atitlan

Once again, we managed to arrive in Panajachel before most of the restaurants opened. So after killing some time and looking around a little bit, we finally sat down at a restaurant that has an overlook of the lake. An incredibly beautiful scene, with all 3 of the major volcanoes in the distance, a little fog on the water and clouds rolling in. It was worth the wait....and the wait... The staff of the restaurant took their sweet time in bringing us coffee and then our food.

We did have some entertainment though. A group of high school aged kids were practicing for some sort of dance competition or performance at a place next to our restaurant. They were so self conscious, especially knowing that a couple of gringos were watching them. It was quite fun!

After breakfast and the obligatory walk through Panajachel, and visiting the local parish, Mark and I "negotiated" a boat ride from Panajachel to Santa Catarina - the next town to the east along the lake. We did a pretty lousy job of "negotiating" and paid about 3x what it was worth.

The ride was beautiful and we got to see some really pretty views of the lake. The town of Santa Catarina was really not that special. It pretty much looked like most of the other towns, so a a bit underwhelming.

We returned to Panajachel and took another boat back to Santiago.

Later this afternoon, Mark and I went over to Juana's house to look at some computers that she has. All of them had some sort of problem or another or needed to have their virus software updated. It is always such a problem working on computers there. So often these days, you have to get online to either download updates or validate new software or something. It is always tricky getting a good connection and expensive since they have to pay for the minute for each call. Nonetheless, after several hours of work and chatting with Juana's brother, mother, Pascual and Juana, we had done all the we could do.

After a rather late dinner at the office, Mark and I noticed that the church was still open. A bit surprising since it was around 11:00 pm. We decided to check it out.

As the festival was still going on and people were still lining up for the ferris wheels, etc., we had to weave our way through the streets, past the fried food and taco vendors and the festival games. We climbed the steps up to the church, we found that a vigil of sorts for Fr. Rother was going on around his monument.

A man, I guess one of the religious education teachers, was addressing about a hundred people who were listening. A book called "The Shepherd Cannot Run", a collection of letter written by Fr. Rother, was being used to tell the story of the last months of his life and about how he was murdered. It was a very moving experience to be a part of, even though it was being conducted in Tzutujil.

Another full day, and one more to come before leaving Santiago.