San Pedro la Laguna

Well I would trade not being able to sleep at night because of 50 rhythmic stray dogs making their beautiful music all over the mountainside for eminem blaring from the bar in my hostel any night! please excuse the line....these keyboards are some bofunk and it is ard to type let alone figure out how to work it!!!!!! bbbaaahhh!ddfgfdgh  ahhh ther we go. ok well i cannot post many pictures because if i did, i would be in this little shack for days.

my friends. I am now in San Pedro, a small town around Lake Atitlan. We left Antigua and was too late for the shuttle so we got our own private car driver at the same price!! A dude named Cazz from London joined us and we went for the most beautiful (and crazy, this driver was relentless!) trip through the countryside of the mountains to reach Panajachel, the main port town around the lake. ahh! I honestly felt like I was in Northern California surrounded by the redwoods at some points of our drive. I am so used to BEING the driver when i travel through the mountains that I felt a little car sick but oh well. Then we arrived at Pana and took a boat across the lake, and passed all the most beautiful colorful houses embedded in the mountainside.

Once we arrived in San Pedro we went to this hostel that my friend Ryan who lives here recommended. It´s absolutely everything I could imagine and more. At 2 dollars a night, we have the most pristine view of the lake and precious kittens roaming around our little plot of land. Colorful hammocks covering our hillside, a most perfect climbing fig tree, an outdoor toilet, shower, etc.  As I settled in a hammock breathing in my new location, the clouds were slowing rolling along the water as dusk was turning to night. It seriously felt like we were in our own little universe because the lake is completely surrounded by mountains! Then the rain came, pouring pouring, incessently pounding down on the tin roof above my head.  The Earth´s water was so pure and light and cold. The thunder was roaring its righteous tune and the lightning was illuminating the entire sky.  I went to dinner with a new friend, where a cat came and nuzzled into my lap then mosied to other laps...quite the love moocher! by the way, there are so many beauditul dogs here. I was petting two golden retrievers today and one scampered over to this pile of rubble and rocks to dig out an old cracked two liter bottle...he then brought it back to me to in turn through as his stick!!! haha it just shows that we do not need the highest end product to serve as simple entertainment! Anyway, I slept very very very well last night...loving the dog songs and what I assume was acorns or something dropping on our tin roof all night long.

tadaa, now today is cassidy´s birthday! i woke up right away this morning because, i forget to mention this above,but i thought i was pit pocketed yesterday and could not find my atm or credit card all night! i tried to phone home to tell my mom to cancel my cards but the call the unsuccessful...all for a blessed reason. I went to the market today and came back to find out that our new friend Tony, had found my bank cards in the hammock we were laying in last night!!! woooo hooooo! i was seriously on my way to cancel my cards when this happened. Phew! Don´t need that happening first week into the trip!

This morning was wonderful waking up with the lake. The people here are absolutely amazing. SOO friendly and all smiles. I was looking for this massageplace today and stumbled upon this dharma yoga center where i ended upmeeting an amazing man named rio who had studied with jack kornfield innorthern ca. at spirit rock and there is a 3 day yoga workshop startingtomorrow, including 9 buddhist precepts per say. 10 am is meditation, thenyoga, then chi gong, then lunch break. then a 3 hour discussion on different dharma teachings. The yoga will be held on this white stucco rooftop looking over the whole lake and its glorious strength.  I was soooooo grateful to have found this place, and I very very much look forward to starting the class tomorrow. We are also hoping to start taking Spanish classes here soon.

I love you all and am so happy that I have a means to share my experiences with you.

Continue enjoying life and all the beauty that surrounds us.