Celebrations

I had a lot to celebrate last weekend.  First of all, there was the 11km trail race that I won a little over a week ago.  (Yes, won.  At least the women’s category.  It’s the first time I’ve ever come in first place in a race, and I did not expect it in the least).  Second was the fact that as of Friday, April 24th, 100% of my requirements are complete for my master’s degree in International Education. 

Approaching the finish line

Celebrating my masters degree with a
massive turkey leg.
Both of those things are worth a celebration.

So, to celebrate (and to relax after an intensive 2 week master’s course), Richard and I took off for a weekend at Lake Atitlan. 

The weekend was exactly what I was hoping for: a perfect balance between adventure and total relaxation. 

On Saturday, we took our time packing (because if you know me at all, you know I always leave packing for the last minute) and leaving the city, arriving at our hotel in Lake Atitlan around 3:30pm.  The day was overcast, so we had no view of the volcanoes across the lake, but the room was bright and the hotel grounds filled with lush gardens. 

View from the room

That evening, we enjoyed a delicious BBQ dinner at our hotel, then called it an early night. 

Sunday morning we woke up to sunshine, but again, fog shrouded the other lake’s volcanoes from view.  Our plan for the day was to go on a hike, and while it was disappointing that we probably wouldn’t have a view, we were still excited about it, and we had a quick breakfast at the hotel before catching a lancha across the lake to begin our hike from the property that used to be Richard’s grandfather’s coffee finca. 

Beginning the hike


The hike took us up a ridge to what would have been a stunning view of the lake and all three volcanoes surrounding it.  Instead we saw mostly blue, but it was still quite enjoyable. 





From the ridge, we hiked into the village of Peña Blanca.  (If you have seen the documentary Living on One, it was filmed there.  If you have not…I recommend watching it).  

Peña Blanca
From the village we followed a quiet road all the way to Solalá, then down the main highway back into Panajachel.  All together the hike was 14.5km (about 9 miles), and I think it was the perfect way to spend a Sunday morning.

A quick stop at the waterfall on the way to Pana

We had lunch at a place called Circus Bar in Pana.  It had great ambiance and great pizza!  However, as I went to photograph it, Richard kindly suggested that perhaps I should just enjoy the moments of my life rather than photographing all of them.  Fair enough. 



After another quiet evening relaxing at the hotel and having dinner there, it was once again an early night followed by a sunny morning.  We checked out early and ferried back to Pana for a delicious breakfast (which I did not photograph) and then a walk along the water.  We finally could see the hazy volcanoes in the distance, so we found a shady spot to just sit and enjoy the view for a while.



Relaxation, celebration, and good company…it was a wonderful weekend!  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive thing was that as soon as the plane got to al
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and decided that if the team qualified for Glob
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming to terms with the fact that as a US teacher, I wil
Read more