Hello from Panajachel Guatemala! It’s currently about 830 am here on Lake Atitlan– about 1030 am back home. Today is our first cloudy/overcast day. The weather has been pretty awesome otherwise. Like always, a chill without the sun, but warm in the mid day sunshine.

We’re so happy to be here. All of us. We’re having a great time. My body is a bit weird– missed period (not pregnant) — probably due to travel/elevation. And fighting off a cold– weird– so weird. But still going! Going to head into town and get an “immune buster” drink later for sure. Aka, basically this immune shot I make– but with pineapple juice. My breath is going to be garlic pineapple fresh, haha.

Honestly, I had planned to just put up a What Marlowe Eats post– but then as I was editing the post, I was excited to share bits from here in Guatemala. I imagined this post having three photos or so and a paragraph or two of words– but then I got excited and have SO many photos here, haha oops. But what can I say, I love it here. Still… even with the chill in the air.

And so here– we have a post sharing bits and pieces of our first 24 hours on the Lake 🙂

We arrived in Guatemala on Thursday afternoon. We took a taxi to Antigua where we met up with my friend Alyssa. We got a few smoothies and then packed up our luggage into her car and headed to the lake. We basically ate all the food we packed the for the day (sushi and noodles– best plane food, haha). And then headed off to bed nice and early.

The next morning we woke up to this. Perfect.

And Marlowe woke up to rambutans — her favorite. I’m sure by now, you guys know how much she loves these things.
And Alex woke up to relaxing with a volcano view and coffee.  Both needed.

I get a lot of questions about the climate here when I post photos/stories on Instagram and we ‘re all in sweaters and beanies. I mean, “cold” and “hot” are relative of course. It’s not freezing here. Ever. And it’s rarely sweltering hot. It’s temperate. But before the sun hots you and then about 4-5pm every day, the temp drops and we need an extra layer for sure. But if we (tropical people) can handle the “cold” here– basically anyone else can!

ps. Between starting this post and now, I’ve added a pair of thick socks. It’s definitely colder today. But we knew it would be like this– and we looked forward to escaping the Florida summer heat.

I was mostly looking forward to getting my hands on all the fruit here. I was hoping and crossing all my fingers for mangosteen– Alex said I might find some, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t. I was, unfortunately, the one who was right in this situation. But I have been living on a steady diet of fruit all day and soups/ veg and beans at night.

After a late and slow breakfast, we’ve been putting on some layers and making the 20-30 walk down the hill and into town.

Where we have become friends with many dogs. To the left, you have Roberta (I named her) and to the right, we have Fluffy (guess who named her, haha). They both followed us through the town. Roberta even stayed with us all day into the evening. She was painfully sweet. And we do a light nibble if you weren’t looking to be like, “hey give me love”

On our first morning in Guatemala we marched into town and down to Hiptipico. Marlowe whipped out her watercolor set and patiently waited as we made plans. She knew she would get some serious playtime with some local girls and was VERY excited.
We decided to head back to the streets and up to the market while we waited for the girls to arrive.
We loaded up on tons of veggies. We’re eating our wait in peppers over here.
And taking photographs with and of the flowers.


Funny story, I was photographing these bananas and the old guy selling them, jokingly asked if I wanted to take a photo of his butt. He turned around and bent over (with pants on). I snapped a photo. He asked if it was a good photo, I said it was perfect. Now I will forever have a photo of a banana vendor’s butt. Good times.

I was snapping a photo of this street and this family stepped into it. I noticed this tiny little girl holding the watermelon after the fact. Obsessed. That’s how I fondle my fruit too.

We didn’t spend a ton of time in Panajachel the first time we came to Lake Atitlan. I think really only one day. Today we’re right outside of the town so we’ve been up and down and all around it. It’s so very nice to be close enough to town to walk to it— but also not stay in the bustle of ith either 🙂

Then, with bundles of fruit, we jumped into a tuk-tuk and headed back down to Hiptipico where Marlowe got to meet her new little friends. They played for HOURS. They had such a great time.

second photo: the prettiest water filter + Marlowe art.

While Marlowe played… I ate the fruit in the sunshine on the steps. Perfect. I carry a little pocket knife with me wherever I go…. you never know when you’re going to find a good pineapple to stain your hands and pants with.

Then we relaxed. Marlowe played. I hung out with Roberta + Alex.

After the girls ate some lunch, it was time for an icecream date. We hit the streets and made our way to the new gelato place in town. It was delicious.

And came back to take photos in the warm sunshine. Me + my friend. And Marlowe + hers.

Alex has been hanging out with A LOT of women on this trip, haha.

Afterward, we said adios to the girlies and made our way back to our apartment to sit in some perfect sunshine.

Needless to say, our transit here and our first 24 hours here were very sucessful. We had a great time as a family and with friends too. And all the hours following have been great too. We’re so very happy to be here! Now it’s time to chug some ginger and kick out these chilly germs! Cheers friends!

 

ps. Yesterday was my blogs 9 year birthday! Woot!

8 Comments

  1. Pingback: Pictures Of Recently Enjoyed Things In Sayulita - OhDearDrea

  2. OMG Roberta looks like the family dog in that photo!

  3. Hi Andrea…We have done a couple posts with you. I wish I had known you were going to Panajachel. We do extensive work there and other visages on Lake Atitlan. I have some very vital nonprofits in the area doing some great work for their communities if you wish to meet them.

  4. Love it! It looks like a great family trip. I’m curious on an update on Marlowe’s spanish – has she been fully immersed at this point to be able to speak spanish with local friends?

    • so this local friends are actually mayan… so they’re learning spanish the same way marlowe is! they primarily speak kaqchikel at home and are learning spanish + english at school! so it’s been great for marlowe to hang and see them be trilingual. but she’s not necessarily picking up more spanish with them specifically. 🙂 / 🙁 i think the biggest thing is that she actually feels more confident using it now! like, she’ll ask me how to say something and then go talk to strangers… so that’s huge! she understands a ton more but she def still needs a bit of work because she’s fully conversational!

  5. Wonderful photos and adventure. Enjoy it darlings! xx