View from Panajachel

This is the only picture I took on our Panajachel adventure (problems with my camera). Mom, Rachel and I took the boat to see our friends Ted and Kathryn and to visit their beautiful new house. Paul didn't go because he said the water on the Lake would be too rough; the wind had built up overnight and it was quite breezy that morning. Well, he was right. The boat ride to Pana was horrendous! We were pounding against waves as soon as we left Santiago; the Indian sitting near Mom casually observed that the waves out on the Lake were even larger. Which was also true. Rachel and Alba, a young neighbor of Mom and Paul, sat in front and warned us all when larger waves were coming. There was a Spanish family aboard, and the woman sitting next to Mom gripped her hand the whole time. Picture the boat rising over a five-to-ten-foot crest and then crashing down on the other side (my head hit the ceiling several times). It seemed like a minor miracle that the boat didn't just tear to pieces! Fortunately, the waves weren't quite as bad as we approached Pana.

So when you look at this picture with its beautiful blue water and the volcanoes across Lake Atitlan, think of us passengers with our shaky legs, grateful to be on solid ground!