Guatemala Day Four – Zip Line and Boating and Shopping…Oh My!

What a wonderful day we had…so many new experiences in a place of such beauty. Again we will post pictures but I guarantee that the pictures will not do justice to what we saw. I know that I took about a hundred pictures and each time I looked at the pictures it just wasn’t the same as what I was seeing ahead of me.
We started off with a wonderful breakfast provided from the hotel we were staying in. It was a big breakfast with eggs, beans, fresh orange juice and some of the best bread ever. After breakfast the team split up into three groups for the morning. One group went zip lining; one group took a boat ride across the lake to Santiago and another group wanted to take another crack at bargaining with the locals shopping.
The boat crew of approximately thirteen (lucky number), loaded into a boat to cross the lake to a different city, Santiago. The water was a jade green and the morning offered up calm waters so the boat ride across was a calm one. As we approached the other side of the lake it brought us closer to the volcanos so we took the opportunity to take closer and clearer pictures as the clouds started to pass from the peaks of the volcanos. Santiago is an old city with cobble stone streets, street markets and a church that was built in the 1500’s. The boat crew took the opportunity to see the sights and maybe catch a few bargains as well. We found ourselves spending too much time in Santiago and with an approaching storm we needed to head back to Panajachel.
I’ll hand it over to Mike Morton to write about the zip line adventure…A group of 9 went on a zip line adventure this morning. The adventure started with a trip to the Atitlan Nature Reserve in Tuk Tuks. The Tuk Tuk drivers had as much fun racing to the Nature Reserve as we had riding. Once there we all attended a zip line course. We then took a hike up through the forest to the start of the zip line. The hike was beautiful as we walked over multiple suspension bridges across a river and the base of waterfalls. We also got to see spider monkeys along the way. Someone commented that the hike would have been sufficient but we also got to go on the Zip Line. The zip lines ranged from very long to short and fast. All had a magnificent view of the lake on one side and of multiple waterfalls on the other. After the last zip line we were all presented with our diploma for successful completion of the Atitlan Nature Reserve zip line. We walked back to Panajachel instead of taking the Tuk Tuk’s and got to see wonderful views of the lake that we missed while riding the Tuk Tuks.
The rest of the team spent the day shopping and seeing the sights in Panajachel. Not only were so great bargains found but they found time to eat and take so very interesting pictures of the locals.
Soon we found that our time was coming to a close in Panajachel and we were loading up the bus to head back to the mission house for another three hour trip back. We closed out the night with dinner, devotion and time to write a blog.
Tomorrow we will be off to bring glory to God with our hands and feet. Continue to pray for the mission team as we reach out to the people of Guatemala!
The Guatemala Mission team…