Jill and I both woke up early to the sound of all kinds of birds in the exotic and beautiful gardens of Hotel Atitlan. We went for a short run along the cobblestone road and then had breakfast with Brent and Leila - a great hotel buffet.
Our first stop today was the market at Solola. Solola is a Mayan town of about 9,000 people. Most of them still live in the same clans as they did hundreds of years ago, and they still practice the same traditions. The Market was an incredible experience. One of my former student-employees (and the son of my colleague, Lisa) is serving an LDS mission in Guatemala and was just recently transferred to Solola. Brent likes a good challenge, so he took it upon himself to find out where the missionaries lived. Everyone in the town appeared to know of the church, and were able to point us in the direction of homes where members of the church live. After stops at two homes, we found them and dropped off a package from Elder Gregory's mom - a shoebox stuffed with Easter candy and peanut butter. They weren't home, so I left a not with the package, and we returned later in the evening and were able to catch Elder Gregory and his three companions. It was great.
In the afternoon, we went to a natural refuge across the street from Hotel Atitlan. It was a nice hike and crossed several suspended bridges. We also got to watch some very active monkeys.
We had dinner in Panajachel, a lively hippy town. We bought a few souvenirs along the way.
So fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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