6.14

The Shuttle (or lack-thereof)
5 a.m., another early morning. Face washed, hair in a ponytail, drag myself after Hallie into the taxi waiting for us half an hour later. We're dropped off at a hotel to wait for the shuttle service I've booked to take us to Panajachel. 6:30 a.m. comes and goes, there is no shuttle. I decide to call the guy who booked us from the hotel phone - Gustavo. He says he never received our payment. Uh-oh. We did pay, didn't we? Hallie swears she did. He says he'll arrange for an emergency cab to come get us, but it will cost us 600Q, then hangs up on me. Now I'm getting irritated. We manage to get the wifi password and pull up the paypal invoice, proving we paid. Hallie forwards it to Gustavo's e-mail. I call him back. "Ohh, I didn't know that was your payment."  ... Taxi gets there, and is prepaid, as promised. I decide to let it go, everyone makes mistakes, after all. The important thing is that we get to Panajachel, right? The taxi takes us to right outside of Antigua where we meet our original shuttle, then we're off. A few hours later, we are standing in front of our hotel, the Hotel de Porta del Lago. The view is beautiful. We grab a quick lunch, down a free, disgustingly sugary cocktail, and head to book the afternoon's activities.

Kayaking on Lake Atitlan
We book kayaking and ziplining through a company that works for the hotel. The prices are pretty cheap, and include transportation. We immediately set off to get our kayaks. We hop in the boat and attempt to paddle out onto the lake. Neither of us has ever done this before, oops. Do we paddle on the same side at the same time, or opposite sides? We succeed in making huge circles close to the shore for a while, but this gives us enough time to take some pretty pictures of the water and volcanoes before it starts to rain. We hand off our cameras to the rental place and then make wide circles into the center of the lake as it sprinkles. It occurs to me that I don't know what kind of monsters live in this lake. Certainly, it's too cold for crocodiles, but maybe some big, scary fish? I have PTSD-like flashbacks to Jaws and start to wonder if maybe a kayak was a bad choice, but ultimately we enjoy ourselves. The hour is over too soon, but then it is time for the zipline.

Ziplining
We take a teensy little taxi up the side of the mountain - I can hardly believe the thing can make it up. It's practically a Flintstones vehicle, but powered by a motor that belongs in an RC car. We get to the Nature Reserve, where the ziplining base is. Two guides gear us up, and we get a little practice run on a tiny line over to the side. After we have the basics down (thank goodness I speak Spanish!), we start hiking up. It's not brutal, at least, not compared to the other hikes I've done on this trip, but it's hot and sticky. There are scary rope-ladder bridges that we have to cross, although thankfully they have chain-link fence on the sides. Twenty or so minutes later, we're at our first line out of six. This. Is. Exhilarating. The view is beautiful as we fly over the trees from one platform to the other. On our last two lines, it begins to rain, the drops slapping me in the face as I whoosh through the air. This makes it even more awesome, because the line is slippery and we go a little faster. I fail to brake because of the water and end up turning parallel to the ground, knees braced as my feet slam into a tree & the guide yanks on the break ropes. The rain makes it cool and muddy. We slip and slide down to the final line and it's over way too fast, as always. Afterwards, we walk to a nearby restaurant & then back to the hotel. We shower (hot water AND water pressure!!!), then fall into our beds by 8:30, pooped!