San Pedro, Lago Atitlan: Sunday

So, Sunday morning, still in San Pedro. Friday and Saturday had been all right, but they just hadn't quite lived up to the amazing time I had Panajachel. Thus, I was STOKED for Sunday because we were going to hike Indian Nose, which is a big, steep hill close to San Pedro. The plan was to start hiking at 6 AM Sunday morning. I was up early enough to catch a little bit of the sunrise on the lake. The water was so calm and still. It was incredibly peaceful and quiet, and it felt like a good way to start my day.

Like glass, baby.

Rather than taking a shuttle to the base of the hill, we opted to walk from San Pedro through the neighboring town of San Juan to get to the hill. Here's Indian Nose from San Pedro. The tallest peak is the "nose". To the left would be the "eye socket", and to the right are the "lips". Squint your eyes. It's better in real life, I promise. (***Spoiler alert***: We did reach the top... which meant I was sitting on the very tip of that nose!)

I'm coming for you, Indian Nose.

Still rubbing the sleep out of our eyes, we walked through San Pedro and San Juan and finally started to get into the forest to start climbing Indian Nose. The term "hill" is kind of misleading. This was no Volcan Acatenango, but it was still a really arduous climb! The humidity didn't help either. In no time at all, I was drenched and wondering why exactly I had thought I wanted to do this. There was no way I was going to turn back though and so I drudged on trying to breathe. Finally, after a tough, hot, and sweaty 3 hours, we reached the peak of Indian Nose. It was the same feeling of reaching the top of Volcan Acatenango- an incredible sense of accomplishment complimented with an incredible view. There was this little tree house lookout structure that we quickly shimmied up and then collapsed on.

We did it! Exhausted but accomplished!

All my discomfort was forgotten immediately as I looked around me. I still couldn't really breathe, but now it was because the world looked so beautiful. WORTH IT, MAN.

Lago Atitlan from the top of Indian Nose. Wooooow.

Just so green and blue. I CAN'T HANDLE IT.

Evidence. Jess climbed Indian Nose.

After we relaxed at the top and took some pictures, we had to scurry back down the mountain to San Pedro. Unfortunately, we had to go home that afternoon and had a shuttle to catch! After a quick lunch, we boarded the lancha boat to head back to Panajachel for the shuttle. This is when things really started to get adventurous...

Things were fine... until we ran out of battery in the middle of the lake! I was unphased- I knew another boat was on the way to help us. As we waited, a storm moved closer and closer. Boat number 2 arrived after awhile, but things played out differently than I expected. Rather than giving us a new battery or tow, apparently we were going to change boats! This was fine in theory, but it was a lot smaller than the one we had been on. We were also on a huge lake in the late afternoon, which went the waves were already rough and made it tough to jump across to the boat. Then, the situation got worse as the storm finally broke over us. As the rain started to fall and the boats rocked against each other, we scrambled into the second boat and had our bags thrown into our laps. We were off, but now the rain was really falling and the waves were serious. Our little (overcrowded) boat was barely above the water! It could have been capsized so easily by the waves... which has happened before on the lake. The rain intensified even more and suddenly the captained gunned the engine. Even with the roof on the boat, I was totally, 100% soaked, as if I had gone swimming in the lake! Water was all over the floor of the boat- the poor luggage! I know nothing about boating, so I trusted the captain. Surely he knew what he was doing?! People were nervously laughing... It doesn't take much to scare me, but even I wasn't comfortable with the situation.

THIS CAN'T BE SAFE.

Gracias a Díos we finally made it back to Panajachel in one piece. After that incident, I had had enough adventure for the weekend and was more than happy to head back to NPHG... even though it was one cold and wet bus ride!

Adrenaline rush! Happy to be alive and on land!