After a rather quiet Boxing day (in contrast to Mr. Ashby??), we had considered leaving the lake and heading onward. We were supposed to stay here for New Years, but we aren't really loving either our hotel, or Panajachel (the village we are in). As our hotel required 24 hours notice to change our reservation and we hadn't made any other arrangements, we decided to stay one more day. Good Choice!!
After breakfast we hit the bank machine .... again .... because you can only get $200.00 out max at a time. After that our traveling girls hailed a tuk tuk and we were off to the Lake Atitlan Nature Reserve. Our tuk tuk stalled on the way there (seriously, what's new??) but we made it safe and sound. As we were paying the entrance fee, I saw something in the parking lot moving around. Lena and I went to have a closer look and it was 2 peacocks! They were just hanging around, jumping on vehicles and snacking on bugs. Very cool.
We started our nature tour off with a pit stop to see a couple of spider monkeys and then over some wooden bridges past a couple waterfalls via coffee trees getting their fruit picked to the summit of the walk. It was really hot and my attempt at going native with this stupid Guatemalan baby sling torture device crap added to the heat. But when we got to the top, we saw a zip line. Jason, of course had to go past the "Do not go past this sign unless you are with a guide and have the proper equipment" sign with Lena and Jade. Luckily I was holding Reed in the stupid torture device and got to pass on checking it out. Jade was all over going down the zip lines so we made our way back to sign up.
I am afraid of heights. I don't think I used to be, but life with Jason changes A LOT of things. Jason thought it would be more likely that Lena would go if I went. No way, I was not watching my babies go flying through the air on a cable. I had tried it in Costa Rica ... enough for me, thanks.
So, Jason and Jade signed up for the zip lines but Lena didn't want to go, so we didn't push her. Jade and Jason were getting their gear on and all of a sudden Lena wanted to go with them. Atta girl!! I watched my 2 babies and their crazy father get all ready to sail through the jungle on zip lines and I kept a smile on my face the whole time. After they left, Reed and I walked back to the spider monkeys where Reed fell asleep and I watched 4 monkeys swinging from their tails trying to get my attention. Pretty cool as no one else was around. And then all of a sudden I heard the zip line and saw Jade flying way up in the air. SOOOO COOL! I got to watch them do 3 zip lines and Jason saw me, too on the last one. The girls were riding tandem with either one of the guides or Jason.
An hour later they were back and had such a great time that they wanted to go again. But, no, the baby had had enough and we had to move on. A very fantastic experience for everyone (and much better than the one I kept playing over in my head about 3 Canadians falling to their deaths on a Guatemalan zip line)
