Lake Atitlan

We quickly got all settled in to our rooms in Casa Del Mundo, and though we were all really tired, we went for a swim in the lake. It was beautiful and incredibly refreshing. Mom, hating cold water like she does, didn't get in, but Ben, Rissa and I really enjoyed it. The wind was really strong and so we didn't last as long as we might have been able to sometimes, but it was still really nice.

Dinner was family style, and there weren't to many people staying at the hotel the first night, so it was easy to talk to everybody. The food itself (shish kabobs, soup and some strawberry dessert) was delicious, and very filling. There were people from all over the world at just the one table, and it was an interesting experience. There was at least Dutch, German, English and American the first night. Likely there were others, but I'm not sure. We were all really tired though after such a long day, and after taking some nice pictures of the sunset, we all collapsed into bed.

The next morning I woke up with a stomach ache I wanted to die from. We're still not sure what food or drink put me on the edge, but all morning I had to stay near a bathroom. It was really an unpleasant experience. Fortunately I made a remarkable recovery, and though I still was a little careful about what I ate, by about noon I seemed completely fine and full energy. The wind hadn't died down, so it was still not a good idea to go kayaking on the lake, and so we all found our little place around the hotel to read in all day. Ben liked the room, mom moved around, Larissa found a sky chair and I found a hammock. None of these things were anywhere near each other.

We went for another swim in the afternoon, because the wind had died down a little bit. Mom braved the water this time, and was sorry she did because she was absolutely frozen afterward. Ben and Larissa were looking to go cliff jumping, but none of the cliffs were vertical enough. They were very steep, but there was to much of a danger of jumping and landing on the rocks to go very high up. When the wind picked up and the sun started to go down, it cooled of very quickly, and then we were all fighting for who got to shower first in the one solar powered shower we all shared.

Dinner was good again I'm told, although I didn't eat any because I still wanted to be careful. But the pasta I got tasted delicious! When we got back to our room that night we found a scorpion and a really big spider, both in the hallway. Decided to experiment to see what would happen, we put them in the same glass. The spider was really smart and wouldn't come down off the top of the glass, and the scorpion couldn't get up there. They pretty much ignored each other though, and after a while we decided we should just put them far away from our room.

Tuesday morning we left, and had an interesting boat ride because we were really wet by the time we got to the dock. The wind was stronger than ever, and we were going against it. The bus ride back was uneventful, and we actually got the mini van we'd been promised. I was sad to leave the hotel, because being by water is like paradise for me. But we have other things to do, places to see, so the sadness turned into excitement very quickly.