Our old driver, Alfredo, picked us up at the airport upon arrival in Guatemala. He drove us out to Antigua and dropped us off at our AirBnB for the night.
We got settled in, charging up some gadgets, and then went to grab a late lunch/early dinner at a vegan restaurant nearby, set back in a beautiful courtyard.
Afterward, we wandered around town, getting reacquainted with it and where all of our favorite sites were.
It got dark early, so we went ahead and turned back to our place, hoping to find somewhere to buy a bottle of wine on the way.
We never passed a store with wine, but we saw a sign right before our BnB for a restaurant with wine and tapas, so we turned down the road to go there instead, and it turned out to be a little slice of heaven.
We were the only ones there, and we wandered back to the small courtyard, surrounded by greenery and a small stone fountain. The owner kept adding some mood lighting for us, first some fairy lights and then some candles. We got an order of mushrooms and a bottle of red to split, and had a lovely time.
We went back and read until we fell asleep.
The next morning, we headed into town early to try to avoid the people and cars. We weren’t super successful, and nothing opens in that town until 9, but it was pleasant wandering around in the chilly morning air.
We went back to our place for breakfast, and then went to run some quick errands before Alfredo picked us up.
The drive to Lake Atitlán took just over 2 hours, which is much shorter than I remembered it being. As we approached the lake, the roads started winding sharply back and forth, and I worried my vertigo was going to act up, but we made it to busy Panajachel with no issues. We passed through and went to Santa Catarina Palopó instead, where we climbed a million stairs up to our house.
I’d like to say it was the view that took our breath away, but truly it was the climb that did that. But still, the view was pretty spectacular.
After settling in, we got a tuk tuk back into Pana for some food and groceries. Around the lake, there are really three modes of transportation: the 3-wheeled tuk tuks, a “taxi” which is a pick-up truck that you ride in the bed of, or boat lancha to get between villages.
Pana is probably the most chaotic town on the lake. Tuk tuks and taxis and motor bikes zipping by constantly, the locals trying to sell anything from bananas to paintings to clothing to dolls. You sit down in a restaurant, and an adorable kid will come in to try to sell you a bracelet. And then of course, there are stray dogs everywhere, but possibly my favorite thing about Pana is all the places you can donate some money for restaurants and stores to buy food for the strays. I didn’t see a single starving dog there.
After eating some amazing papusas, we walked to the supermarket to buy some groceries for the house. We messaged our tuk tuk driver, and he took us back home from there.
We watched a lovely sunset from our deck, and then we had a massage therapist come to the house that evening so that we could both get a massage. Aside from the sound of fireworks and cheering from the festival going on in Santa Catarina, it was a perfectly relaxing evening.
A stray pup found us after this, befriending us with hugs and kisses. I fed her some chips and peanut butter, and she kept us company while we spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub, and then we left her to go to bed.
I woke up to a beautiful sunrise, the soft light pouring in through the giant window in front of our bed. Soon after that, the fireworks started back up.
We spent the morning relaxing before heading back into town to go paragliding. Unfortunately, I had still been feeling sick since the last day in Mexico, and once it came time to actually leave on the van, I decided I needed to back out. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere or flying in the air and feeling sick sounded like a bad idea. Of course, as soon as I made that decision, my stomach started feeling a little better again.
We grabbed a snack and then wandered down Calle Santander, doing a little shopping. After awhile, we went back to the house to relax, cook some dinner, and hang out in the hot tub again after the sun set.
The next morning was pretty much a repeat. A beautiful sunrise, some breakfast and reading, and then back into town to try again at paragliding.
We had to wait a little while, so we went to a deli to grab some drinks and then went back to the office. This time, I felt more up to it, and we hopped in the van, just the two of us.
We met up with our pilots at the landing zone. We started driving off, but then another pilot landed, so they invited him to come along with us to head back up the mountain and go again.
On the way up, we went through a town called Godinez, where some rando hopped in the van with us. I still haven’t figured out who he was or why he came along, but they had a great time joking in the back of the van, while we wound our way up through avocado bushes, eventually looking like we were going to head straight off the cliff.
But then we were at our take off point, and I climbed out, completely ecstatic.
I got all geared up, we started running forward, and then got pulled back in a tangled jumble of legs and gear, but then the wind lifted us back up just enough that we ran off and caught some air.
We flew over multiple towns and beautiful homes and gardens. My pilot, Christian, would follow where he saw trees and flowers rustling, knowing there’d be some wind there to lift us higher. We made it into some thermals, which lifted us so high that we were literally in the clouds and could not see anything but white around us. Christian kept cheering and calling me his “sky girl”.
We did a few acrobatics, but since I still wasn’t feeling 100%, we mostly just floated peacefully around the cliffs and out over the water. I started feeling a little queasy eventually, so after around 45 minutes in the air, we started making our way back down.
Anthony took off not long after I did. At one point, our guides flew us toward each other so that our canopies were just touching. Anthony was still nervous about paragliding, but he seemed a bit more relaxed than the last couple times.
We stood around awhile after landing, people-watching. A few young Mayan girls came up to me to get selfies with me and then ran off giggling, and I’m still not sure why.
We walked back up Calle Santander and then stopped for papusas again. Afterward, we got a tuk tuk back home, enjoying one last sunset, home-cooked dinner, and hot tub time at the house.
The next morning, we got our stuff packed up, went to one last viewpoint, and then headed into town to catch a lancha across the lake.
I would have been sad to leave Santa Catarina, but I knew where we were going was going to be even better.