Last trip to the lake…

The last weekend in June Erika, Michael, and I took our last trip to Lake Atitlan…at least for the time being…. We boarded a transport on Thursday morning and got to the lake mid-day – just in time for our massages in San Marcos! I had never had any sort of professional massage at all and I can honestly say it was worth the wait. I got an hour long, full body massage for roughly $30 and IT. WAS. AWESOME. SOOOOOO relaxing! After our little detour in San Marcos, we headed to San Pedro, where we stayed from Thursday through Saturday.

Lago Atitlan

Thursday night we went to an awesome restaurant called D’NOZ (highly recommended) that had the most DELICIOUS chocolate, banana, and ice cream crepes, and got a special treat – Thursday’s movie night there. We ate some amazing food and watched “Everything is Illuminated” (interesting story…) and enjoyed hanging out by candlelight as all the electricity went out from a huge storm (don’t worry – it came back on right before we started the movie and we got to watch the whole thing!)

Friday, we woke up just in time for our 3 hour horseback riding expedition up a volcano! Erika and I had been trying to ride horses for literally MONTHS (ever since I’d gotten sick wayyyy back in February…and then when I got sick again in May…and well…you get the picture.) So we were SO excited to hop on our horses and start our adventure :).

I hadn’t been on a horse probably since I’d stopped taking lessons back in the fourth grade…but Mom and Dad you’ll be happy to know I put those lessons to good use and discovered that riding a horse is like…well…riding a bike – it just came back to me all at once ;-) We darted off – trotting, galloping, and running all over the streets of San Pedro and enjoying the gorgeous view of the lake!

With my horse, Morena, in front of the lake

Group shot!

We also stopped after about an hour and a half and took a little detour down to the shores of the lake, to take some pictures and relax for a bit before mounting our horses and heading back to San Pedro.

Me, Michael, and Erika

:)

After our strenuous horseback riding experience, Erika and I decided it was about time for another massage. So! Less than 24 hours after my first amazing, wonderful, incredible massage, I received my second…which was a LOT less awesome…and less relaxing…and well…yea. Not only was the massage not as good, the massage therapist got jasmine oil in my eye and I literally thought I was going to go blind! I was in so much pain and kept screaming “ME QUEMA! ME QUEMA!” (it burns me). After a good 20 minutes, a couple of towels, and a WHOLE lot of water, I could finally open my right eye without tears and screams of pain…needless to say…it wasn’t the best experience of my life…

After the second of our massages, we hung out with our friends who had arrived – Sam, Thayer, and her friend Christine – ate delicious food, and called it a night after a long day.

Saturday we wandered around and absorbed all that we could of the lake. It’s such a beautiful, relaxing place, and by far one of my favorite spots in Guatemala. I’m really going to miss Lago Atitlan, but I hope I make it back there one day sometime soon :).

love.